Today's morning smoothie, inspired once again by this lovely gal, has the following healthful ingredients:
1/2 c oats, processed to powder
5 dried cherries
1 packed cup baby spinach, raw
5 or so walnuts
1/2 c frozen blueberries
1/4 c frozen mango
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
2-3 shakes of cinnamon
1-2 shakes of powdered ginger
1 heaping Tbsp raw cacao powder
1 Tbsp chia seeds
1/2 c green tea brewed at 175 degrees, seeped for 5-10 minutes
2 c water
aerial view of smoothie
That should do it for the morning, yeah?
Usually I put nut butter like cashew or almond for fat and flavor, but I decided that maybe it's time to cut back on that stuff. I've already lost a whopping 9 lbs. (against my will! I need to gain weight!) since being off sugar, but I just don't think eating nut butters is a healthy way to try to maintain the pounds. I need to figure something else out.
This week's goal...eat more beans!
Good luck with that list of yours.
ReplyDeleteLove the sound of your smoothie. So glad the tea addition worked out for you.
You lost 9 pounds since giving up sugar? That is a lot. I agree with you on too much nuts or nut butter being not quite the right way to go. We also add beans when we need to put on weight. Quinoa is another thing I add to dishes for more calories.
hope you are having a good Saturday,
Ali
Oh, beans. I try to add them to my diet so I have a couple servings a day (recent thing) but it's so hard!
ReplyDeleteYes, I think the nut butters were causing me to have skin problems. Too much saturated fat, maybe.
Enjoy your weekend, too!
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteThe beans are tough for me to get in too. I try to add them to most of my salads and sometimes even put a 1/4 cup in my smoothies (if they are white beans they seem to disappear). We eat a bunch of hummus with veggie dippers too.
I had not heard that about nuts and skin problems but it makes sense. But since you mentioned it I will be on the look out for it now. If I eat too many nuts or nut butter my GI system gets sluggish.
Ali
Ali,
ReplyDeleteWell my thinking on the nuts-skin problems thing is that perhaps the fat content was contributing to breakouts. I stopped eating soy because I think it messed with my hormones (at the quantities I was consuming!) and gave me large cyst-like eruptions on my face. Now that I'm limiting soy (to almost none), I've had miniature acne (sorry for the details) and wonder if it's not an overconsumption of nut fat. I'm just going to experiment with this for a while.
I wish I could like hummus as much as you! I just don't!
Steph