80/10/10

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Berrylicious (Banana Mango Berry) Smoothie Recipe

May 3, 2012 by Veronica Grace 9 Comments

Happy Friday everyone!

I’m back home in Vancouver after spending 2 weeks in Oahu and Kauai. Hawaii is still one of my top favourite places in the world. Probably because as an island state it has many more amenities than most smaller tropical islands I’ve been to (and loads of fresh fruit and veggie friendly restaurant options).

It’s rather chilly and rainy here right now as we’re getting a late start on warm sunny weather, but it’s the perfect time to start eating more fresh fruits and vegetables now that summer is approaching.

Smoothies are something that there is no standard recipe for, and generally what you get when you purchase one is a lot of added sugar, processed juice or milk (for the base) an unripe banana and a little sour frozen fruit. Generally I don’t like smoothies at smoothie bars, unless they are from places that don’t use processed juice or added sugar.

I actually never have to add sugar or milks to my smoothies because I make sure my fruit has completely ripened before using it. Vegetables generally come ripe when you buy them from the store (except for tomatoes and peppers are they are fruit-vegetables and need to ripen.)

How To Make Great Vegan Smoothies Every Time

The key to making a delicious whole food and sugar free smoothie is to use fully ripe and quality ingredients. Also you don’t have to throw a lot of things into it like some witch’s brew. I prefer to use only 2-4 ingredients to make a fruit smoothie and I generally start with a base of ripe (very spotted) bananas or ataulfo/champagne (yellow skinned) mangoes and then I add other things like ripe papaya, pineapple, berries, peaches, plums, spinach, etc. Whatever is ripe and sweet tasting can go into a great tasting smoothie.

The biggest crime at smoothie bars is probably using underripe yellow bananas or even worse yellow bananas with green still on them. Bananas contain a lot of starch and the enzymes in the bananas have to process the raw starch and convert it into natural sugars for it to taste sweet instead of sticky and pasty. To compensate they put in sugar, when it’s really not necessary.

The best tip for having quality ripe produce every day for smoothies or recipes is to make sure you are buying it at least a week in advance. I always have bananas and mangoes or papayas (when in season) ripening on the counter. It generally takes 4-8 days to ripen (I’m in Canada and it’s not hot or humid right now) on the counter in cooler climates. In tropical and subtropical places fruit can ripen in 3-4 days and then be stored in the refrigerator when it’s ripe. Frozen berries or bags of pineapple or mango are great additions to a base of ripe bananas or even fresh papaya.

How To Select And Ripen Mangoes

Mangoes can be hard to understand for those new to tropical fruits. They often don’t know how to select them, when they are ripe, or know how to cut them. Generally I buy the yellow skinned ataulfo/champagne style mangoes because they don’t have a stringy flesh and are very sweet and creamy when ripe. Most people buy the Tommy green/red type mangoes. When ripe these can be good too but they are much stringier and have a larger woody core in them.

Mangoes will take 5-10 days to ripen depending on when they were picked and what kind of climate you live in. You can tell a mango is ripe when it is starting to wrinkle on the skin and get soft. (Just like an avocado gets soft to the touch when ripe.) It should not have any hard spots on it and should be slightly soft and juicy inside and not taught and rock hard. The inside colour will change from light yellow to dark yellow or orange depending on the variety. Unripe mangoes don’t make for tasty recipes, and when it doubt leave it another day or two. Even I sometimes get impatient and open a mango too early and am disappointed that it’s not at it’s peak ripeness yet.

Another tip I have to getting good mangoes is to NOT buy them at the regular grocery or mainstream grocery stores. I find that their supplies are often poor, they are picked super early and don’t always ripen properly. This is a terrible place to buy mangoes. Bananas can generally be bought anywhere and will ripen, but not mangoes or papayas. Buy your mangoes from fruit markets, farmers markets, China Town/Asian fruit markets, Indian markets, Whole Foods, health food stores or Costco. (Costco’s ataulfo mangoes are usually fine, but the red/green mangoes when bought out of season often don’t ripen so I avoid those until the spring/summer.)

If you live in tropical places or states like California, Hawaii or Florida you may be able to get mangoes at the regular grocery stores that are fine, but this is usually because they were shipped shorter distances and thus did not need to be picked so hard and unripe or gassed. If you live in the northern states, Canada or northern European countries, you’ll want to avoid the regular grocery stores for tropical fruit purchases because of their bulk suppliers and slow turn around times.

Now onto my smoothies. I make raw smoothies because they are the tastiest and are completely whole food based. I don’t like adding supplements or super foods (especially cacao and maca as they are too addicting and stimulating) so my goal is to show you how to enjoy a simple delicious whole food fruit based smoothie. Many people don’t get enough servings of fruit in their diet, including vegans who tend to eat more packaged foods. But breakfast is the perfect time for a juicy water rich easy to digest fruit meal whether it is a smoothie or a large fruit salad. Often I only feel like eating fruit in the morning because it’s so hydrating and a great choice for eating before or after a workout. My smoothies are also enough for a whole meal, so I’m not having a little glass of smoothie and a bunch of toast or heavy breakfast foods. If you’re a woman with a small stomach or not used to eating smoothies you may only use half of this recipe, but you will soon be hungry again and probably want something again, so you can take the other half with you or keep in the fridge. If your an active man you may need to add a few more bananas to this recipe to accommodate for your higher caloric needs. When I have a smoothie this size it’s all I need for breakfast and it will hold me over until lunch. So with this information you can decide how to accommodate your needs with breakfast smoothies.

Also for those new to my site I do have a print button option on the top of every post so you can decide exactly what information to print and print with or without pictures if necessary.

(80/10/10 Style) Raw Vegan Berrylicious (Banana Mango Berry) Smoothie Recipe

Makes 2 medium glasses

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas (see my post on ripe bananas)
2 ataulfo/champagne mangoes (cut around the inner woody seed and scoop out the flesh from the skin)
1 cup frozen mixed berries (I used raspberry, blackberry, blueberry and strawberry)
1/3 cup water

Directions:

Add ingredients to your Vitamix or blender starting with the mangoes and bananas at the bottom, add the water and place the frozen fruit on top. Blend until smooth.

Drink and enjoy!

Variations:

You can also use frozen cherries, just raspberries, or just blackberries instead of the mixed berries if desired.

If you don’t have bananas just add another mango, if you don’t have mangoes add another banana.

You can easily make this a green smoothie by throwing in a handful or two of baby spinach or chopped kale (remove the stems first though).

Have you ever eaten an ataulfo/champagne mango before?

Restaurant Worthy Raw Vegan Strawberry Pecan Spinach Salad

April 18, 2012 by Veronica Grace 32 Comments

I wanted to share this special and healthy salad recipe with you today for a few reasons. It’s also my friend Karmyn Malone’s top favourite raw recipe. She is a raw foodists and is always on the look out for delicious and simple oil free raw recipes, so this is right up her alley.

Another great thing about this recipe is that it has few ingredients and is easy to make. You don’t have to spend a lot of time making it and the ingredients are fairly easy to find at the grocery store.

As spring is here and it’s looking like it’s going to be a nice warm summer you’ll be able to make this recipe many times for yourself or for entertaining. It’s perfect to bring to a potluck, barbecue or to serve as a first course for dinner guests.

The problem with most salads is that they rely on store bought dressings that are neither nutritious or great tasting. The ones that people generally do like are full of cream and fat and are not part of a healthy life style if you eat them every day. The oil free ones are basically vinegar, sugar, salt and flavourings and after a while most people can’t stand another vinegary dressing!

I prefer to make my own salad dressings at home with fresh ingredients and combine them in a blender. You can even use a basic blender or a hand blender to make this recipe.

This Raw Vegan Strawberry Pecan Spinach Salad recipe is delicious AND nutritious! Even Karmyn’s young son Andrew loved this recipe, and as you know it can be hard to get some kids to eat raw greens and vegetables. But not Andrew, he was begging for more!

This recipe is part of my Savory Raw Dinner Recipes DVD and book collection that has received many rave reviews from friends and customers. They’re 100% oil free and much lower in fat than traditional gourmet raw salad and nut heavy entree recipes.
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For more yummy recipes go to:

Savory Raw Dinner Recipes

(We even have a 100% digital version for those who don’t want to wait for shipping!)
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With this set of recipes you’ll be on your way to enjoying more fresh salads and learn my tips and tricks for making delicious oil free low fat vegan dressings that you will actually enjoy eating! No more buying expensive store bought dressings that only last a few meals that don’t tickle your taste buds anymore.

I have to say that I wish I could have this salad right now as we bought a big bag of spinach and I’m having a craving for it! (Sadly I did not bring any chia seeds with me to Hawaii!)

Raw Vegan Strawberry Pecan Spinach Salad

Makes 2 dinner servings or 4 side servings

Ingredients:

Strawberry Pecan Spinach Salad:

11 oz. container baby spinach leaves
2 cups of sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup red onion, diced or sliced (your choice)
1/3 cup raw pecans

Strawberry Chia Dressing:

1 cup fresh sliced strawberries
1/4 cup clementine mandarin orange juice (use the sweetest FRESH oranges you can find)
4 small dates, pitted (or you can sub 1-2 tbsp of liquid sweetener)
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp chia gel (or 1 tsp chia seeds)

Directions:

Slice pecans lengthwise on a cutting board so they are in long halves. (This makes them go farther and you’ll use less in the recipe)
Arrange salad ingredients into 2 large bowls or 4 medium sized bowls for starter salads.
Blend dressing ingredients together and drizzle over salad.
Serve immediately.

Additional Tips:

I don’t recommend using frozen strawberries for this recipe as they are usually too tart and sour. Use dark sweet strawberries. Store bought orange juice is also not a good base for this dressing. I don’t like store bought orange juice because it’s highly processed and quite acidic compared to fresh squeezed orange juice. Clementines or mandarins are preferable because they are mild and sweet, but you can also use Cara Cara or Valencia oranges if that’s what you can find.

You can make this dressing and keep it for 2-3 days in the fridge. Raw dressings ARE perishable and will not stay fresh for weeks like cooked salad dressings. So this is best enjoyed soon after making it.

What is Chia Gel?

Chia gel is just chia seeds mixed with water. I learned this from Victoria and Valya Boutenko when I met them in my home town of Calgary. When chia seeds absorb water they create this gel that suspends them and it great to add to dressings because it will hold it together much like oil would. So when you use blended fruits or juices for the base of your dressing it will be a little thicker and a better consistency. You can also use psyllium husk powder if you don’t have or don’t want to use chia gel. Psyllium husk powder is something people often add with some flavour to water to get extra fibre in their diet (not something we generally need as a whole food vegan) BUT it is useful in making dressings because it add some bulk to the liquid and holds it together nicely. You cannot taste it and it will not affect the flavour of your dressing. It just makes it more into a thin gel than just stay a watery dressing.

To make chia gel I mix 1/3 cup chia seeds into a container (that can go in the fridge) with 2 cups of water. You have to add chia to the water, and not pour water over the chia to prevent it from clumping together in uneven clumps. This lasts for 2-3 weeks in the fridge and you can add a tablespoon or two to your dressings or smoothies to get some whole food omega 3’s into your diet. This is more of a recommendation for raw foodists, if you’re not into raw food and won’t use this amount of chia gel you can just add 1 tsp of chia seeds to your dressing or smoothie if desired instead.

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For more information go to:

Savory Raw Dinner Recipes

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What do you think of this recipe? Have you ever had strawberry spinach salad before or chia seeds?

80/10/10 Recipe: Beginner’s Green Smoothie Banana Blueberry Spinach

April 11, 2012 by Veronica Grace 20 Comments

For some of you green smoothies might be something new, or something you’ve heard of but never tried. Others may make green smoothies regularly and enjoy them. I wanted to share a really easy green smoothie recipe with you today. Something I would call a “basic” or “beginner’s green smoothie”.

#1. Because it’s not too frightening looking and you can tell it has berries in it (this may seem a little normal looking). This may also appeal to people who are afraid of drinking something that looks like green grass!

#2. It tastes very nice and you cannot detect any greens in it at all. Baby spinach is probably the best green to start with when dipping your toes (and taste buds) into making a green smoothie.

Green smoothies are basically just a mixture of fresh ripe fruits, some mild greens, maybe some frozen berries and a little water. They need not be complicated, and they don’t need any kind of protein powders, raw pseudo “super foods” or oils like coconut or flax oil. The goodness of a simple green smoothie comes from whole foods. Whole fruit and whole greens is all I put into my smoothies.

Green smoothies can also help get some more greens into your diet (especially since they don’t need dressing) and can be good for children or people with a compromised ability to chew their food really well.

I only blend my smoothies for about 30-45 seconds in my Vitamix. I don’t like to let it run on too long and get too thin, or warm.

Another good thing to do is to not gulp your smoothie but drink it and chew it a bit. I don’t recommend sipping on smoothies for hours at a time or all day (this can cause dental problems and weaken your enamel from feeding the carries and bacteria in your mouth sugar all day) though. Consuming a smoothie in 10-20 minutes should be fine, and then you can wait 30 minutes before brushing your teeth and rinse your mouth with water if you desire. When using berries that have little seeds I like to use a water pik as well as there can be little pieces that are hard to get out between your teeth.

To make a basic green smoothie you want to start out with a base of either ripe bananas or ripe mangoes (I like ataulfo mangoes) or even a mixture of both. Then you can use 2 cups of mild greens like baby spinach, lettuce, mache (lambs lettuce/corn salad), or 2-3 leaves of kale or Swiss chard (remove the big stems). If desired you can add another fruit like berries, pineapple, mango, papaya, grapes, even watermelon. Depending on what blender you have you may need to add a little water as well, just enough to blend or to get the consistency you like. I like really thick smoothies so I chew them. Some people like only very thin ones so it’s like fruit juice. It’s up to you. Always stack the smoothie in your blender with water at the bottom, then bananas, then greens, and then frozen fruit. Use a tamper (if you have a Vitamix) or break up the chunks of banana before blending to get everything to combine easily. If you have a basic blender you may want to blend the banana, water and greens first, and then add a little additional fresh or frozen fruit and blend again.

Ok, now that I’ve shared some tips on green smoothies, let’s go on to the recipe.

80/10/10 Recipe: Banana Blueberry Green Smoothie

Serves 1

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas (see my post on how to tell if your bananas are ripe enough)
2 cups baby spinach, packed
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4-1/2 cup water (as desired)

Directions:

Place ingredients into blender in the order above putting the bananas on the bottom. Add a little water if desired to help it liquify.
Blend for 30-45 seconds if you have a Vitamix. (If you have a regular blender you may need to break up the banana pieces into smaller chunks and blend with a little more water or a little longer depending on how strong the motor is.)

I find that having frozen fruit gets the smoothie cool enough without the need to add ice. Unless you have a Vitamix adding ice to a smoothie can make it too gritty and not very smooth to drink.

Have you ever made a green smoothie before? If so what’s your favourite?

80/10/10 Recipe: Morning Sunrise (Pineapple Grapefruit Ginger) Juice

April 4, 2012 by Veronica Grace 9 Comments

This is a really delicious juice recipe that combines red grapefruits with fresh pineapple that I wanted to try. I really love Texas Star grapefruits as they are sweeter and even nice to eat on their own.

Did you know that the reason people used to put sugar on their grapefruit halves is because grapefruits used less sweet? Even sour compared to today? The scary thing is I still notice people putting sugar on their grapefruit halves thinking they are “sour” and that’s what you’re supposed to do. They have no idea how sweet and delicious grapefruits are now and they don’t need any additional sugar. Generally people who eat a lot of processed foods, don’t enjoy raw fruits and vegetables because they aren’t sweet or salty enough compared to their favourite packaged foods.

The key to enjoying grapefruit is to eat it before you eat anything else. When you eat grapefruit or grapefruit juice on it’s own it will taste more naturally sweet than if you ate it with sugary coffee, cereal, muffins, pastries, sweet fruits like mango and other sugary foods.

For instance if you ate a bite of mango and then went to eat some grapefruit it would taste very sour in comparison because your tastebuds had to adjust to the sweet taste of mango. A tip I have for you is to eat mangoes last if you’re having a few fruits for breakfast, as everything will taste less appetizing in comparison. Similarly eat your grapefruit first, and then everything you eat later will taste it’s best. I don’t recommend putting grapefruits in fruit salad either, as they will taste sour in comparison.

Now I don’t drink a lot of juice myself, I only drink homemade juice and never store bought bottled juice. But it is nice to have fresh pressed juice before or after a workout or on days that you will be traveling or being inside an air conditioned building for long periods of time. I like to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice before traveling on a plane as it’s a good way to get some extra hydration and use up whatever’s left in the fridge before we leave!

Having a small glass of this juice for breakfast will brighten your day and the little bit of ginger adds another layer of flavour to it. I don’t like really gingery juices, but this is just right. You can also leave it out, or add more ginger depending on how much you like the flavour.

It’s best to use fresh sweet pineapple for this recipe. See my video on How To Select And Cut a Ripe Pineapple. If you’re buying pre-cut pineapple from the store, look for one that was packed recently, and has the darkest yellow colour you can find. If it is really pale and mostly white with only a little tinge of yellow it isn’t a ripe pineapple and won’t be sweet enough. You can also use defrosted frozen pineapple if you let it sit overnight in the fridge or out on the counter for a half hour on a tray, but generally frozen pineapple is not as sweet as fresh ripe pineapple.

Also did you know you can peel ginger very easily with a spoon? Check out my post How To Peel Ginger With A Spoon.

Morning Sunrise (Pineapple Grapefruit Ginger) Juice

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

2 large Ruby Red or Texas Star grapefruits (or use a sweeter less tart variety available in your country)
4 cups pineapple chunks (fresh is best)
1 knob of ginger the size of your thumb, peeled (use more or less to your tastes)

Directions:

Juice the grapefruit in a citrus juicer or handheld citrus juicer. (This way you get more juice than putting it through a centrifugal juicer).
Run the pineapple chunks and ginger through a centrifugal or Green Star style juicer.
Combine juices and pour into glasses.
Garnish with pineapple chunk if desired.
Serve.

What do you think of this breakfast juice? Do you enjoy the taste of fresh red grapefruits?

80/10/10 Recipe: Banana Raspberry Pineapple Smoothie

March 30, 2012 by Veronica Grace 6 Comments

80/10/10 Raw Vegan Banana Raspberry Pineapple Smoothie

Raw Banana Raspberry Pineapple Smoothie

Spring is coming! I know it! We’re getting a few sunny days in between the rain here in Vancouver. So sometimes I can take my pictures outside. Yay!

I really love pineapple and raspberries in smoothies, I think they make almost as good of a combination as pineapple and black cherries.

This is a smoothie I regularly make as it has creaminess from the bananas, the tartness from raspberries, and a tropical pineapple twist to it. As long as you’re using fully ripe, spotted bananas as the base you can pretty much throw any frozen fruit into the blender with it and make a delicious smoothie.

80/10/10 Banana Raspberry Pineapple Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

2-3 bananas (ripe with lots of brown spots)
1 cup of frozen raspberries
1 cup of frozen pineapple
a little water to blend

Directions:

Add ingredients to blender starting with the bananas at the bottom and the water and frozen fruit on top. Blend until smooth.

Drink and enjoy!

Variations:

You can easily make this a green smoothie by adding a few handfuls of spinach or kale (destemmed of course)

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What smoothie combination have you been wanting to try but have never had before? What fruits are you excited about coming into season again?

80/10/10 Recipe: Kale Apple Celery Green Juice Recipe

March 10, 2012 by Veronica Grace 28 Comments

Mmm… kale apple celery juice with ginger and Meyer lemon. This is a delicious fat free kale juice with a hint of apple and the tang of lemon and a bite of ginger.

You can easily throw in a handful of greens into your morning veggie juice and a little apple to take out the bitterness.

I like to use celery as the base of my juice and then add whatever else I’d like such as carrots, apples, beets, lemon, lime, ginger, greens etc. There are so many different combinations for fresh juice. The juicer I use is a Breville. I like that it comes with this nice large juicing jug that keeps the foam out of my juice when it pours and it’s much easier to clean than my old Jack Lalane power juicer.

We picked up this bag of Meyer lemons and I thought I’d try them out in this juice. They have a much thinner skin, almost like mandarins and are very fragrant. They’re a nice treat over the regular lemons.

Kale Apple Celery Juice With Ginger and Lemon

Serves 2

Ingredients:

3 apples
16-20 stalks of celery
2 handfuls of kale
1 chunk of ginger
1 lemon

Directions:

1. Wash and/or peel all of your ingredients.

2. Pass all of the ingredients through a juicer.

3. Serve immediately and enjoy!

What’s your favourite juice to make?

80/10/10 Recipe: Banana Cherry Pineapple Green Smoothie, Green Smoothie FAQ and How To Make Your Green Smoothie Look More Appetizing

February 28, 2012 by Veronica Grace 22 Comments

Today I thought I’d share another fat free raw vegan smoothie recipe with you (this one includes cherries and pineapples) and go over some questions some of you may have on green smoothies. If you’re looking for the recipe, you can scroll to the bottom of the post.

What is a Green Smoothie?

A green smoothie is basically just a raw fruit smoothie with some raw greens added to it for more nutrition. It can look green, red, purple or even brown coloured depending on what the ingredients are.

Why Would I Want To Add Greens To My Smoothie?

Most of us don’t eat giant raw salads or plates and plates of green vegetables every day and when we do eat greens we often don’t chew them well enough or even that long at all. A green smoothie is a great compromise for those who want to get more fresh greens in their diet with little fuss. It’s also great for those who don’t like the taste of leafy greens or want to eat all their greens raw. Eating heads and heads of leafy greens every day can be tough too.

What Kind Of Greens Should I Put In My Green Smoothie?

If you’re just starting out and not sure what would be a “safe bet” to have your first green smoothie or you’re making one for someone else who is really skeptical, you should try something mild like a cup or two of baby spinach, mâche (lambs lettuce/corn salad) or a few leaves of lettuce.

If you’re already used to green smoothies you can use the above, or also try adding celery stalks, kale, Swiss chard, dandelion greens, turnip greens, beet greens, etc.

If you’re really adventurous and can stand bitter/strong greens like mustard, baby spring mix and collards you can try a little of those to start.

How Do I Make A Green Smoothie Then?

I would recommend to start with ripe bananas, a little bit of water, your favourite frozen fruit (pineapple, mango, peaches, berries etc) and a cup or handful or two of greens. Blend it and then taste test it before deciding if it needs more fruit or greens to your liking.

BTW, these are ripe bananas. Please DO NOT use anything less ripe than these or you could end up with s starchy (dry and pasty) bland smoothie and not enjoy it. Note the one on the right is the ripest and will taste much sweeter than the two on the left.

Your first green smoothie might look like this:

2-3 ripe bananas
1-2 cups baby spinach
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup water

Green Smoothie Troubleshooting FAQ:

My Green Smoothie Tastes Awful/Bad! What Did I Do Wrong?

The first suspect is that you used unripe/sour fruit for the base of it. Unripe bananas, sour peaches, sour nectarines, sour mango etc. Your fruit should be soft and give to the touch. I made a youtube video about How To Tell If Fruit Is Ripe if you want to check it out.

If your smoothie is really bitter/smelly/awful tasting you probably used too strong of a green or too much of it. I would scale back to a handful or two and blend and then taste test before deciding if you want to add more greens to it.

If you did not add unripe fruit or too many greens, you probably added some kind of bitter powder to your smoothie and the taste is overpowering the flavour. Omit or reduce this amount.

My Green Smoothie Is All Gritty And Has A Weird Texture! What Did I Do Wrong?

If your smoothie has a weird texture like you are drinking juice with the fibre put back into it and it’s lumpy and not smooth you used fruit with mostly insoluble fibre.

Apple skins have insoluble fibre (think hard to digest and sweeps through your digestive tract) and some soluble fibre inside their flesh. Same with pears, pineapple, berries, grapes and greens. If you just make a pear/apple + greens smoothie or a berries + greens smoothie you are going to have a really BAD smoothie. It’s not going to be very nice to drink and the fibre will sink to the bottom.

Fruit that makes smoothies “stick” together (because of higher amounts of soluble fibre) and have a creamy taste are bananas, mangoes, papaya, peaches, nectarines etc. You want to make sure you add at least 1 or 2 large pieces of these fruits for the base of your smoothie to have an even texture.

What Should I Not Add To My Green Smoothie?

Most importantly, please do not add anything like oil (flax oil, olive oil, coconut oil, coconut butter, fish oil etc) to your green smoothie. These are refined products and are 100% fat at 120 calories per tablespoon. If you are trying to lose weight or eat for health you do not need to add a 100% refined product to your otherwise healthy smoothie. If you want some “good fats” you can try a tablespoon or two of ground chia, ground flax seed (linseed) or hemp seed (hearts). Getting your omega 3 essential fatty acids from a whole food and not a processed (and possibly rancid) source like oil is preferred. Also, you would probably enjoy a tablespoon of oil much more over a salad or steamed greens than hidden in a smoothie (if you chose to eat it).

I also don’t recommend adding any raw animal products (like raw eggs) to smoothies because of the potential health hazards. I don’t recommend animal products for health anyways, but it is especially hazardous to eat animal products raw mixed into something as you won’t be able to tell if it was “off” or contaminated.

Other things I find unnecessary in smoothies are: yogurt, sugar, sorbet, ice-cream, artificial sweeteners, pop/soda etc. These foods are not health foods and aren’t necessary for a healthy diet, and they just add more processed food and sugar to your smoothies anyway. In the case of yogurt, I am against dairy for health reasons. Non-dairy yogurts are more of a treat food. Often they contain a lot of sugars, fat, chemicals and preservatives so it’s not something I would recommend to eat daily for health. Probiotics can offer health benefits without excess chemicals or calories as well. If you want to make your own yogurt this is certainly much healthier than store bought too.

Green powders like wheat grass or barley grass are pretty strong. If you add them to your smoothie, it’s going to taste like grass! And Possibly make you gag… (that’s me anyway) And unless you REALLY love the taste of grass in your smoothie, I wouldn’t recommend doing it.

Raw cacao and cocoa should be avoided, or used only occasionally. They have a lot of caffeine are highly addicting. If you are doing so already you might notice that you can’t wait to have your daily chocolate hit and could eat more than just one chocolate smoothie given the chance. I also don’t like using cacao to mask bitter tasting raw powders and protein powders as it tricks you into drinking something you otherwise would not eat and can lead to overeating as well. I found banana cacao smoothies far too addicting and had to cut it out.

Raw vegetables especially ones like carrots or beets, they are really hard and gritty and will not add a nice flavour or texture to your smoothie. Celery I find works ok if it’s 2-3 stalks and you add some bananas to it. This is just personal preference. If you’re a beginner or serving someone else try a few fruit and green smoothies first before adding any veggies. Something that is a little safer would be raw cauliflower, cucumber, celery, zucchini because they are super mild tasting. I don’t recommend blending raw broccoli because it’s so strong tasting.

A smoothie should be a healthy meal, not a witchy concoction of fragmented processed food you would never eat on it’s own. In the sense where you wouldn’t open up a jar of powder or pills and eat it with your meal. A smoothie is for getting healthy food into you easier if you don’t have time to chew, not to be your own “vitamin water” to dump all kinds of junk into.

If you want to add some supplements or powders to your diet, it’s best to know if you need them or not. Get a blood test and test for any deficiencies and then if you add something use one thing at a time, and not half a dozen different things. If one is giving you benefits, another negative reactions and the rest are doing nothing, you won’t really know, you’ll just have wasted a lot of money on supplements. It’s much better to experiment with one thing at a time on your body if you are unsure if it is good or bad for you to include in your diet. (This does not pertain to fruits and vegetables, unless you suspect an allergy towards a specific one)

Other things I don’t add to smoothies are milks or ice. Milks are not really necessary in that I prefer to get most of my calories from whole foods like fruit and I use milks more in dressings or creamy soup recipes, so there’s no need to double up and add them to my smoothies and make them fattier. Ice is also unnecessary as it waters down your smoothie and if you have a cheaper blender it makes it really hard to blend and gives it a gritty texture as well. I prefer to add frozen fruit if I want to cool my smoothie down.

How Do I Make My Green Smoothie Look More Appealing/Appetizing and Not So Ugly?

This is especially important for those new to green smoothies and children and/or spouses that would probably refuse to drink a smoothie with greens or “vegetables” in it. How dare you try to sneak in healthy veggies into their breakfast right?

It’s fairly easy. Basically start with a base of something white or yellow like bananas, mangoes, peaches etc. and then add your greens and pick a purple, red, or blue fruit or berry to add to your smoothie.

This smoothie below has greens in it, but you would never know. It just looks like a red smoothie and is pretty “normal” looking.

If you add something like black kale and some berries to your smoothie it may end up looking more brown. For yourself you may not mind but for newbies to smoothies prettier always gives a more positive reaction to it.

I used to get teased constantly at my old job for bringing in “monster green concoctions” for breakfast every day and my boss would stop the meetings and ask me what I was drinking it freaked him out so much. As soon as I started putting blueberries in it, people stopped caring! lol

80/10/10: Banana Cherry Pineapple Green Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Approx: 506 calories

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas
2 cups packed baby spinach
1 cup frozen or fresh pineapple
1 cup frozen black cherries (or fresh) (or berries of choice)
1/2-1 cup filtered water (optional to thin or blend)

Directions:

Place ingredients into Vitamix in order listed and blend until smooth. If you have a cheaper blender you may want to add the water and bananas first and blend and then add the other ingredients and blend.

Additional Tips:

I get my black frozen cherries from Costco in Canada. I don’t know if they just started carrying them, but I was pleased as cherry and pineapple go together so well and is one of my favourite combos. If you’re in the USA I know that H-E-B (in Texas) and Dole have black cherries in the frozen fruit department of many grocery stores. You can also use frozen raspberries if you don’t have cherries. It just adds more seeds to the smoothie, so get out your dental floss!

What do you think of this recipe? Did you learn something about green smoothie making today?

80/10/10 Recipe: Fat Free Raw Vegan Banana Crepes

February 23, 2012 by Veronica Grace 39 Comments

80/10/10 Recipe: Fat Free Raw Vegan Banana Crepes or Banana Fruit Roll Ups

One of the things that are really hard to make on a raw vegan diet are brunch type recipes, especially low fat or fat free ones. While this raw banana crepe recipe is not anything like a real cooked crepe, they are easy to make and fun to eat when you stuff them full of fresh fruit. They look great and kids will like them too.

This is a recipe I made when I was first working on Savory Raw Dinner Recipes, and as this is not a dinner recipe, I couldn’t include it. But if you love this simple and fresh recipes, you will LOVE my tasty low fat creations in Savory Raw Dinner Recipes. I think the pictures speak for themselves, but we’ve had resounding positive feedback on just how much everyone loves these recipes.

These raw vegan crepes are so easy to make you don’t even need a recipe, you just want to start with ripe spotted bananas and blend one with a little bit of water if necessary in a blender. Get out your dehydrator tray and put a teflex sheet on it and pour the pureed bananas in little rounds about 6-7 inches across. Don’t let them touch each other. Dehydrate them at 105 or 110 F overnight, or until pliable and dry like a fruit roll up.

Roll them up on a plate and serve with chopped fresh fruit, pureed fruit, cinnamon or maple syrup if desired. I put banana ice-cream on mine, but that was a bad idea. It made the roll up freeze and was brittle and hard to eat, so I don’t recommend it! It looks nice though…

For variation, try blending bananas with other ripe fruits to get different flavours. You can also easily create your own home made raw fruit roll ups for a fun treat for kids. When they are dry you can put them on a piece of plastic wrap and roll up like a taquito, making sure that the plastic wrap keeps everything from sticking.

Also if you are into 80/10/10 style raw food recipes with no seasonings and just using fruits and vegetables, check out Frederic’s Low Fat Raw Vegan Cuisine DVDs

What do you think of this recipe? Have you ever made raw crepes or fruit roll ups?

Raw Vegan Valentines Day 80/10/10 Style: Cherry Mango Love Smoothie

February 13, 2012 by Veronica Grace 10 Comments

Whether or not you have a sweetie on Valentines Day this year, you can make your own 80/10/10 style holiday meal pretty easily. Make a beautiful breakfast smoothie for yourself or your loved one, or slice up some mangoes into heart shaped pieces. There you go, festive and edible!

It’s just starting to become mango season, you will see them available at grocery stores slowly, but they will be in full availability starting in April.

I got these mangoes from Costco and they are starting to ripen up.

How To Cut Mangos Into Heart Shape Pieces

To make heart shaped mango slices, you’re going to need a really sharp preferably thin knife. Slice off the cheeks of the mango (around the inner woody pit) and trace an outline on the skin in a heart shape, or any desired shape. Carefully cut out the mango trying to be as smooth in your cuts as possible. When you’re done you can trim any choppy bits after to make it look more streamlined.

Serve your mango pieces on top of a fresh fruit salad or smoothie. You can use any leftover scraps in a delicious smoothie as well. I saved mine for the smoothie below.

Raw Vegan Valentines Day Smoothie: Cherry Mango Love

Serves 1

Ingredients:

2-3 ripe bananas (spotted all over)
2 ripe mangoes (very soft and wrinkly all over)
1-2 cups frozen black cherries (Dole, H-E-B and Costco all have these available. Costco in Canada)

Directions:

Place mangoes in the bottom of your Vitamix or blender, then bananas and then frozen cherries on top. If you need to you can add a little water to make it blend easier, but I like my smoothies thick. Blend until smooth.

Serve and garnish if desired.

Additional Tips:

If you don’t have frozen black cherries, you can use frozen raspberries. Strawberries are a possibility, just make sure they are sweet.

You can easily make this a green smoothie by adding some spinach to it. The cherries will mask the green colour and make it look more purplish.

What do you think of this recipe? Are you doing anything special for a raw vegan Valentines Day?

80/10/10 Recipe: Grapefruit Soup With Step By Step Pictures!

December 14, 2011 by Veronica Grace 5 Comments

Grapefruit soup is an easy 1 ingredient (mono) meal you can have for a breakfast or a snack. It’s 80/10/10 friendly and fat free. They key is to use very sweet juicy grapefruits. My favourite are red grapefruits. Right now we’re in Texas for Christmas, so we are using the Texas Star Grapefruits here. They’re quite good. I wouldn’t suggest using this recipe for more sour white grapefruits.

My friend made this for me and I photographed him doing so, so you can easily see how to get an easy to eat grapefruit meal with no seeds or excess peel or skins.

For this recipe I used 3 grapefruits. 2 to cut into chunks and 1 to juice over the chunks.

(Fat Free Raw Vegan) Grapefruit Soup

Using a sharp knife, cut off both ends of the grapefruit so you can see the flesh inside. Cut away enough that you don’t have any white pith or peel left.

Flip the grapefruit onto one of the cut ends and start cutting off the sides of the peel and pith all the way around.

Now cut the grapefruit into 3 slices and remove any seeds you see.

Continue cutting into slices.

Stand up the centre piece and cut around the middle, like you would the core of an apple. Discard this piece.

Line up your slices and now cut into bite sized chunks.

Your first grapefruit is done. Continue the same process with the second grapefruit and place the pieces into a bowl.

Slice the 3rd grapefruit in half. Remove the seeds.

Using a knife or a citrus reamer squeeze the grapefruit and turn to release the juice. Alternatively you can use a citrus juicer.

Continue juicing the other side of the grapefruit.

Serve!

What do you think of this simple recipe? You can also do this with sweet oranges or pineapple. The key is to use sweet ripe fruit. Makes sure to eat this right away as the fresh juice will oxidize and go sour if you leave it out or in the fridge for a few days.