Last night’s party was fun, but unfortunately the humidity REALLY kicked in and for an outdoors party, it really wasn’t very pleasant for our baby so we left kinda early. Bummed.

I loved reading all your entries for the Me Raw:You Cooked giveaway and I reckon that most if not all of you, would really get a real kick out of reading the book. It’s great to see that we’re all in this together

It was also nice to ‘meet’ some of you newer readers. Stay tuned for next weeks giveaway, it’s gonna be big

Before I get to the winner, I thought I’d share with you my unusual smoothie for the day – don’t worry, I will be blogging more raw unblended foods in the upcoming future (my kelp noodle and seaweed video is almost ready to post), smoothies are just the easiest for this busy mama for now.

Today I made my smoothie with broccoli. Yep, broccoli

Oh and mango, strawberries, ginger and water.

It was actually suprisingly yummy

1 whole mango

2 cups of broccoli florets

1 cup fresh strawberries

1 cup of water

1 cup of ice

1 inch of ginger – peeled

BLEND. Not quite a green smoothie in colour but yes in name. The fruit masks the broccoli so well and the ginger gives it the right amount of kick

I’ve been craving raw broccoli heaps lately, just been crunching on it – usually for a midnight snacky.

Then it was time to hit this…

JELLY legs!!

But I remembered how good a great tracklist is. On the upbeat songs I really went hard and on the slower beats, tried a bit of recovery.

So any suggestions on your favourite workout songs? Maybe I can put together a mix tape courtesy of you guys?

Planned on a walk with the dog and bubs today but we fell asleep instead. There is always tomorrow.

So for the winner of the ebook, as usual, I used a random name picker out of all the entries via comments and came up with this winner.

Drumroll please….

Woo hoo. Congrats Marty. I’ll forward your email address onto Emma and get you on your way with your book

Thanks again for everyone for your interesting stories with your entries.

Here we are playing happy families

And I am so excited to report that have finally ventured back into my kitchen….

Although these coconuts (I have about 12 in my fridge from pre baby days – it’s lucky they last so long!) have seen better days (notice the mould?!) they were still a wonderful base for my FIRST GREEN SMOOTHIE in a month! Yep, that’s right! I’ve not had a green smoothie in ages and when I finally made this I vowed to bring them back into my life!

The GREEN Avocolada (adapted from Matthew Kenney’s Avocolada)

What better recipe to make than a variation on my favourite pre pregnancy – I loved this smoothie to pieces until I fell pregnant, then you couldn’t pay me enough to drink it!

This recipe was kindly shared with me by the creator, Matthew Kenney himself but this version I put some spinach in it.

Click here for the original recipe.

Then I baking soda washed these ripe ‘maters. I buy them by the boxful when I see them. Just wish they were organic.

I eat some and throw the rest in the dehydrator overnight.

I threw some fresh tomatoes on my salad for dinner last night with red capsicum and Lemon Love Dressing. Click here to sign up for my free ebook if you want the recipe plus 4 others

Meanwhile, Pat’s been trying to work out the baby carrier. I think he’s done a good job eh?

So onto my 3rd guest post!

Tess Masters is the BLENDER Girl and another of my favourite bloggers (she even went to 105 last year and visited my culinary school) and LOVED it.

We’ve created a wonderful online friendship and hopefully one day we will meet in the flesh too. Isn’t the blog world awesome for making friends? Have you ever had the chance to meet any of your bloggy/social media friends?

Thanks again Tess for being a part of this guest blogger series. I love your work!

______________________________________________________________________

Tess Masters, AKA, The Blender Girl is an actress; presenter; voice over artist; budding cook; enthusiastic story teller; environmental warrior; self respecting devotee of all things green and natural; and most importantly, a champion of the miraculous blender, mixer, and food processor.

On her blog, healthy blender recipes, she shares her passion for whole foods with healthy allergy-friendly vegetarian recipes and humorous stories about her life. All of the recipes are gluten-free and refined sugar-free; and many are raw, vegan, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free and soy-free, utilizing fresh organic ingredients and natural sweeteners and flavourings.

Tess currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where she is working in animation, video games, commercials and audio books, as well as presenting TV specials.

Her alter-ego, The Blender Girl has been featured in publications and online sites all around the world. She is a regular columnist for Super Living Magazine in Australia; and will soon be seen in a series of online videos for Chow.Com.

Check out her latest feature on Chow.Com

I was absolutely thrilled when Robyn approached me to do a guest post for her gorgeous blog, Girl On Raw. After all, we culinary “girls” have to stick together.

Robyn has been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement for me ever since our s’blended internet friendship began over a year ago. Kellie (a mutual friend) and I had just finished performing in the Australian production of August: Osage County. Kellie, a fellow foodie, thought Robyn and I would have a lot in common, and made an introduction through Facebook. She was right, and we hit if off immediately, sharing our passion for whole foods and raw “uncooking”.

I was immediately struck by Robyn’s passion and cheeky spirit; and I continue to be blown away by her tenacity and generosity of spirit. This is an opinion shared by many in the raw food community. A fact I discovered when I visited 105 Degrees in Oklahoma City. Robyn had written to me raving about her visit there, with an infectious enthusiasm, that saw me grabbing for my car keys and taking a 5 hour road trip from my home in Springfield, Missouri to check out what was so special about this place.

I attended a rawkstar degustation meal hosted by Matthey Kenney, Ani Phyo, and the 105 degrees team; all of whom sang Robyn’s praises with genuine sincerity. It was clear that she had made quite an impression. I was proud to know her, and even more grateful for all of the raw food knowledge that she had shared with me. As I write this, I am reminded of the famous words of Maya Angelou, “When you learn, teach. When you get, give”. Robyn lives her life by this philosophy.

I dream of the day that we “raw girls” finally meet in person, to swap recipes and stories over some fabulous raw mocktails! Robyn, I wish you joy and happiness as you move into this glorious new chapter in your life as a mother. I cannot wait to officially welcome that gorgeous little bubba into the world.

We all know that is the only thing you have been baking of late!

So, in honour of his birth, I thought that it was only fitting that I share two of my favourite raw “green” recipes. My garlic kale chips and key-lime mousse will ensure that we can all be “gorgeously green with envy”.

So firstly, let me tell you about the kale chips.

My litmus test for any of my raw vegan recipes is to feed them to my friend Joann, who proudly professes “I don’t eat healthy!” If she sticks her snout in my trough without any complaining, and returns for more, I know I have a winner. During my last visit to see her in Arizona I brought some of my kale chips as a snack. When I woke up the first morning to find half the bag empty, and a note that read “I need this recipe!!!!!” I knew I was onto something. She did attach a disclaimer – “the kale gets stuck in your teeth! You have to floss, but it is so worth it”! Suffice it to say, the rest of the bag was devoured in a New York minute, and she has ordered a dehydrator with much excited anticipation.

I have also served these up to many of my whole foods bedfellows over the last few years and received rave reviews. But only a declaration of piggy joy from a cream dreamer and self-professed toxic omnivore would qualify as a satisfactory acid test. So thankyou Joann – for supplying the much needed tick of approval that inspired me to send this recipe out into the mainstream and raw culinary world with absolute confidence.

I promise you – these kale chips are to die for! Or at least that is what I have been told by the hoards of happy piggies that have desperately returned to this trough snorting for more.

The secret to this recipe? Tossing through the granulated garlic at the end, after you have massaged the cashew cheese into the kale. This last step just gives it a depth of flavour that is missing if you don’t finish it off this way.

Kale chips are a cinch to make. If you are nut free, or don’t want the expense or added time of using raw cashews, I have attached an alternative blend underneath the main recipe, which is quick and easy, nut-free, and just as delicious. Alternatively, you can toss any variety of kale with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and any herbs and spices of your choice to create all kinds of other delectable flavours. Try some chilli and salt, or apple cider vinegar and sea salt. YUM! Don’t worry if you don’t have a dehydrator – you can slow cook kale chips in your oven on the very lowest setting for about 8-12 hours.

Give these kale chips a go for your next snack attack – toxic treaters far and wide will be green with envy!

Now, the kale chips are fine for a snack. But no celebration would be complete without a really decadent dessert. Don’t miss out on making this quick, easy, rawlicious dessert! It is a winner on every level. It can literally be made in under 5 minutes; chilled and devoured in under half an hour; and requires absolutely no skill whatsoever. Just blend and chow!

This phenomenal recipe epitomizes my “blend and live” philosophy. Best of all – there is nothing bad in it! WOO HOO!

We love to hear that! It is very allergy-friendly for most people – not containing any of the big four – no nuts, dairy, egg or wheat. Just pure Yum Yum Yum!

I have not met anyone who doesn’t love this simple dessert. Vegans, Omnivores, Toxic Treat Tamers, Cream Dreamers and Whole Foods Skeptics all agree – this blend is scrumptious!

I will say that some people are not quite as partial to the extreme tart flavour as I am. This can be easily tempered with a little more sweetener. I am a tart at heart. So the more bite the better! But if your taste is a little more conservative, just sweeten the deal in order to find your perfect blend.

I have made all kinds of variations of this – with just lemon juice, just lime juice, I have left out the rind when I didn’t have the “zest for zest”, and I have to say that this recipe is fail safe! You just can’t mess this one up! My friend Kris and I made a lemon mousse without any zest, in a hurry a while back, that was still delicious. So much so, that we sat on the couch in the privacy of my house, eating it straight out of the blender! Tart pigs indeed!

I will say though, that the combination of lemon and lime, with the rind, lends a depth of flavour that is hard to match. I first became smitten (or should I say bitten) with key lime mousse in the Florida everglades, in a little fishing shack off the river. The mosquitos were eating me alive – I imagined them the size of cockroaches as they successfully gnawed through my jeans! While they were biting through my jeans, I was biting my tongue, trying to prevent myself from ordering yet another and another and another……

This latest raw vegan incantation has a little less bite to the hips, but no less bite on the lips. Trust me – let the tart in you sing, and you won’t be sorry.

I finally understand the true meaning of “sublime”.

Robyn – This one’s for you!

Raw Vegan Garlic Kale Chips

• 1 large bunch of curly green kale – about 8 firmly packed cups
• 1 cup raw cashews soaked in filtered water for 2 – 4 hours
• 1/8 cup filtered water as needed for desired consistency
• 3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast to taste
• 1 whole bulb of garlic (about 8-10 cloves) chopped roughly
• 1 tsp Celtic sea salt
• 1 Tbsp agave nectar (optional)
• 4 teaspoons granulated garlic

1. Rip the kale from off the stalks (discard the stalks), wash and place in a colander to drain. You want a little bit of water left on the kale.
2. Transfer to a large bowl.
3. Place all the ingredients except the granulated garlic in a food processor until smooth, thick and creamy. You want something like the consistency of hummus. You might need to add a little bit more water.
4. Take small handfuls of the cashew cheese and massage into the kale. I use kitchen gloves for this. Repeat this until all of the mixture has been added and the kale is evenly coated with no large clumps of “cheese”.
5. Toss through the granulated garlic so that it is evenly distributed.
6. Place the kale evenly on dehydrator sheets and dehydrate for about 8 hours until crisp.

If you don’t have a dehydrator you can place them on baking sheets in the oven on the lowest setting for about 10-12 hours.

Nut Free version

• 1 large bunch or curly green kale – about 8 firmly packed cups
• 2 1/2 Tbsp cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 3 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp Celtic sea salt
• 3 tsp extra granulated garlic (to toss through)

1. Rip the kale from the stalks (discard the stalks), wash, and place in a colander to drain slightly. You want a little bit of water left on the kale.
2. Stir all of the other ingredients (except the extra garlic) together in a bowl.
3. Massage the mixture into the wet kale.
4. Sprinkle the extra granulated garlic onto the kale and toss through.

Place in the dehydrator on 105 degrees for about 4-6 hours until crispy.

Raw Vegan Key Lime Mousse

• The flesh of 2 ripe organic avocados
• 2 ripe organic bananas peeled
• 8 Tbsp or 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
• 8 Tbsp or 2/3 cup fresh lime juice (about 4 limes)
• 2 tsps lemon rind (about 2 lemons)
• 2 tsps lime rind (about 4 limes)
• 1/4 cup agave, or more to taste
• pinch of Celtic sea salt

Throw all of the ingredients in your blender, and puree until creamy.

Chill, serve and devour! Yum Yum Yum!

Serves 4

Today for us started with a MASSIVE one of these:

Even better because I didn’t make it!

Gotta get every last drop!

If you want the recipe, check out my juice post over at High on Health here.

Then we hit the shops for some grocery stocking up for my Raw Food Basics Workshops that I’m conducting on Monday.

It’s always a lucky dip finding things here in Saudi Arabia, as sometimes you will find an awesome discovery, only to go back to the shops to find they either moved it or don’t stock it anymore.

Anyway at our local supermarket, Lulu, I found these:

Never seen this model before, but I reckon it would do the trip for making raw veggie pasta.

Mandolines (great for julienne slices and scalloping veggies for things like raw ravioli)

Yay for the hemp seeds! I found seeds! Go get them (in the USA/UK imports aisle) and hopefully they will keep ordering them if they see the turnover.

Hemp Protein Powder (in the organic/diet foods aisle)

ORGANIC – cereals, peanut butters, oats, dried fruits.

Then it was onto SACO the local hardware store and this is what I found:

A travel blender. Not sure of the model or how good it is, but looks similar to a magic bullet or my Tribest Personal Blender. Great for dressings, grinding seeds and nuts, puddings, and of course Green Smoothies at the office or whilst travelling. This model is a 220V and whilst most of Saudi operates on a 220V, our compound is mainly 110V (American standard) but with a transformer you could still make good use of this in your kitchen AND it’s small enough to pack on holiday with you like I wrote about on Vegan Backpacker here. I cannot speak on the performance of this particular model, but if you are local, it’s well worth the nosey.

What are some of the finds you get excited about in your region of the world?

According to Heather “What you probably already know is jet lag can be cured by taking melatonin.  What you may not know is tart cherries contain a significant amount of melatonin.” So if you are like my many flight attendant buddies or just suffer from jet lag every time you travel, you might get some use out of this smoothie. But it’s also delicious too!

This recipe I came up with is below:  It ends up having a frozen yoghurty consistency and it’s pretty decadent as well.

Cherry Coco Jetlag Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 Young Thai Coconut Water and Meat (view How To Open a Thai Coconut Video here)
• 1 ½ cups of Frozen Organic Cherries
• 2 Frozen Bananas
• Juice of 1 Lime
• 1 T of Agave/Maple Syrup
• Pinch of Salt

Blend all ingredients on high in a high-speed blender and serve with a cherry on top!

Serves 3 – 4

I’m outta here as I have my baby shower tomorrow (aren’t I lucky that I get to have 2! One in Australia and one here in Saudi) and preparations are underway for my Raw Basics Workshop on Monday night. Busy Busy.

What are your plans for this weekend?

Ipswich Highway going to Brisbane

My old work headquarters

MacDonalds completely underwater!

Even animals are banding together! Here is a frog hitching a ride on a snake!

Luckily all my family and friends are safe and on higher ground, but there are still plenty of people being effected and my mum posted this on her facebook status today:

It feels weird to be in a city with the world watching, at home glued to the TV for direction, waiting for the waters to rise.
And if you leave your home you don’t want to go too far to help others,
you are putting others at risk for rescuing You.
Still, Help your neighbour and live in the NOW as we don’t know what is in store for us, any of us that is.

Friends are telling me their power is cut for the next few days (for their safety) and people are walking around in shock but everyone is helping out each other where they can. It still makes me sad to see my home devastated like this….

If you wish to support the flood relief you can go here.

My prayers and thoughts are with you all! Even a friend of mine who is due with her baby any day now has had to book herself into a hotel right next to the hospital – NO HOME BIRTH FOR HER!

• rest now whilst you can
• don’t worry about what baby needs, they need less than what you think
• appreciate getting in and out of the car without having to worry about anyone else (even if I do take a little longer these days)
• go see as many movies as you can now (bit hard in Saudi where there are no movie theatres) but point taken
• and enjoy it all!

So with all that I am trying to remain calm and not too stressed about getting the house in order, but nevertheless, the husband and I have been madly shopping for new furniture (for us, as we were kindly gifted most of the baby stuff ) to make our home as lovely and low maintenance as possible so we can really focus and treasure our new baby son when finally arrives.

Our gorgeous new dining table.

I think Lucy doesn’t mind it.

I’d really like to have some quiet time just before he arrives to so we can enjoy the calm before the storm and it would be nice to enjoy my best buddy’s company for one last time, before 2 become 3 forever.

With all the chaos of hitting the town most nights for shopping, we’ve been eating mainly cooked meals (plus the dropping temperature makes it harder to convince my other half that salad can actually be a meal)

But some of the yums we’ve been enjoying are:

Veggie stir fry with brown rice

The players:

I love my mandoline. Takes the hard work out of chopping veggies

Carrot & Coriander Soup – recipe taken from Jamie Oliver’s site here

Simple and a great way to get rid of about to go off carrots. I subbed olive oil for coconut oil - as coconut oil is the only oil use you should use when cooking due to the toxic free radicals that come about from heating other oils

I’ve also been rounding out all the cooked food with plenty of these juices

Does anyone else blend their juices to combine all the froth?

Usual ingredients: anything in my fridge that needs consuming before use by. Beets, carrots, celery (I always juice these last as the strings clog up the juicer), parsley, cucumber, ginger, green apples, lemons and whatever else I can find.

Something I learnt at my Natural Wellness class the other night:

Fruits cleanse

Vegetables nourish

Food for thought!

I’m outtta here, it’s now our weekend and tomorrow we are having a Garage/Yard sale so I’ve gotta go and prepare for it. I thought it was just in Australia that people would call up early to see your wares, but here we’ve been fielding calls all week asking for people to come by earlier by days even, but tomorrow is the DAY!

Does that happen in your part of the world?

UK based Innocent Smoothie lovers if you click on the video to the right at the top of this page, you will find out about the free 250mL smoothie promotion for the month of January. Go on, you know you want to

I loved hearing all about your Vitamix stories and how you have never looked back! I sometimes wonder if it’s healthy to have such an obsession as I do about a kitchen appliance

Tonight I had my 2nd class of Natural Wellness as part of the compound’s Adult Education offerings. Tonight we talked about candidiasis and parasites. Ew, but seriously informative stuff. I’m very keen to do more research on both of these.

But onto more delicious blogging.

One of my favourite salad dressings is a variation on one I learnt at 105degrees. It’s pretty tasty and one I keep coming back to.

Lemon Love Dressing

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of olive oil (you can also use coconut oil)

2 peeled lemons

3 T raw honey

1/4 t cracked black pepper

pinch himalayan/sea salt

Blend all ingredients in high speed blender until well combined.

Serve over baby spinach or rocket/arugula, shaved fennel and ruby grapefruit segments.

Remainder of dressing can be kept in fridge for 3 -5 days. It may set so you will need to reblend before reserving (or eat it up by the spoonful like I did yesterday). My bad?

Let me know if you LOVE it as much as I do!

See you tomorrow!

Before I get started just wanted to remind you that you are running out of time if you want to grab yourself Russell James’ Homestudy Program for 33% off plus all the extra bonuses. Go here to find out more!

If you still aren’t convinced you need a Vitamix (or that you would get the usage out of one) I thought I’d document a typical day in the life of MY Vitamix.

Usually I start my day off with some kind of smoothie and I try to make it a green one.

Unfortunately, blueberries win out so the spinach doesn’t get much of a view when you add it on. This is my Berry Berry ‘Greenish’ Smoothie I featured yesterday’s post.

Then it’s on to mid morning where I have taken my almond meal from a previous day of making almond milk, out of the dehydrator.

Time to whip up some almond flour for Ron*

Then I store it in the freezer for another day, another recipe.

Then it’s onto lunch. Salad. Yes please. What has this got to do with the Vitamix you ask?

Dressing:

Lemon Love Dressing Ingredients: Olive oil, lemons, black pepper, himalayan pink salt, and raw honey (from Oklahoma).

This is seriously my GO TO dressing at the moment. I may or may not have eaten the remainder as it set into a pudding in the fridge. Oops!

I’ll share the recipe tomorrow

This dressing rocks with rocket/arugula, fennel and grapefruit.

Then onto dessert. As we didn’t have any frozen bananas at the ready, soft serve icecream was not going to happen, but since the hubs mentioned strawberry milk at the dinner table, I decided to create my own raw vegan version.

2 cups of almond milk, 1 cup of frozen strawberries (seriously, what is my obsessions with the strawbs of late?), 1 t coconut butter, 2 fresh bananas 1 T agave nectar, dash of lemon juice, dash of vanilla extract and pinch of salt.

Strawberry Milk indeed.

Of course each day differs with what recipes I tend to make, however this post is pretty typical of my usage amount, as it never really gets any less than this on a typical day. Dressings, smoothies, ice creams, puddings, sauces, you name it, there is so much this little powerful fella can do. And like my hubs said to me yesterday as we bundled up our old supermarket blender to sell yesterday, it’s no VITAMIX – you’d never go back.

*Later on.

Thank you for all your lovely comments regarding my video post yesterday. It’s been awhile since I filmed so I’ll definitely need more practice, but I do have more in store, perhaps I will need to wait until I am back in my own kitchen in Saudi. Please cross fingers for me it happens sooner rather than later

Here is the Chocolate Ice-Cream post I promised you a few days back in honour of Hannah who is not a big coconut fan but sure loves her choccie!  PLUS you don’t need an ice-cream maker (but if you do!)

I hope the anticipation was worth it

Watching it back I realise I’m a bit of a dork and need alot more practice at this…plus I was worried Dad would come home half way through and see his kitchen turned into a novice film studio

You can find the ingredients list below the vid. Grab a bowl of popcorn, sit back and enjoy

**ATTENTION** In the video I say, 1 cup of raw agave, when in actual fact I MEAN 1/2 cup!!!

Raw Vegan Chocolate Ice-Cream

Ingredients

1 cup of cashews (soaked for 2 hours)

1/2 cup of young coconut meat

1/2 cup of raw agave*

1 1/2 cups of water

1 T vanilla extract

1/2 cup of raw cacao powder

pinch himalayan or sea salt

Method:

1. Place all ingredients in high speed blender until smooth

2. Place in freezer safe container and place in freezer until frozen, taking out of freezer periodically to stir the mixture and aerate. Alternatively place in an ice-cream maker according to instructions

Tomorrow I’ll be posting the next stage in the Breakfast Parfait – The Mango Ginger Custard Just been doing quality assurance on it tdoay

Also, the song from my video has been in my head all day, and my bud Caroline sent me through Katy Perry’s story behind the song here. I told her not to send stuff through to me like this whilst pregnant as it made me cry. She said the same thing as she’s not preggy so see how you hold up!

JUICING

Source

Juicing is a fantastic way to get a bucketload of nutrients as juicers essentially separate the juice from the fibre of the vegetable and the juicers do the chewing for us, which means the nutrients are delivered faster. Oxidisation is quick however, so it is recommended you drink juices as soon as you have made them or in the very least within a day of making. Different juicers offer different kinds of technology for handling different fruit and vegetables. Most of the cheaper supermarket brands (and some of the more expensive like a Breville) are centrifugal which means they spin the pulp very fast, but there are claims that it oxidises the juice much quicker by heating it which damages delicate enzymes.

Breville Juicer – Centrifrugal (Source)

A masticating juicer like a Champion (the juicer I have) or a Green Star, uses a slower motor and is believed it can enable the release of more minerals from hard fibres and keeps more enzymes intact.

Champion Juicer – Masticater (Source)

Juicing tends to speed up cleansing and detox reactions much quicker than smoothies and it is believed that juice which still has some pulp in it, may be more taxing on the digestive system than properly chewing fruits and vegetables, due to the lack of salivation that is produced with proper mastication.

All in all though, my thoughts are any juicer is better than none because when was the last time you sat down to eat a bunch of apples, some carrots, a plate of spinach and some kiwi fruit? Sometimes it is just much easier to juice all of these up and drink the glass to get the goodness.

Juicing is ideal when you are ill, as the nutrients are more condensed and there is no no time wasted in digestion. However if you are juicing and consuming too many sweet fruits,  (even beets and carrots) you can put significant stress on your blood sugar and insulin levels resulting in diabetes or other complications.

BLENDING

Blended foods such as green smoothies, blended salads and raw soups, are digested much easier than solid foods, as it destroys the cell walls of the fruits and vegetables, making the nutrients more available to our body but not as efficiently as juice. Smoothies are much heavier so can keep you fuller for longer and have been known to take away cravings for sweet sugary processed foods. Whenever I feel like a craving for something ‘naughty’ I make myself a green smoothie and it tends to be satiated immediately. I even take my Tribest Personal Blender on the road!

It is thought that blending fruits especially, rather than juicing, with the fibre kept more intact, allows your body to regulate the pace at which the sugars are released into your bloodstream.

Don’t forget, even though you sip your smoothies, DON’T chug them, and DO chew them. The reason for chewing (which seems absurd as you have blended your food into a drink for sipping) is it makes the smoothie even easier to be digested, especially for those who believe Green Smoothies make them bloat up. Chewing your smoothie until it is warm and begins to taste sweeter in your mouth, means that you are producing saliva which will lubricate the sugars and help them to break down in your stomach even better, hence eliminating any bloating feeling you may suffer. Plus it will ensure you don’t suffer any gas 

THE VERDICT:
Whether you choose to blend or juice your fruit and vegetables consider one thing, try and ensure the majority of what you do blend or juice is vegetable, with perhaps some sweet fruit added for flavour or sweetness.

Also I do tend to blend more than I juice, purely due to the effort factor. My blender is way easier to clean (both my travel blender and my Vitamix), I don’t need to cut my fruit and vegetables into as smaller chunks and it just seems more effortless than the juicer. Ideally I’d like to drink more juice, so I’d like to alternate my juicing with my smoothies, but smoothies just always seem to win out.

You can find some of my favourite recipes here. Do you have any favourites you’d wish to share?