My first real foray into the "green" smoothie!

Alright, well first of all, the smoothie didn't turn out green, but I'll explain to you later why I called it that.

My sister was the inspiration for today's recipe. This weekend she suggested that I try making some sort of smoothie to help with my exercise, and to make a new post! So I listened to her! Right now I'm going to go a bit off track though to advertise for an event that she's helping organise. The proceeds go to a very good charity, and for anyone in the Ottawa area, this is a must! You can find details here, as well as in the poster below. (She doesn't know that I'm doing this so she'll hopefully be alright with it!)

So, back to the subject of the post. The smoothie!

I did some research online for the best post-workout fruits, vegetables, and berries. What I came up with is this combination : 

Banana, Cherries, Blueberries, Kiwi, Tahini, Hemp Milk, and if those last two things weren't weird enough, Kale. 

Kale is a leafy green and its renowned for being a superfood. Not only does it have antioxidants to help reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and other diseases related to aging, but it also has carotenoids to help protect your eyes from UV rays that cause cataracts. Again, its not only that! Look at this list of other good things I found! 

This food is low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Protein, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Folate, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Potassium, Copper and Manganese. Read More

So, I think its clear why I chose to include Kale into my little experiment.

As for the Tahini and Hemp Milk, my favourite food blog had a recipe on it that included almond milk and peanut butter. I had tahini in the house, so that was a no-brainer as a subsititute, but as for my liquid, I had many choices. Some people use water, some use milk, etc. So back to researching I went!

Usually when I have too much dairy I start to feel bloated etc, and I find that it's worse when I drink milk, so I decided to look into dairy substitutes. I've tried Soya Milk and Oat Milk, but I never knew which offered the most benefits. What I found was that the pros of Hemp Milk really outweigh the cons. 

These are roughly the measurements I used when creating my concoction. (It made two smoothies)

1 Whole Banana

2 Kiwis, Skinned

1 cup of Cherries, pitted

1 1/3 cup Blueberries

2 Tablespoons Tahini

2-3 Large Handfuls of Kale

Hemp Milk to Mix

So I threw all of that into a container (I don't have an actual blender) and used my immersion blender to mix everything up! The reason I don't have a measurement for the Hemp Milk is because it's entirely up to you. If  you want it to be more liquid-y, add more. If you like it more concentrated, use less, but always keep in mind that you can add in liquid, but its really hard to take it out.

No Matter what your preferences are, you can modify this recipe. If you don't like any of the ingredients, then you can change it all up! These are really just guidelines to help you through the process.

Bonus! If you have extra kale at the end and don't know what to do with it, use a tiny bit of oil (just enough to veeery lightly coat it all, teaspoon by teaspoon) and paprika, put it on a baking sheet and cook at 300c (175f) for 15 minutes, and voila! Delicious Kale Chips!