Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Clean Eating | Pizza + Smoothies

Y'all, I have to make a little confession. After last week's clean eating post, I took the weekend to get back on track and was doing pretty well. I say was because I threw everything out the window on Monday night. 

I was all set to cook a healthy meal and then the hubby ask if I wanted to order pizza. Well, you don't have to ask me twice. Pizza was up there as one of my top five foods (along with ice cream, of course). You'll notice I said was again. You see, after a prideful moment of only eating 2 slices for dinner as opposed to my normal half a pizza, Tuesday morning happened. 

All of the junk that I had been eating for the last month + that darn pizza made me feel awful. I woke up on Tuesday with a puffy face, more tired than usual, and pants that felt tight - haven't had that feeling for a few months. Plus, I noticed that my 4 month old's skin was breaking out a little (whatever I'm eating, she will eventually consume through milk). 

I know that all of this wasn't just the pizza, but my body was telling me that all of the salt in that pizza and that greasy cheese was not welcome anymore. I spent most of yesterday drinking large quantities of water and oddly craving green smoothies. I ended up making a green smoothie for breakfast and another one for dinner. 
A basic green smoothie recipe
I've always been a pizza kind of girl, but things have drastically changed over the past few months. . .  and I'm not hating it. 

I promised a smoothie recipe, so here it is. This is the base for most (if not all) of my green breakfast anytime smoothies. 
Basic Green Smoothie: 1-2 big handfuls of spinach, 1 frozen banana, 1 cup of almond milk or water
1-2 big handfuls of spinach (frozen or fresh)
1 frozen banana
1 cup of almond milk (or water)

Directions: Blend until smooth and drink up!

Simply by adding a spoonful of peanut butter, you get one of my favorite morning treats. 
Peanut Butter Green Smoothie: 1-2 handfuls of spinach, 1 frozen banana, 1 cup of almond milk or water, 1 spoonful of peanut butter
To the basic recipe, you can add all sorts of fun things (berries / kale / soaked chia seeds / coconut oil) to make a completely different smoothie. 

Just use the basic smoothie recipe as a guide and add whatever flavor combinations that you think would work. I usually put half spinach / half kale in my smoothies, but spinach will give beginners a smooth and creamy texture to start. Kale makes the smoothie a bit gritty unless you have a super fancy blender, which I do not. 

I really do crave these smoothies now and they are so easy to make. Also, you can buy spinach in bulk and pop the entire bag in the freezer for smoothies. I easily go through an entire (frozen) bag for smoothies, when I use to toss half of it after letting it go bad in the fridge before I discovered smoothies. Veggies for breakfast. . . definitely not a bad thing. 

Do you have a super delicious + healthy smoothie recipe you'd like to share with me? I'm always looking for a better variety for the hubs - I could stick to the PB smoothies everyday and never tire of it, but I'm a little odd like that. 

8 comments:

  1. Amy | Club NarwhalJuly 3, 2013 at 10:19 AM

    I love green smoothies (I wish delicious cheesy pizza was as healthy...sigh)! I like to add flax seeds or oatmeal, though those might not be "allowed" in clean eating. My favorite smoothies is just mixed frozen fruit, fresh pineapple juice and spinach. I am obsessed with spinach and add it to pretty much everything :)

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  2. Anything is allowed in clean eating - as long as it is not over processed and full of sugar / salt. I'm just making things up as I go along and trying to stay healthy. Love oatmeal in my smoothies too :)

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  3. Oh, yumm. I was looking forward to this :) I've never tried almond milk, but will definitely try it out soon. I like to add a bit of avocado sometimes. It makes the drink extra smoothie-like.

    I also wanted to let you know that my sisters and I have nominated you for the Liebster Award. Hope you'll accept!
    http://www.cranesandclovers.com/2013/07/liebster-award.html

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  4. Ok...you're totally inspiring me to make this. I love "green drinks" and never thought to try with almond milk. Looks so delish here. I will let you know how mine turns out!

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  5. Miwa - You are too sweet! Also, I love almond milk now. I went from drinking a gallon of cow's milk a week to not even keeping it in the house. You can make your own too, but I'm not convinced that it's worth the effort yet.

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  6. Almond milk is my favorite, but I've also tried coconut milk / coconut water (not a fan) / and just plain water.

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  7. I have been trying to switch to Almond Milk with my coffee and it's so hard! Such a strange taste! But I'm getting used to it!

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  8. I'm still a half & half addict, but I hope to switch to almond milk soon. If you're patient enough to make your own almond milk, I've heard that it's much creamier homemade - might be better in coffee

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