Day 26 - Go Green Smoothie!

[Penni]

The hand's down, quintessential first family of Green Smoothies is The Boutenkos!  Victoria Boutenko's book, Green For Life, is actually how many people originally stumbled upon the raw food diet. If you haven't heard of or read Green For Life, I consider it to be a must read for everyone who is even remotely interested in natural health, healing and/or weight loss. Victoria' children, Valya & Sergei, are both very involved in teaching this life changing way of approaching nutrition and they've both written books and created DVD's on the topic. 

Valya recently released an AWESOME DVD: “The 7 Best Greens Smoothies from Raw Family”.  In this DVD, Valya masterfully demos how to prepare 7 of the family's all-time favorite green smoothies. In addition to demonstrating how easy it is to blend up exotic tasting concoctions, Valya shares many timesaving tips and answers the most frequently asked questions about making delicious green smoothies. This DVD is a must see for anyone interested in becoming a green smoothie pro! Here is a clip:

I hope you'll visit the Boutenko family's website and sign up for their newsletter, which always shares great new recipes and healthy tips.

Here is Sergei teaching a bit about the power of drinking green smoothies:

Here is another clip from Sergei and his friend Briana Lescher demonstrating how easy it is to make diverse, delicious green smoothies in a flash:

And finally, here is my very own Taylor Shelton, rapping it out on video, after being totally inspired by the deliciousness of green smoothies....LOL!

I Love my little Green Smoothie Homie!

Now...we would LOVE to hear from you today.  Do you drink green smoothies? If so, how has adding them into your diet changed your health or weight? Do you have a favorite recipe you'd be willing to share? Give us the scoop in the comments below:

[Vegan♥for♥Life]

LOVE THIS. ::snuggling down to watch::
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

My first Green Smoothie 4 years ago? I didn't add water. I came up with this gloppy, gooey, thick, green, "stuff" that Shrek would have LOVED and could not fathom folks liking and drinking this. Did I feel embarassed realizing SOME kind of liquid is vital. Lately I have almost primarily been existing solely on Green Smoothies! I did a 100-day Green Smoothie/fresh juice feast in 2009 and felt AMAZING.
Try Green Smoothies. You will LOVE them and KIDS love these Shrek Shakes.
This is my favorite topic - mine and Susan's!

[Vegan♥for♥Life]

BTW - LOVE Taylor - she is RAWkin it. Hmmmm, wonder where she gets her talent from? LOVE that! Thanks Pennie. GR8 information...

My Shrek Shakes (aka Green Smoothies) are Shrek approved!
Also, in the Liquid Lounge HERE, there's OODLES of recipes!
Many days Green Smoothies is ALL I consume. They have given me strength, mental clarity, stamina, energy, sleeping power (gotta crash some time) and I love how easy to create the recipes, and the cleanup. Plus they are portable, can be taken just about ANYWHERE.
Green Smoothies RULE!!!!
::steps aside for Susan's speech::
LOL!!!

[Susan : )]

Taylor totally RAWKS! : )

Green Smoothies are my life! : ) I would not be here today if Victoria Boutenko hadn't written Green for Life! They literally saved my life! I was heading for a stroke or heart attack with a blood pressure of 220/120 before I woke up and took charge of my health...it was a wake up call! I live simply on Green Smoothies and fresh fruit and veggies...of course I love raw treats and munchies...but Green Smoothies are my mainstay! : )

[Erica Steeves]

I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for green smoothies. A friend of mine loaned me her book Green for Life when I was just getting into raw foods. It was a life changer.

[Hot Ta-Molly]

You can purchase a bumper sticker from the Boutenko's website that says, "I Green Smoothies".

My favorite green smoothies is kale or collard, small handful of parsley, one very ripe frozen banana, and either frozen blue berries or frozen mango.

It keeps me from being hungry, fills me up at work where I only have a 15 minute break in the morning. I also don't have to worry about getting puffy when drinking green smoothies.

[Vegan♥for♥Life]

HERE is Victoria Boutenko's recent book "Green Smoothie Revolution" (from Penni's Picks) and HERE is Victoria's Green for Life, which is an easy read and an AMAZING book. I highly recommend both of these.

[darlene knight]

Absolutely adore the rap....Too cute!!! I had always juiced for years and made fruit smoothies before green smoothies!!! I used to blend fruits and veggies for my kids when they were babies and had taste tested many of them and when I read about Green Smoothies....we were sold!!! Most of them passed the kid approved taste test and now they both whip up their own blended concoctions....

[Jerrilynne Atkins]

OOoooh! I gotta get that book! My usual green smoothie consists of running 2 oranges, 2 apples, and 2-3 carrots through my juicer. Then I transfer the mixture into my VitaMix and throw in a banana, a handful or two of spinach, and a squeeze of agave. I don't add any water to it, and I guess it isn't necessary since the first ingredients are juiced. I do it that way because I don't like it too pulpy, and I feel that adding water dilutes the flavor. But that's just my own personal preference. It would probably be healthier to just put it all in the VM for the added fiber along with some water or ice (but I probably would end up not drinking it!) I really, really like the taste and consistency the way I prepare it. Of course there's more clean-up afterwards, but it's worth it! BTW, I just cringed a little when I heard Sergei say not to use carrots in the green smoothies. Oh well, what the heck? It hasn't killed me so far! LOL

[Sandra Lambert]

"......Go smoothie, go smoothie, go smoothie!..." Well said! :)

[Mel]

Cool videos - Do both sweet and savory green smoothies - even have the meat-eating hubby doing them so the VitaMix runs every day.

Freeze my greens (do lose some nutrients, but still better than not doing smoothies) when we don't have time to consume all before going bad - just wash and place in plastic bag or container and freeze. After freezing, you can crush the greens into smaller frozen pieces by shaking and sqeezing the plastic bag so it doesn't take up so much room in the freezer. Then add these along with frozen bananas to make the smoothie very thick and cold like a milkshake. Always vary the greens because of the alkaloids so you don't grow tired, even adverse to one particular green. Mint and ginger freeze well which always jazz up a green smoothie.

[Jodi Clark]

I completely notice a difference in my eating for the day when I start it off with a green smoothie. Much more apt to want more greens and fruit throughout the day than if I start the day without it.

My favorite usually involves a coconut, (meat and water) mango and banana and maybe if I'm extra lucky some pineapple-- something should be frozen to make it slushy and spinach of course. MMMmmm.....

[Noemi Garcia]

IMPORTANT QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I learned in the video to incorporate leafy greens, fruit and water...Is there a theory on water vs almond milk in smoothie recipes??????????????

Your feedback is greatly appreciated!!!!!!!! =)