Green Smoothies-- The Modern Witch's Magical Brew

I just realized that yesterday's post didn't post yesterday. I thought it did, but apparently it was only in a draft. I posted it today.

I am doing even better today than I was yesterday. I have slept really well the last couple of nights. Like 10 hours. And straight through the night. I don't know why, maybe it's the reduction of caffiene in my blood, or maybe it is the regiment and having a full day. This is actually a good thing as I am usually sleep deprived, either overworked or suffering from insomnia (sometimes both). I feel really good now that my body is catching up a bit.  

There are some occasional complaints... who doesn't want to get up early, who doesn't want to eat oatmeal, who doesn't feel like doing their homework. My husband has been grumbly because he has been basically shooting his own self in the foot... two days ago he had milk before bed, and he's lactose intolerant since I've known him. Why he still insists on torturing himself with drinking milk is beyond me, but it kept him up and down on the toilet in pain all night so he slept crappy and complained all day that he was tired. So he gets up yesterday and sticks to the regiment, and I went to bed early so he stayed up late to play his new video games and again complained this morning he was too tired. I told him he is sabbotaging himself and he promised to get to bed early tonight.

Meanwhile, we've been drinking Green Smoothies every day, and in making them I realized this is not much different than any other Witch's brew, potion or concoction I could possibly make. So making Green Smoothies is now part of my daily magical and health routine.

I start out with some juice. Yesterday I used watermelon juice because I had 1/2 leftover melon that wasn't long for this world. Watermelon is great, not only because it's sweet and delicious, but because of an organic chemical called citrulline. Citrulline relaxes the blood vessles to help blood get around the body more, and water also has the anti-oxidant lycopene, which is good for your skin.

I add kale, which is purifying, and spinach for strength and vitality (Popeye wasn't wrong!). I add some fennel to promote health and peaches for longevity. I throw in a few stevia leaves to sweeten it up (I keep a plant on the screen porch), and whatever other fruit, frozen or fresh, I have lying around. A bit of crushed ginger is to make my spell potent.

I consecrate and charge them to bring them to full potency, then pop them in the blender and enter a semi-meditative state as it whips them into a beverage. As I pour out, I offer a prayer to bless our smoothies to nourish, fill, cleanse and empower us with all the nutrients, thoughts and emotions that we need. I make a small offering of some smoothie at the alter and we drink.

Now this is just how I have been making them for the past 5 days or so... there is nothing you "must" put in, and nothing that you "can't" put into a green smoothie. Make them to suit your own personal tastes. I've seen some recipes on the web of people putting in yogurt & cocoa powder & artificial sweetner to get down their greens, to the other end of the spectrum of people who use no sweeteners or fruit, just pure bitter greens, root veggies and herbs.

I am most definitely going to try different things. Luckily there is a fruit stand and a Sweetbay right up the street from our apartment complex, so every 5 days or so we hit them for some new fresh produce, so I like to see what is on sale or looks good in season... and I almost always have giant-sized bags of fruit from Walmart on hand because that is the cheapest way to keep a staple of fruit in the house.

I have heard frozen is as good, sometimes better than, fresh... because fresh fruits & veggies from the supermarket are often picked unripe and gas ripened and travel a ways before they get to the store; frozen ones are picked from the field and flash-frozen within a couple of hours, locking in the nutrients. I just don't know how true that is, but it sounds like frozen, if not better, can't be that much worse than fresh.

Everyone likes them, except my little one who says "they're 'okay' but they look like barf," but even he drinks them, and I swear he is as picky as they come and a little sugar & carb-addict at heart, so if this is what it takes to get his veggies in him without a fuss, so be it. I think they look so pretty, personally, that emerald green color reminds me of St. Patrick's Day and all things good and healthy.

Yes, they are tasty because the fruit covers the taste of the veggies. The cost was something I had to consider more carefully.

At first the thought of the cost of the daily fresh fruits and veggies made me whince... on the other hand, I look at how filling they are... it cuts down the cost of other snacks and they eat a smaller lunch but are still satisfied. I suspect that, budget-wise, green smoothie costs will balance out and be worth it. In the fall I'll probably put up some spinach and other leafy greens on the ol' screen porch garden and this should keep costs down for it as well, although there is a limit to what you can grow in a porch.

Have I shown you my screen porch garden, yet, btw?

I know it's small, but it's all the space I've got to work with. This time of year, plants are looking a little puny because of the heat. But in the spring and fall, it's hopping. I have about 8 hooks for hanging plants along the edges that I use for tomatoes & strawberries. Plus I line planters up along the ground edge and I keep most herbs on the utility shelf. I am thinking of getting a couple more utility shelves to multiply my gardening space as well. I get excellent southern exposure from about 10 AM till noon from the Eastern direction, then around noon till 2 pm the sun is high and everything is shaded by the porch above me, which is good because that's the harshest part of the day. Then from about 2 pm until almost 9 pm we get it from the Western direction. It's a pretty good set-up for an apartment dweller. I always said the only reason I ever wanted a house was for the yard so I can garden; other than that, I'm a NYC native-- I prefer apartments. As you can see, Ben enjoys the garden here, too.