Vegan MoFo 3.1: Kale and Banana Smoothie

This morning I was watching Dr. Fuhrman (via streaming video) give the keynote speech to the World Preservation Foundation Conference in London. It was a good reminder of why I have chosen to feed my family a nutrient rich vegan diet. The bottom line is that micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) are what keep us optimally healthy and are also what most diets (vegan and omni) lack. The best way to increase your intake of micronutrients is to make most of your food intake in the form of cooked and raw vegetables with the dark green leafy variety (kale, collards, bok choy, etc.) being at the top.

With this in mind I guess you aren’t surprised we started our morning with a green smoothie. Here is what I made for myself:

Kale and Banana Smoothie
Serves 1

Ingredient:

1 very ripe frozen banana
3 kale leaves and stems shredded
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
6 walnut halves
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
water sufficient to process (somewhere between 1/2 and 1 cup)

Directions:

Place everything in your high speed blender. Add water so it comes up the sides about 2 inches and process until smooth. Taste and add stevia for sweetness if you think it is necessary. Pour into a frozen glass.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 296.9
Calories From Fat (38%) - 111.51

Total Fat - 13.15g
Saturated Fat - 1.38g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 48.85mg
Potassium - 934.1mg
Total Carbohydrates - 43.52g
Fiber - 9.29g
Sugar - 14.78g
Protein - 8.52g

Comments:

This is one of our favorite breakfasts. We drink it often in the summer but not as often when it is cold outside. The nutrition on this is fantastic. This smoothie contains: 15,500IU of vitamin A, 130mg of vitamin C, 160mg of calcium, 800mcg of vitamin K, 125mg of phosphorus, and 85mg of magnesium. This is the reason I add kale and not spinach to our smoothies.

To highlight the point I want to show you the nutrition on the same smoothie but with 1 ½ cups of spinach rather than kale. That would look like this:

Calories - 257
Calories From Fat (42%) - 107.04

Total Fat - 12.62g
Saturated Fat - 1.32g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 41.18mg
Potassium - 735.97mg
Total Carbohydrates - 35.09g
Fiber - 8.27g
Sugar - 14.97g
Protein - 6.49g

Comments:

A smoothie made with spinach rather than kale will have a lighter green flavor but more importantly much less nutrition. Did you notice the decrease in protein just from changing the greens? Additionally this smoothie contains: 4,300IU of vitamin A, 20mg of vitamin C, 70mg of calcium, 215mcg of vitamin K, 90mg of phosphorus, and 85mg of magnesium. The drop in vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and vitamin K was tremendous. I hope this gives you are reason to try exchanging kale for spinach in your morning smoothie.

For those of you that are wondering Dan also had a green smoothie this morning for breakfast. However his contained two frozen bananas rather than one. I also added a handful of walnuts rather than 6 halves. These two changed added more calories which my husband needs.

Signing out:

I will be back later with a dinner recipe. At the moment I have no idea what that means but I am thinking about making something with tempeh. Those of you that know me realize that could change a dozen times before I finally get into the kitchen. Hopefully I will stick with the tempeh idea since I wrote it down. ;-)

I hope everyone is having a good Wednesday and that you are staying warm. Talk to you again soon.