Blueberry, Collard and Cocoa Smoothie… What?

This morning we awoke to a typical grey rainy spring day in the Mid-Atlantic. We get a lot of rain this time of year. But that is what makes everything incredibly green and lush so I shouldn’t complain. Since we ate dinner very late yesterday we were also up late and slept in this morning. Needless to say we were not at the gym at 6am. ;-)

Breakfast for Dan was his usual oatmeal with frozen wild blueberries, wheat germ, freshly ground flaxseeds, cinnamon, ginger, stevia and walnuts.

With the thunderstorms today I didn’t go for my normal walk *boo* and I really missed it. Somehow cardio and home just isn’t the same. My plan is to keep any eye on the weather so that I can go for a short walk during a break in the storm. With a little luck that will happen since I get recharged from being outside.

I finished reading “Clean” yesterday and now I feel like I need to drink more smoothies and fresh juices. Does the power of suggestion work on you too? I will write a review of the book later this week. Here is what I made myself for breakfast on Tuesday:

Blueberry, Collard and Cocoa Smoothie
Serves 2 (or you can do I want did and have half now and half later)

Ingredients:

1 cup wild blueberries, frozen
1 ½ cups homemade sprouted soy milk
1 cup raw baby collards, tightly packed
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
1 pinch stevia
1 tablespoon freshly ground flaxseed
2 tablespoons wheat germ
ice and water

Directions:

Combine everything in your high-speed blender (I used my Vitamix) and process until smooth. I like to serve my smoothies in ice cold glasses which I keep in the freezer.

Nutrition information (assumes 2 servings):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 216.31
Calories From Fat (26%) - 56.32

Total Fat - 6.39g
Saturated Fat - 0.92g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 103.6mg
Potassium - 354.34mg
Total Carbohydrates - 31.77g
Fiber - 5.26g
Sugar - 7.41g
Protein - 10.41g

Comments:

I decided to add cocoa to the blueberry smoothie after discovering that I liked the combination a couple of weeks ago when I made the chocolate and blueberry hearts to take to Walid and Jackie’s house. This smoothie was tasty and healthy. My only complaint is that made a huge amount...poor me.  ;-)  I bet you know what I will be having later for a snack…more smoothie that I stashed in the freezer.

I had the second half of this smoothie about 3 hours later. It spent about 1 ½ in the freezer and another 1 ½ in the refrigerator and was still cold and slushy when I was ready to enjoy it.

I also had a small container of the white bean cheese, salsa, cucumbers and red bell peppers.

In addition I had an orange and Brazil nuts.  I am recycling pictures because I love Masi in the background of this one and I am being lazy.  ;-)

With the grey rainy weather I have been very lazy today. I spent too much time chatting and not enough time being productive. I had a webinar in the afternoon that forced me to do something other than chat most of the day. ;-) We had thunderstorms off and on all day. Tuesday was definitely a day that was best spent inside.

(This was my dinner) 

(Here is Dan's which gives you a better idea of the dish)

Since I was being unproductive our dinner was a very simple dish. I made some bulgur with sun dried tomatoes. In my usual style I made extra bulgur to include in our lunches tomorrow. I topped the dish with a simple Sicilian style broccoli. The broccoli is similar to a spinach dish I make, and also similar to Ian’s Tuscan carrots. I “sautéed” red onion in a little water and red wine vinegar and added broccoli, hot crushed peppers (wet hots), garlic, raisins and fennel seeds. After the onions and broccoli were cooked I added some fresh cucumber slices for crunch. I finished the dish with a few sliced almonds. Who says fast food needs to be unhealthy? I had this ready in less than 20 minutes it had a lot of flavor and was good for us.

Happy thoughts:

• I am happy to have the ability to workout at home when the weather is uncooperative. While I don’t like indoor cardio it is better than no cardio and I didn’t need to drive to the gym which was a very good thing.

• It was great to spend Tuesday relaxing I really needed that after the month I have had. As much as I like to get things done sometimes crashing is the best thing you can do for yourself. Wednesday morning I got up and had tons of energy so relaxing must have been exactly what I needed.

• While I was in sloth mode on Tuesday I took a little time to read which always makes me happy. I am grateful that our library system has a wonderful selection of books on health and nutrition since I never get tired of reading anything on that topic.

• Our weather on Wednesday is supposed to be glorious! *happy dance* We are expecting temperatures in the mid 80’s today. *woo hoo* I plan to enjoy myself outside as much as I can today. Today will be a great day to get a little vitamin D, but not too much since I don’t want to burn.

Signing out:

I am looking forward to a productive and beautiful day today. I hope the weather is as nice where you live. Talk to you again tomorrow.  Now I am off to catch up on my health and nutrition reading for today and to post links to articles on Facebook.  Have a great Wednesday!  :-)