Spinach for Breakfast?

/

Over the past year and a half I've been doing a lot more reading about food, nutrition, and how to avoid the perils of the standard American diet. My journey lead me through a string of truly life changing books (listed at the end of this post), and ultimately found me at the grocery store this Sunday with a new recipe to try. This is what I filled my cart with: undefined

The soup I planned to make called for juicing 5 lbs of carrots (the results of which can be seen in the pitcher below) and 2 bunches of celery (instead of using vegetable broth). I'd never used our juicer before, but it was pretty darn amazing! You drop in some carrots and magically—out squirts a bunch of carrot juice! (Look out David Copperfield—I was a magician in my kitchen this weekend!)

undefined

The whole soup included the carrot/celery juice, 8 zucchini, 4 onions, 3 leeks, oyster mushrooms, split peas, lentils, kale, cashews... and some spices. I'm a huge vegetable/soup fan... but was skeptical at first (kale!?). Happily, once it cooked down, it started to smell amazing, and with 10 servings, it will last Emir and I at least a few days.

undefined

My latest book also included a recipe for a spinach/chocolate smoothie. It sounded too interesting to pass up. The ingredients are:

  • 2 cups of frozen blueberries
  • 1 banana
  • 4 dates (pitted)
  • 1/2 cup almond/soy/hemp milk
  • 1 tbs ground flax seed
  • 2 tbs natural/unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 5 oz. of spinach (This is MUCH more than you think! Roughly 3 huge fists full...)

I wasn't sure if the drink would be blue from the berries, brown from the cocoa, or green from the spinach... but as you can see for yourself in the photo below, it's pretty dark. It's also—DELICIOUS!!!!! Emir and I have had it for breakfast and a night time snack every day since. We ran out of blueberries this morning and substituted half the frozen fruit with strawberries. Also good. :) Can you believe there's 5 oz. of spinach in there? (We weighed it out on a scale... it's quite a bit more than I would've guessed.)

undefined If you're curious and want to get started with a healthier diet, here's the books I read (in the order I read them... which I think was helpful....)

  • Skinny Bitch - Pretty extreme, great if you need a pretty stern kick in the pants  to kick your bad habits :)
  • In Defense of Food - Fascinating exploration of food, culture, and putting our society in perspective
  • Eat to Live - A good review with some delicious recipes (like the chocolate smoothie above and the yummo cancer fighting soup)

All in all, I've had a ball in the kitchen while exploring healthier eating options. I've learned how to prepare leeks, oyster mushrooms, and have come to love tofu, dates, and even spinach for breakfast. :)