Green Smoothie

Absolutely delicious and filled with goodness

There are hundreds of variations of the green smoothie but this is my favourite recipe.

Feel free to change it up and swap any ingredients you like - it's just important to use leafy greens like spinach or kale, with liquid like water or almond milk, and then any fruit of your choice.

Banana is probably essential since it makes it thick and smooth when blended.

Tip: Boost your smoothie by adding linseed mix, chia seeds, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, protein powder or whatever you wish!

I add Juice Plus complete vanilla powder to mine which makes it sweeter so perhaps add a little honey if it doesn't taste sweet enough for you.

Ice cubes are also essential - I find that the colder the smoothie, the better it tastes!

Makes 1 large smoothie

- 1 large handful of fresh spinach leaves

- 1 cup of cold water

- 1 small-medium banana, sliced

- 1 large handful of green grapes

- 1 large handful of chopped pineapple (fresh or tinned)

- 1 scoop of Juice Plus complete powder (or protein powder) - optional

- Ice cubes

1. Start by blending together the spinach and water until  smooth - it should just turn into green water!

2. Next, add all of the fruit (banana, grapes and pineapple) and powder (if using), and blend until completely smooth.

3. Place some ice cubes at the bottom of a large glass, then pour in the smoothie.

Enjoy :)

Summer smoothies

It's been such a lovely sunny, hot day here today even though it's September now, woo, so these cold smoothies were perfect for today. I have also had a really bad cold these last few days (surprise surprise) so although I haven't had much of an appetite, I've been trying to eat as healthy as possible. I really wanted to make the pineapple and spinach smoothie that I've posted on here about before because it has lots of yummy and nutritious ingredients in, and in the end I made two different smoothies. The purple (and more attractive) one is exactly the same as the pineapple and spinach one, just without the spinach! They are both really delicious, I had the spinach one with my lunch and am going to have the sweeter one after dinner later!

You can find the recipe for the smoothie here - it is low fat natural yogurt, frozen berries, fresh pineapple, fresh spinach leaves and some water.
This time I added a little more of everything (particularly yogurt) so it made two drinks rather than just one. I also added some fresh blueberries as well as the frozen berries. Add everything but the spinach into the blender then pour half of it into a glass.

Add the spinach to the remaining smoothie in the blender, continue to blend, then pour that one into a glass too!

Enjoy :)

Summer salad

Yay, summer has finally hit England! It probably won't last for long but the heat and the sun lured me into making a refreshing salad for lunch yesterday. Thinking back I wish I had put fruit in it after my post about the salads in Ibiza, but oh well it was still delicious and very filling while still being healthy/nutritious. You don't have to put egg in it if you don't like egg, or any of the ingredients for that matter, swap something you don't like for something you do like - salads are amazing like that! I haven't put quantities for everything because you can put as much or as little as you like :)

- lettuce, torn (I used little gem)
- cucumber, cut into chunks
- tomatoes, quartered
- 1/4 of an avocado, cut into chunks
- new potatoes (already cooked), quartered
- 1 egg, hard boiled, quartered
- salad cream

Simply put everything together in a bowl! You can make your own dressing or try different ones with this salad but you can't beat a bit of Heinz salad cream - it goes with every ingredient! Hope I have inspired you to make some interesting salads this summer


Enjoy :)