Sunday, April 18, 2010

Q & A

Already I've had a few really great questions and I figured here would be a great place to post those answers.

1. When is a good time to drink the smoothies? Do they replace my meal?

The best best best time to drink the smoothie is first thing in the morning, first thing in your belly. It is also best to drink it on its own. I do drink my smoothies with meals often, but there is always a chance that starches combined with the greens could cause gas. I would suggest giving yourself either a 1/2 hour before or after your smoothie when eating other foods. That way you can have it as a meal or a snack. As for replacing a meal, they can but it will be completely dependent on your body. You might be ravenous right after drinking a quart or more or you might ride the whole morning on 1 cup. Let your body be your guide.

2. I'm on a tight budget and don't want my fruit going to waste, any suggestions?

My recommendation to everyone whether you are on a tight budget or not is to take advantage of your freezer when your fruit starts to go. Just chop it up and pop it in. Yes, freezing the fruit does change the fruit somewhat but not nearly to the extent that a cooked food would. Just make sure that your greens are always fresh. Another suggestion is to blend it up with some water and freeze it in ice cube trays. Definitely also try buying your fruit on sale and definitely stick to your favourite fruits. There is no need to dabble into all sorts of recipes if they aren't going to tickle your taste buds. Finally, if you like bananas they are usually easy to buy more for less and when they start to go, just peel them and freeze them.

3. How do I cut a young coconut, mango or pineapple?

Check out these 3 videos that I found on youtube, that best illustrate the way that I cut them.







I hope that everyone has a great start to their first day! Suzanne

13 comments:

  1. I love youtube! Thanks for the tips... excited to start tomorrow!

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  2. I had such a busy weekend that I couldn't get to the store, but I started with what I had in the house this morning - some green leaf lettuce, bananas, a mango. It was delicious; a safe choice for someone who is new to smoothies. But I'll venture out for other greens tomorrow. And when our co-op farm gets going in May we have access to tons of greens - now I have a new, delicious way to use them up.

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  4. Hi! I'm completely new to this concept so bear with me. I'm wondering if I missed an email or something with specific instructions? When you measure out your 2c of spinach for example, is that 2c fresh leafy spinach or 2c after you've juiced it? and I gave my blender away but still have my juicer, so can I throw all these ingredients into my juicer? I assume it does the same thing...??

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  5. CTurtle - green smoothies is all blended. the importance of the smoothie and the effectiveness comes from the fiber in them. if you can borrow a blender that is awesome. the 2 cups of spinach is actually just plain leaves blended up inside the blender. let me know if you have more questions.

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  6. I'm excited! Gonna go whip up my first right now! I really appreciated your video on how to make a green smoothie!! I totally never knew a lot of what you mentioned in it! Looking forward to more facebook messages.

    :)Lisa

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  7. Hi Suzanne,
    I made this recipe today that you shared:
    1 Pink Lady Apple
    1 large d’Anjou Pear
    5 oz frozen Strawberries
    3 C of Kale
    1 – 2 C Water
    My entire family (kids too!)drank this one and we couldn't be more excited about this! Thank you for this inspiration and your dedication to all of us, this is an amazing lifestyle choice! I am thankful for your challenge : )

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  8. Dear Suzanne,

    we are on day 3.
    First day saw happy kids with
    1 mango
    2 stems of spinach
    1 kiwi
    1/2 apple
    water

    Yesterday saw happy faces with:
    red lettuce
    1 mango
    1 kiwi
    1 apple water

    Today saw nobody drinking than me. We had

    2 stems of spinach
    parsil
    yellow tasteless apple
    strawberries with leaves on

    Today was obviously not sweet enough. The parsil made the smoothie really scratchy and the strawberries added a strange texture and color.
    Will have to be careful with parsil, I guess.
    I though drank it all over the day......


    A question:
    celery: is this the hard stalk or only the leaves?
    In your video you said "only leaves which you can wrap around your hand". Does that mean to cut out the harder parts of lettuce leaves? Spinach? The stems, too? In? Out?

    Loved your video and love the whole idea.
    Thanks
    Gabriele

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  9. heh I'm back in... fooood processor, duh :P SO I'm one day behind everyone but enjoyed my smoothie this morning and shared with my diabetic roomie and my kids and landlady. SO my landlady and my roommate are doing this with me too.
    Not too bad!

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  10. I see in todays update it says the following about sprouts:

    Sprouts (never more than a handful, and only one to two times per week)
    -alfalfa
    -broccoli
    -buckwheat "lettuce" (sprouts)
    -clover
    -fenugreek
    -radish
    -sunflower

    Can you tell me why?
    Thanks

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  11. COLORS COLORS!! I have a question about the colors of the smoothies.
    Green they are supposed to be, and I understand changing the ingredients up will change the colors.
    Just for the fun of it, I would like to create some beautifully rich colors like the green in the Blog Photo beside Buddha, or I've seen some intense red colors that look divine. Every one of my smoothies so far has come out a lovely shade of.. brown.. ish..
    So for esthetics and a desire to put a vibrant smoothie into a pretty martini glass or something equally as girlie.. can anyone tell me some specific recipes for some pretty smoothies please???

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