Papaya

Isn't she beautiful? This is some serious fruit porn, right here.  I love tropical/exotic fruits and I buy them up whenever I can get my hands on them.

I'm still on that juicing/green smoothie/any smoothie bandwagon and am not getting off anytime soon.  I've come to see that with some fruits, it is significantly cheaper to buy them fresh, cut them up and freeze them myself instead of buying pre-packaged frozen fruit.  This is true, especially when trying to stick to organic fruits/veggies.

So I bought this papaya the other day, and I just thought I would share with you guys one of my favorite smoothie recipes.  This one is not a green smoothie.  By the way, it is AOK to drink healthy smoothies even without the green stuff sometimes.  I eat a lot of veggies regularly with meals, and I still juice and drink them as well.  So I feel like it's still beneficial to have straight fruit smoothies sometimes, as long as they're packed with protein and fiber!

Papaya+Peach+Plum Protein Smoothie:

1 cup of almond milk
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
1/2 cup of fresh or frozen papaya
1/2 cup of fresh or frozen peaches
1 small red plum
1/4 cup of rolled oats
one small squirt of Agave nectar
Ice (if you didn't use any frozen fruit)

Blend all of these items together and top with chia seeds for extra fiber and protein.  Enjoy!

Green cubes.

I'm sure you're wondering what is that I am holding.  Well, my dear friends, that is a spinach cube!  Let me explain. I came across this article "11 Secrets to Properly Freezing Produce" and one of the tips jumped out to me.  Basically, if for example, you're running out of space in your fridge's produce crisper or you have some leafy green veggies (i.e. spinach, kale, etc.) that you may anticipate losing freshness and getting wilt-y before you have the chance to use them in your green smoothies--turn them into green cubes!

All you need to do is put your greens in your blender with enough water to make a puree and blend. 

Then pour those liquified greens into an ice cube tray and freeze.

Once frozen, transfer the cubes into a freezer bag, and you now have these lovely green cubes to throw into your blender with your fruit and other stuff that you use to make your green smoothies!  These cubes last MONTHS in the freezer with minimal loss to their nutritional value.  So, thank me later!

*NikG*

Still At it

For those of you who may be wondering.  Yep, I'm still juicing.  I'm still making green (and not so green) smoothies, as well.  This is a pic of juice I made this morning.   It consisted of one apple, two carrots, and a beet.  Healthy stuff.

Oh, and my super affordable Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juice Extractor is STILL getting the job done very well.  It's even cheaper now than when I bought it a year ago.  Can't beat that!