Looking for a fresh healthy start to the day in among the fabulous gluttony and excess of the festive period? Then give this thirsty Thursday simple green smoothie a shot. Or indeed have a shot at this super simple green smoothie. Or in fact have a shot OF this fresh no nonsense green smoothie. However you do it, here is the list of ingredients included in this one; including a money saving, time saving, labour saving, no nonsense cheat!
Start the day staring down the barrel of a smoothie straw into this blend:
INGREDIENTS:
Cucumber (1/3rd)
Fresh, raw baby spinach leaves (generous handful)
Frozen mango chunks (handful)
The fresh juice of half a lemon
JUICE – apple, red pepper, sweet potato
Water (approx 240mls / medium glass)
METHOD:
For the Juice:
Puree (or juice if you have a juicer) 3-4 large (red) apples, 1-2 medium red or orange pepper and 1 medium sweet potato (skin off). Add the juice of half a lemon to keep this fresh. As long as stored in an airtight container and refrigerated this will last up to 3 days but in all honesty there wont be much of it.
SO you could;
Buy apple, pepper and sweet potato juice ready made (I got mine in Tesco) *Just take note as we mentioned before if buying pre-made juices and smoothies, make sure you double check the ingredients list and the nutrition label for anything else added that may not agree with you, or for added/extra sugar or anything you cant pronounce!* This one has apple puree, and the traffic light system label does show its higher in sugar than anything else, but these will be mainly fruit sugars from the apple and apple puree so not to worry too much.
For the green smoothie:
Chop the cucumber into blender
Add the frozen mango chunks
Add the spinach
Squeeze over the lemon juice
Pour over the apple, red pepper and sweet potato juice
Add the 240mls of water or enough to cover and to get the smoothie to your desired consistency
BLEND (adding more water as you go if needed)
You could also pop a carrot or 2 in the juice, or chop and add to the blender smoothie mix. You could add some raw ginger for an extra kick. You could pop some lettuce in there too – crisp round iceberg lettuce keeps it nice and fresh! Also have a mix up of the apple, pepper, sweet potato portions to balance the flavour to your liking.
Nutrition Information:
Why are we sharing the recipe?
- It was a super simple tasty wake up
- You can make the juice separately and keep that itself for about 3 days to use in other blends
- Its super and simple and green and we might just need that fresh start at this time of year when we have finished everything else to excess….a good bit of fruit and veg can top vitamins and minerals up and keep fibre flowing to keep your gut working (even when overloaded with Xmas)
- VITAMIN A – can be found in all the main ingredients in this smoothie: especially sweet potato, red pepper and mango. In fact if you’re looking for plant based sources of vitamin A (these come in the form of beta-carotene that is converted in the body to vitamin A and used for the following) look for fruits and veggies that are red or orange or even yellow in colour. Red bell peppers are bursting with it and 1 sweet potato (including the skin thats not used in this recipe) can give you up to 438% of your daily allowance compared a regular white potato only providing 1%.
- Vitamin A and C (which is also found in most this smoothies ingredients) will help keep your immune system working against infection, keep your skin nice and clear and healthy and most importantly at this time of year vitamin A can help keep the lining of some body parts clear and healthy too – especially the nose. Good to know for cold and flu season right?
- People can be prescribed vitamin A topically or internally for conditions such as acne, wrinkles or dry eye so before you suffer any of those, top up on the vitamin A super boosting smoothie!
For more info, recipes and smoothie cheats check out the weekly digest HERE
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