Recently, my best friend, Michelle, came and visited me is Rochester, NY. I love when she visits. Not only do I know that this visit will bring along a sore stomach from the amount of laughter that will be pouring out of my mouth, but she always is so good about getting me to eat healthy. Since I have moved here to NY, I have gained almost ten pounds, good lord....I have my boyfriend to blame! ;) Always going out to eat and drinking wine. It seems that I have been enjoying life maybe a little too much. So when I heard Michelle was coming to visit, I knew that she could whip me back into shape and get back into healthy eating. Michelle introduced me to this nutritional powder called Vega. Vega was created by Brendan Brazier who is a vegan, professional Ironman triathlete and a best selling health author on plant-based nutrition. Michelle incorporates Vega into her smoothies. Let me tell you, these smoothies are great...they are delicious...hits the spot after a hard, hot workout....and just to warn you...they are GREEN.
Ingredients: Obviously add more fruits for more servings...
1/2c-1cup Frozen pineapple
1-2 bananas
2 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves
1/5 package of silken tofu
Coconut Water
**optional: Vega One all-in-one nutritional shake or any nutritional powder of your liking
Directions:
Place all ingredients, except for coconut water in your blender. Now add the coconut water until it submerges 1/4 of all ingredients. (I like using coconut water instead of juices in my smoothie because of the low calorie, high electrolyte factor AND no artificial sugars!)Turn on the blender. If you find that the blender is having a hard time mixing the smoothie, turn off the blender and add more coconut water and/or stir the ingredients.
Lastly, enjoy!
TIPS:
1. if you find you're not going to eat all of the smoothie in one sitting, freeze the left overs and pull out of the freezer 30-60minutes before you would like to drink.
2. When storing tofu, place tofu in glass dish with cover submerged in FRESH water (filtered if you have it) and change the water everyday.
3. BUY ORGANIC. You are taking two steps forward with feeding your body fresh fruits in veggies in a smoothie....but you will be taking 10 steps back if you do not eat organic....do you really want all those pesticide chemicals swimming around in your body? No thank you!
4. You can buy the Vega One powder at Whole Foods or GNC. GNC has buy 1 get one 50% deals at times and if you sign up for the gold card ($20/yr) you get 20% off your purchase the first week of every month!
