I swear to you, breakfast has never tasted so good! This smoothie was the first thing I had, aside from water & tea, in the last 5 days. So here’s a little recap of what went down with my fasting experiment so far, and of course, the green smoothie recipe too. :)
Friday I spent all day cooking with my first Primal/Paleo student! We discussed the differences between the SAD (Standard American Diet) and The Primal Blueprint, went shopping for ingredients and came back and cooked together some Primal dishes. I can’t explain how much fun I had and believe it or not cooking (and not trying or eating) the dishes wasn’t all that hard, since I’d been doing it for a few days already – cooking meals for Jeff and not eating them. But I’ll have more info on the Primal/Paleo consult soon enough.
When I came home we decided to go out for dinner with our friends Olin & Ruxi. We spent a good amount of time again catching up since it’d been a while, and talking Paleo/Primal cooking together was great! I really think it’s awesome how many people are embracing this way of life, and how many of my friends are starting to see its benefits.
The most difficult part of the night was that I went in anticipating the food would totally tempt me, because obviously I wouldn’t be eating. The rolls of sushi came to the table and I really REALLY wanted some but after the food arrived and the conversation kept rolling on, I was more comfortable with the situation and was fine with having the food there and not eating it.
So many times I have felt eating is more of a social and emotional event rather than satisfying the fact that I’m actually hungry, and that’s another reason I wanted to experiment with fasting long term, to find out when I really am hungry and what that feels like. It’s happened so many times before, you go out with friends and order food, even when you’re not hungry, because that’s just what you do. This was the first time I had not ordered a thing and stayed strong all the way through the meal, and not caved because everyone else was eating, so why not get something?
Saturday was quite a test, let me tell you. I had planned to shoot at the Mirror Mirror movie event with 373 Girl Scouts (adults & girls) at 8am Saturday morning so I was expecting the smell of popcorn to make me crazy, but it really didn’t. I had no problems saying no when I was offered my free ticket for a bag of popcorn and side drink. The real test was later that night!
At night we went to hang out with our friends Rafal & Magda and we had a crepe cooking competition between me & Rafal. Rafal’s recipe used flour, eggs and milk and my Primal recipe used coconut flour, egg whites, coconut milk, and melted butter. We made a bunch of different Polish & Primal version crepes. I think we can say Rafal is the king of the sweet crepes and I am queen of the savory ones…seeing as he had never made savory crepes before :) and OMG, THIS was the real test! Again, I had no problems cooking and even watching Rafal, Magda & Jeff eat the crepes we made but when we moved the party from the kitchen to the living room and hung out for a while the sweet smell from the crepes had of course moved throughout the house and OMG that sweet smell in the air almost made me cave! But I did good and didn’t try any, and I even took some home to freeze for when I am ready to try some.
Sunday morning I woke up feeling quite weak and decided it was about time to get some nutrients. Especially after a night of dreaming about food (including chocolate chip ice cream) and waking up disappointed in myself for caving but realized it was a dream so I took that as a sign that I should eat something. I went to the kitchen and made this Banana-Pear Green Smoothie and I can’t say it enough how much this tasted absolutely amazing and food has never tasted so good to me in my life.
Banana-Pear Green Smoothie
Ingredients
- 2 bananas
- 2 ripe organic pears -> Pears are one of those fruits you should definitely go organic when purchasing because the soft skin is susceptible to absorbing any and all pesticides used on the crops.
- 1-2 cups organic baby spinach
- 1 persian cucumber
- 1/4-1/2 cup egg whites
- 4-5 ice cubes
Directions Makes 2 servings
- Peal and add the bananas to the bottom of the blender.
- Slice the pear into 3-4 large pieces, cutting away from the core & seeds in the center.
- Wash and chop off the ends of the cucumber and add in 2-3 chunks to the blender.
- Wash and add spinach to the top.
- Blend on pulse to chop everything and if you have a large enough blender add the ice before you begin, but if yours is filled like mine was blend until smooth and then add the ice.
- Blend everything to the consistency of your choice. We like our smoothies with a little bit of texture, meaning I don’t like them to be so smooth that they become juice.
- Pour in a glass (or drink from the blender ;)…yes it’s that good) and serve.
- Enjoy! :)
To make this recipe Vegetarian and Vegan remove the egg whites.
If you try out this smoothie recipe, be sure to let me know if you felt the same? Wasn’t it absolutely amazing?! And of course feel free to pass this recipe along using the share buttons at the top. :)
Thanks for the recipe. I really like the cool design of your blog! I tried adding greens to my smoothie once, and it tasted so gross, all I could taste was the spinach so haven’t tried it again with a fruit smoothie. And I LOVE fresh veggie juices too with lots of greens, so maybe I just need to try your tried and true recipe. I am curious why you use raw egg whites instead of the whole egg or just the egg yolk which contains all the nutrients? I’ve heard that egg whites are the part that is best not to eat raw due to some anti-nutrients that are neutralized when cooking the white…just curious what your reasoning is for discarding the best part of the egg! Here is an article explaining more about why the white is not recommended raw (info you are probably already aware of): http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/are-raw-egg-whites-healthy/
Thanks!
Hey Amanda! Thanks for the link about the egg whites. I typically use whole eggs and never throw away scraps (unless they’ve gone bad). :) Typically when I head to the kitchen I use whatever I’ve got available to create a meal and when I created this recipe I just happen to have a 16oz container of organic egg whites left that I had used for a different recipe, so no eggs were harmed in the creation of this recipe hehe. You could always use coconut milk, almond milk, whole milk or water in it’s place, although you’ll get a slightly different flavor with each of those.
If you try this one out let me know how it goes! I’ve found that when I use spinach and romaine lettuce the “green” flavor is less present than when I use kale, swiss chard and any other dark leafy greens. I tend to use sweeter fruits and not so many veggies when I go the dark leafy green route.
Enjoy! :)