My first Blendtec smoothie...

I picked up my new-to-me Blendtec yesterday, and I made my first green smoothie with it this morning.

1 c almond milk
2 c green spinach
1 c parsley
1 c pineapple
1 banana

2 scoops protein powder

Placed all in the Blendtec in *that* precise order, and the Blender jar looked pretty full to me.  Then pressed the smoothie button -- and boom, off to the races it went.  At first it didn't do much, but then it started working its magic.  40 seconds later, I had a wonderfully smooth smoothie!   I didn't get this result after 10 minutes of frustrated blending with the old Black and Decker, and FORGET about the Ninja.  I can totally see this shaving off a good portion of my morning routine.  Also, because it did a better job blending, the end result didn't have as much volume as the past smoothies I've logged here.

Taste notes: I do not really care for bananas as a base for smoothies, they seem to leave a chalky taste that I just do not get with my apple-based smoothies.  I can't really taste the pineapple, even though I tasted a pineapple chunk and it was plenty sweet.  Definitely am tasting the parsley though, which I love, though may be an acquired taste for some.

Paleo Meatballs, lunch

I made a few changes to this Meatball recipe from Paleo Pot for lunch today:

Finely grated zucchini, squeezed!
1 lb ground beef
1 egg
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground black pepper

Form into meatballs

4 c loose baby spinach
1/2 c sunflower seeds

Layer half in the bottom of the crockpot, the add layer of meatballs

1/2 jar marinara sauce

Cover in marinara sauce.

Layer remaining spinach and sunflower seeds, cook for 4 hours on slow cooker setting.  Nice to use my rice cooker for something else. Prepped this in the am, didn't take too long at all.

Taste notes: Tasty, but it is good to note that the meatball did not have a very meatball-y texture at all.  This is probably due to the fact that I may have not put enough binding agent into the meatball mixture.  The way the spinach melted into the meatballs gave a dolma type experience.  

Nutty Romaine

3 c romaine
2 tbsp almond butter
1 c almond milk
1 mango
6 oz blueberries
Stevia to taste

Mmm, nuttiest smoothie ever, might've overdone it with the almond butter, but it is still tasty.

Simplicity

I'm on my 7th day of having a green smoothie everyday, and I feel less bloated -- I must look less bloated too, as several people have commented on how I look... better. My tight jeans fit better, t-shirts a little looser, and I haven't done anything much other than drink a green smoothie every day.  I do walk my dog a mile everyday, but that hasn't changed from my pre-green-smoothie days... 

Today's green smoothie: 

2 c spinach (yes back to spinach)

1 banana

1/2 avocado 

1 c almond milk

2 tbsp protein powder 

Oh, and in blender news, my new Blendtec blender is at the UPS holding facility.  I'm returning the Ninja as soon as I can, and good riddance! 

Lazy day...

Feeling lazy today, so today's smoothie is brought to you by Choosing raw

$5 lunch

Gotta love the healthy lunch options at work. Grilled salmon, brussel sprouts and roasted broccoli.

Better than mio...

J3nn had a great post about using liquid vanilla/stevia in seltzer to create a great tasting, zero calorie soda!  And I agree... the resulting soda has a rich creaminess that reminds me of cream soda.  Also, NuNaturals did something to their stevia so there's hardly any aftertaste I can detect.