Thanksgiving is in a few days! Yay, it is such a fun holiday. We are going to Tennessee to see Donny’s sister, Cathy, and her family including her husband Jay and her kiddos Kyle, Elena, and Carly. I haven’t spent Thanksgiving somewhere other than Colorado in years….in fact, I cannot even tell you the last time I spent it out of state.
I also have had to work on Black Friday the last 8 or so years and this year I am taking the day off! Black Friday shopping here I come. Ok, no early morning shopping but we might see if there are any must-haves out there and we also talked about getting a pedicure on Friday! Cathy and Jay have a little nail salon not too far from where they live and they give the BEST pedicures.
Apparently my immune system does not understand that Thanksgiving is coming up because I have been having some sinus issues the last few days (boo…). Then this morning, I woke up with pink eye. Pink eye in, not one, but two eyes! Quite the overachiever, huh?! I don’t get sick very often but when I do it is generally sinus related and 1 out of every 3 sinus infections that I get lead to pink eye. As my friend Kelsey said, “you have had pink eye more times than most elementary students get in five years…” which is completely true. She also said that I must have a weak immune system when it comes to eye germs and maybe I should get a vaccine. Do they have pink-eye vaccines?!?! If they do, then I definitely need one. I’m guessing they do not. Sad day.
Moving on to more interesting things than my eye-infections….let’s talk about smoothies. Buying smoothies at certain places can have TONS of sugar in them and very little nutrients. Not all places are like this, but you do need to be cautious. Making smoothies at home is awesome because you are 100% in control of what you put in them. There are a million ways to make a smoothie and you can make a million flavor combinations as well. Smootie = quick, easy, delicious breakfast or snack.
One easy way to increase the nutrients in your smoothie is to add greens. I’m talking kale, spinach, swiss chard, etc. I tend to lean more towards spinach because it has a less bitter taste to me. Most the time you cannot even taste the greens, but just a heads up, they will make it change color. Sometimes kale and Swiss chard are bitter, so I avoid using those unless that is all I have.
Like many other fruits and vegetables, raw spinach is naturally low in fat and low in cholesterol. For very few calories, I’m talking a whopping 7 calories per cup, it has a ton of nutrients including niacin, zinc, iron, potassium, vitamins A, C, E & K, and calcium.
My favorite way to quickly add greens to a smoothie is to puree greens ahead of time and keep them in the freezer. It takes about 10-15 minutes to do this and makes a ton of servings of greens in perfect portion-controlled cubes. I bought a 16oz container of organic spinach at the store for $5.00…pretty good deal! Then I filled a blender with about half the spinach and increased the blade speed until it was up to liquefy. If the spinach doesn’t start liquefying immediately, then add water gradually (about 1 tbsp at a time) until it all starts moving.
Add handfuls of spinach to the blender until the entire container is purified. After that, pour the liquid into ice cube trays and pop them into the freezer. Done and done! After they are frozen I pop them out of the ice cube trays and put them in a Ziploc freezer bag.
I make smoothies at least twice a week, sometimes even more. This 16oz container of spinach, once it is pureed, lasts me a looonnnggg time. I usually use just one cube per smoothie. It helps thicken the smoothie and again adds a ton of nutrients for very few calories. That my friend, is a win-win.
What are your plans for Thanksgiving?
