My Favouritie Green Smoothie

I posted this recipe when I first started this blog, so you may have seen it before. I think it is such a great, tasty recipe for when you are first starting to drink green smoothies so I thought I would post it again for those that missed it:) 

The combination of all of the fruit with the added coconut water (fresh or bottled it doesn't matter) just makes it so palatable with the greens for the beginner smoothie drinker :) Hubby & I often have this exact smoothie. It is our go to smoothie when we need a good pick me up.

When I first started making green smoothies I used Kimberly Snyders recipe which you can find here. She has lots of other great clean eating vegan recipes which you will find on her blog.

The Glorious Green Smoothie

1 cup of coconut water (preferably from fresh young coconut, or bottled is fine if you can't find it)

1 cup kale (leaves only, no stalks - makes it bitter)

1 cup baby spinach

1 apple 

1 banana

1 cup strawberries

1 stalk celery

juice of half a lemon

Mix coconut water with greens first until very smooth, I turn my blender slowly up to full speed, then slowly add the cut up pieces of hard fruit until they are all smooth, then last add the banana, strawberries and juice of half a lemon. Blend all until very smooth, I keep it on for a minute or so to make sure. The more blended it is - the easier the nutrients can enter your system! I make a batch big enough to last a few days so I am not having to do it every day.

You can keep it in the fridge for a couple of days or you can freeze a big batch and defrost it the night before.

Enjoy!

Bee x

How to Open a Young Coconut in 3 Easy Steps

I had a little giggle the other day when I was with some girlfriends who confessed they have no idea how to open a coconut, so they just don't bother (or they get their hubby's to do it for them). 

So this blog post is dedicated to them. Helping to get the ladies to open their own coconuts ;)

Firstly, you need a young drinking coconut. You can buy these everywhere now.  Big supermarkets such as coles, woollies, aldi or Asian grocers will usually always stock them. When I am buying coconuts I always look for really white ones with no cracks. The older they get the bottom becomes cracked and slightly yellowy/brown... you don't want these ones. They taste old.

Ok so lets get coconut opening... You will need a half decent knife that you are prepared to say good bye to for using for any proper chopping up again as it will get blunt. Very blunt.

1. Put your coconut on a firm bench, put your left hand behind your back (or right hand if you are left handed! Yes this may seem extreme but I'm sure you would find it preferable not chopping off any of your fingers during this process) and gently mark out four or five lines on the coconut around the top

2. With your left hand behind your back, slowly hit the knife hard into those lines. Keep going around with quite a lot of pressure over the lines. 



3. Some coconuts are more stubborn than others so once you have gone around the coconut, stabbing it (in the nicest possible way) and it still doesn't open, I find it helpful to put the bottom edge of the knife into one of the openings and wedge it under hitting it through the outer shell, then you can wedge up the knife and it lifts up quite easily.

It may seem daunting the first time you open your coconut (ahhh, first world problems) but you will be a pro in no time!

Good luck!

Bee xx

RECIPE | Antioxidant Power Smoothie!

This smoothie is one of my favourites! So tasty! Great for summer coming up too! You can freeze this to make iceblocks too which the kids will love!

Ingredients:
1 cup coconut water
Half cup frozen organic blueberries
Half cup frozen organic strawberries
1 teaspoon maca powder
1 banana

Blend all ingredients together and top with Goji berries!

Enjoy

Bee xx

RECIPE | My Favourite Green Smoothie

There is so much talk about green smoothies these days, and for good reason.. They are so good! They are a great way to boost your energy levels first thing in the morning (after a warm lemon water of course), they are jam packed full of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals such as iron, magnesium, vitamins C, E, K folate and so on and so forth.. These smoothies are just fab! When I started drinking them years ago my husband turned his nose up at 'the gross green sludge' (his words) that I was drinking.. now he loves them so much he asks me to make extra for him!

I used to have quite a heavy breakfast such as toast or cereal, now while I still have these things occasionally I prefer to drink the green smoothie because of how energetic I feel afterwards!

There are many recipes, and you really don't need to follow one exactly but as long as you are packing in the greens and mixing up some fruit you should be good to go! 

I have made many different types with all different kinds of greens and fruit such as kale, spinach, swiss chard, cucumber, apple, pear, mango, banana, celery, strawberries, raspberries, any berries! You get the idea.. but my absolute favourite is listed below! If you are new to green smoothies this might be good one for you to try because the flavour of the coconut water really disguises the 'green' taste!

Bee's Glorious Green Smoothie

1 cup of coconut water (preferably from fresh young coconut, or bottled is fine if you can't find it)

1 cup kale (leaves only, no stalks - makes it bitter)

1 cup baby spinach

1 apple 

1 banana

1 cup strawberries

1 stalk celery

juice of half a lemon

Mix coconut water with greens first until very smooth, I turn my blender slowly up to full speed, then slowly add the cut up pieces of hard fruit until they are all smooth, then last add the banana, strawberries and juice of half a lemon. Blend all until very smooth, I keep it on for a minute or so to make sure. The more blended it is - the easier the nutrients can enter your system! I make a batch big enough to last a few days so I am not having to do it every day.

Enjoy!

And don't forget if you are using a fresh coconut to scoop out the delicious soft fleshy goodness inside! Some reasons for eating a young coconut are for the antioxidants, the good fats that we need to eat, magnesium, potassium, manganese just to name a few! Oh.. and it is delicious!