Green Smoothie

Green Smoothie

I have been having green smoothies for a while now. Green smoothies are a great way to get a nutrient hit as your nutrients are tightly packed into one cup. They have become very popular and are featured on may blogs and FB pages. So I thought I would share my version. This is more of a guide than a recipe.

You can have these at any time of the day. I like to have mine for breakfast, to give me that energy and nutrient hit to start the day or as a afternoon boost. (The theory is by having the nutrients your body requires in the morning, you will experience less hunger as your body already has what it needs.)


Did you know - leafy greens are one of the most nutritious foods you can eat. Putting greens in your smoothie is super easy and it doesn’t taste bad!

Savvy Nourish snapshot
Greens are high in calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorous, zinc and vitamins A, C, E and K. They are crammed with fiber, folic acid, chlorophyll and many other micronutrients and phytochemicals. I recommend buying organic greens whenever possible, but also remember that eating non-organic greens is better than not eating any greens at all!

Some of the benefits of eating dark leafy greens:

• Blood purification
• Cancer prevention
• Improved circulation
• Strengthened immune system
• Promotion of healthy intestinal flora
• Promotion of subtle, light and flexible energy
• Lifted spirit and elimination of depression
• Improved liver, gall bladder and kidney function
• Cleared congestion, especially in lungs by reducing mucus

Here it is ......to make one serve

2 giant handfuls of spinach or kale or silver beet
1 banana
1 teaspoon barley powder or similar
1 whole lemon (skin cut off) - the lemon counters the taste of the greens
1 whole apple (cut in half and remove stalk)
1 tablespoon of chai seeds

Optional
1/2 cup of frozen berries
any fruit in season
pineapple
1 tablespoon coconut oil (I add this most of the time)
any fruit in season

blend to oblivion.

drink - to your health!

Savvy tips

# Start with a small handful of greens and increase as you become  more accustom to them.  If you are wanting to introduce these to your kids diet or in my case kids and hubby I recommend starting slowly with the greens.

# Adding frozen berries or pineapple is another great way to start the kids off.

# Use frozen fruit, buy when on special and in season - I often freeze bananas.  Just make sure your bananas are ripe and that you peel them before freezing. I like to break them in half and put them in freezer bags or a plastic (BPA free) container before placing in the freezer.

Choc Banana Smoothie

We had a couple of extra kids over after school today, I decided to whip up one of my favourite smoothies (I use this recipe when I feel like a chocolate fix but are wanting to be healthy, yes healthy food can be yummy to)

It got the thumbs up from them, they loved it.


Combine ...

1/2 cup of milk 
1 banana
1 1/2 teaspoons of dutch cocoa powder
1 tablespoon of chai seeds
2 dates (to sweeten) 
around 1/2 cup of ice. 

Blend until smooth! 

If you don't want to use Dutch cocoa powder simply use some raw cacao powder (to be extra healthy, you will find cacao powder at your local Organic Store). 

These quantities are for one serving. 

Treena x



Savvy Health Snapshot: Why use Cacao powder?  

High in antioxants (one of the richest sources), high in fibre and a rich source of magnesium, Vitiamin C and iron.

Blueberry Muffins - a savvy makeover

Food should taste great, this is something I'm not willing to compromise on. 

Obviously what I think is delicious you might not. These muffins are HIGH in FIBRE and SUGAR FREE! I'm not usually a fan of trying to make baking "Healthy" as often I find you end up loosing the deliciousness of it. I'd rather have the full fat, full sugar, full flavour version than a taste-less and rubber imitation. You can find some fantastic adapted recipes that still taste good but use real ingredients. These are a good healthy muffin alternative that still tastes great and 'cos its adaptable you make them to your personal tastes. We love them with blueberries! 

Here's some simple adaptions ...

Apple and Cinnamon
Banana Chocolate Chip
Raspberry and White Chocolate
Feijoa 

We'd love to hear your adaptions!

P.S Don't be fooled these lil muffins will fill you up!

Blueberry Muffins

Prep 10mins / Makes 18 - 24 mini muffins

These muffins are a great addition to lunches boxes for little ones and big ones. Morning/Afternoon Tea or after school snack. Full of fibre they are light but fill you up. No white flour! No sugar!

1 egg
1/4 cup Oil (I used olive, coconut oil would be nice too.)
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup coconut
1/4 cup unsweetened greek yoghurt
Blueberries

Whisk egg, oil and honey to combine. Stir in wholemeal flour, coconut, oats and yoghurt.
I make this in a mini muffin tin greased lightly with oil, fill each case 3/4 full with mix. Push a Blueberry into the middle of each one.  Occasionally we add choc chips too.
Fan bake at 165 for 10mins

Savvy Tips ...

# Make these "dairy free" by changing out the yoghurt for almond milk.

# Change the Blueberries for other fruits.

# Try adding nuts, seeds and dried fruit - this could be a great breakfast muffin!

# Freeze them for a quick healthy treat in yours or the kids lunchbox!


Happy "Healthy" Baking!

Trish and Treena x

Have you liked our facebook page yet?  www.facebook.com/savvyathome

2 Simple and Quick Homemade Dips

Roasted Pumpkin Hummus

Prep: 5-10mins / Makes 500g / Cost $2.60

1 can of chickpeas 

2-3 lemons juiced

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp cumin 

salt and pepper

2 gloves of garlic (we use roasted)

1 1/2 cups of Roasted Pumpkin (we had some pre-frozen)

Blend in the food processer, blender or Thermomix. 
Taste and season with salt and pepper to your liking.

Replace pumpkin with Roasted Kumara or use a combination.

You can use the base recipe to make any version of store brought hummus or just keep it plain.

- Reserve some chickpeas and mash roughly and pop on top with homemade roasted tomato sauce. Delicious!
- Add roasted beetroot, its a delicious twist. 

Savvy Tip # Roast a whole pumpkin in the oven - its easy to peel, chop then freeze. We use it in this hummus, soups, stews, pasta dishes etc.

Savvy Tip # In place of canned chickpeas you can used dried - Cover in water, soak over night and rinse. This will also reduce the cost. 

Serve with homemade lavash, vegetable sticks. Great to spread in wraps, sandwiches or as a condiment with salads.

Simple Basil Pesto
Prep time:5 Min Makes: 230g approx

2 packed cups basil leaves
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
Good-quality olive oil
¼ cup grated parmesan
½ tsp salt
ground black pepper¼ cup roasted nuts - we used cashews

Purée all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth. Or pound with a mortar and pestle, adding oil once the mixture forms a fine paste.

Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or freeze in a small container.
Savvy Tip #
Hi Trish! Love this page!  I love Basil Pesto but because of the whole 'nut' factor I never had it til recently when I made it myself and used sunflower seeds that I roasted in the oven until lightly golden....soooo yummy! one of my favourite things now lol 

Savvy Tip #  




Nigel makes it lightly toasted pumpkin seeds also. Plus we don't always have parmesan so that's optional too. I love changing recipes around based on what we have on hand 

Savvy Tip # 
add in a good squeeze of lemon or lime juice for a bit of ZING!

Savvy Tip #
Reserve some of the nuts and pulse to blend at the end to make a chunky pesto!

Easy fruit sorbet

Piña Colada Sorbet
1/2 tin of coconut cream or milk to approx 2 cups of frozen pineapple. You can adjust the quantities to your taste.

Try with other fruits. I'm keen to try it with lime or mango and even lycée would be quite exotic.

It's a great dairy free / sugar free option.