Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Mmmmm... muddy puddle sludge...

Okay, I am officially addicted to so-called “Green Monster” smoothies (so-named because the addition of spinach or other greens gives these smoothies a lovely earthy hue :)). We’ve had a few “smoothie dinners” this past week, and I had just enough fruit and almond milk left for one more smoothie, so I had one for lunch today. Actually, today’s concoction resembled something akin to muddy puddle sludge, thanks to the handful of blueberries I added.

But I swear, these things taste GOOD! For today’s smoothie, I used a cup of almond milk, about half a tablespoon each of almond butter and flax powder, a tablespoon or so of nonfat plain Greek yogurt, a cup of raw spinach, half a frozen banana, half a cup of frozen pineapple, and a handful of frozen blueberries. YUM!!

I’m also totally addicted to Greek yogurt right now. I’ve never been a huge yogurt fan – not only do I not like the texture of some yogurts, but a lot of them are full of added sugar. And I don’t know how they make Greek yogurt – I guess they strain out all the liquid or something like that – but the end product is so good. I get the plain, fat-free variety, and I’d swear it was made with whole milk. Or at least two percent. And all it needs is a little honey and a spoonful of granola or fresh fruit, and it’s a hundred times better than Yoplait… (well, I think it is, anyway… :))

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned yet that we’ll be going on a Mediterranean cruise in August… so if I haven’t – we’re going on a Mediterranean cruise in August! My parents, Rick’s parents, my aunt and a good friend are all coming with us. And we’re especially excited because we coerced our very good friends Nick and Cindy into traveling with us, too – they have four kids, so it’s not exactly easy to drop everything and run off to Europe, even with several months’ notice. But they managed to work it out… they’ll be leaving the kids at a kennel or something, with big bowls of food and water (right? That’s what you do with kids, right?). Kidding! Just kidding! :)

Anyway… so we’re hoping that our “getting into shape” strategy will pay off enough that we won’t feel guilty about eating with reckless abandon once we get to our cruise ship. Well, okay, maybe not “reckless” abandon. Maybe just controlled abandon. Slightly irresponsible but not too crazy abandon. I mean, there WILL definitely be SOME sort of abandonment… but we’ll be sure to work out in the fitness center, too…

And now I’m off to add to the 5,493 steps on my pedometer…

5 comments:

Aunt Carol said...

I've been eating strange looking smoothies for quite some time now. They always turn out brownish/purplish/greenish - nothing much to look at, but soooo good! I usually put collard greens in mine too - good source of calcium. Think we can get those on the cruise?

Lisa said...

You never know... maybe they'll have a smoothie bar next to the pool... :) Yeah, so far I've only used a couple handfuls of spinach per smoothie, but now that I know you really CAN add all those greens and still make a smoothie that tastes really good, I might start experimenting with other leafy veggies... :)

G. B. Miller said...

Nice.

Although I won't comment on the strangeness of food you choose to consume in mass quantities, I will say that going on a cruise is definitely the ultimate getaway.

Well worth the aggravation in actually getting to do it.

Lisa said...

Yes, cruises are awesome, aren't they? It's a great way to see several different cities or countries without having to check in and out of various hotels. And the service is usually great! We haven't been on one in about four years, so I'm very much looking forward to this one! :)

And I promise, even though those smoothies look strange, they TASTE really good. :)

Jannie Funster said...

I should get a pedometer! I had a cheap one last year but the cat lost it.