Are we eating enough dark greens?
This is all the more surprising if you know that my son doesn’t like about half of the vegetables out there. But he loves spinach, kale and swiss chard (hidden in Kale Shake Recipe).
Every Sunday night I get out my equipment to make the power shakes:
A blender, steamer and thermoses for storing the shakes. It takes me about 15 minutes to do the whole thing.
By the way, I am not just making them for our son, I love them too. When I had newborn Willow, sometimes those power shakes were the only way that I was sure I was getting my vegetables.
People ask me how I make my “power shakes”. Here is how I make them.
This Kale Shake Recipe makes about five 8 oz glasses.
- A bunch of swiss chard (or kale or spinach).
- I steam this. (Sometimes I steam this one night when I have some time and then refrigerate it until I have time to make the whole shake. As far as I can tell, it can keep for 4 days like this). I like it steamed rather than raw. When the greens are raw, they get a “bitty” (if you know what I mean) and then my son asks- what are those green flakes in my power shake?
- Once steamed, I rip the leaves from the stalks of the swiss chard or kale. The spinach is fine as it is. I put all the delicious greens into a blender.
- Then I add 2 bananas
- Then I add 1 frozen package of berries (I buy Cascade Organic strawberries/blueberries combo or Trader Joes organic berries – but any will do)
- Then, 1 cut-up pineapple (I only use about 1/4 of the pineapple and the pineapple is totally not necessary but adds a tartness I like) .
- At this point you can add the water from the steamed kale to make the power shake less dense or you can add just plain water…..or my favorite: juice. The juice, of course, adds a lot of sugar to the shake though.
- Then I blend a little bit.
- Last, I add a couple capfuls of flaxseed oil (for Omega-3) and, if I remember it, wheat germ (for protein, Vitamin E, potassium and iron). I blend it all together and
- Then I pour the shake into a few thermoses so that they last for days, and everyone gets their own thermos. Any kind of stainless steel thermos seems to keep it fresh for days (even a stainless steel blender will do, which I keep the shakes in when I am lazy- but boy is that a pain to clean out after a few days!)
- Enjoy!