Green Machine

Finally, I successfully made a smoothie that turned out green! Usually, they turn out a beautiful brown color or purple-ish brown. Either way a very unattractive, dirt color. Yesterday, I finally figured it out! I kept the spinach and omitted the frozen strawberries. It actually turned out pretty good too! There’s always a moment of uncertainty when spinach is involved in a smoothie….but I have yet to taste the spinach flavor (the day I do it will be very disgusting I’m sure).  Here are the ingredients I used:

Big Bad Green Machine (rarrrr):

• Big handful of spinach
• 1 frozen banana
• scoop of chocolate Green SuperFood (could probably use chocolate protein powder too. Or nothing?)
• spoon full of peanut butter
• dash of raw rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chocolate unsweetened soy milk
• dash of water

I just blended that baby up and out came a beautiful green smoothie!

So, maybe it’s not as vibrant as you expected. I sort of talked it up a lot. It’s a good start though! It’s much greener than my past smoothies involving spinach I can promise you that.

In other news, I’m debating whether or not I should try this “7 day Vegan challenge” that was apparently seen on Oprah (we don’t have cable so I haven’t seen it). I think the idea is sort of interesting. I’ve eaten vegan food before and never found it appalling, it’s just a lifestyle I’m not passionate enough about to take on. I think trying the “diet” for a week would be a challenge. I’d be interested to see what foods I could and couldn’t eat and how I could stay away from the processed vegan/vegetarian foods.

I’ve had my share of those before and to be honest, I found that those made me feel extremely bloated (I know, sexy) and just uncomfortable. I like the idea of eating whole foods like vegetables, beans, etc. not the foods made in a lab. But, I’m also not a vegan. It does seem like a strict enough diet already, maybe those processed foods are a necessary part of their diet.

Another thing I think a lot of people assume about being vegan is that it’s an expensive lifestyle. Honestly, I’d be curious to see how many people living on welfare are vegan (probably close to none). So, clearly I also believe it’s a more expensive lifestyle. But, I don’t think you have to shop at Whole Foods if you’re vegan (I’m pretty sure that’s not a law). I heard that’s where the Oprah staff shopped when they were on the challenge (Oprah’s a badass so she can shop wherever she wants). Whole Foods is a great place to find what you need, but I would think there would be plenty of options out there in any grocery chain. That’s another part of the challenge I’m curious about: the cost.

My best friend (who is vegan) is coming here in about a week and a half. I’m thinking maybe I’ll start the challenge when she’s here so we can cook some vegan goodies together and she can teach me more about the lifestyle. Again, this is all out of curiosity, I’m not planning on converting (although anything is possible). I guess it could happen that one weekend I’m hunting wild boar and the next I’m vegan. We’ll see.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s all about life’s experiences. The more you can experience and learn, the better.

Are any of you out there trying the 7 day vegan challenge? If so, how’s it going?

I’m off for a 12 miler today! Luckily, Miss Gaga came out with a new song today to pump me up!