Vegetable Smoothie Vitamin Bomb

 

Pure Vegetable Smoothie Vitamin Bomb

Serves 2 glasses

Ingredients:

1. A handful of spinach
2. A handful of kale
3. 1-2 carrots chopped
4. 1 inch of ginger diced
5. 1/2 cup fresh skimmed milk or water

Directions:

Add all ingredients into a power blender and blend.

Additional Information:

This is a vitamin bomb. It actually tastes good on its own, at least to me. After drinking, you will feel very good. It's like your body is thanking you :-) 

It is very simple. You only need 2 - 3 main ingredients: spinach, kale and carrots. Adding any others (cabbage, beetroots, tomatoes, raspberiies, blueberries, etc.) are just bonus adding to variety and depending on what are available in your pantry.

J likes to add a banana to sweeten it, while I drink it without any sweetener.

I love my Magimix power blender. It has been with us for many years and is still working as well as ever. Worth every penny :-)

You can get Magimix from Magasin Departmental Store. They have discounts on Magimix power blender on a regular basis.

Try it :-)

References:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/best-vegetables-to-juice#TOC_TITLE_HDR_12

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/health/2019/06/06/nutrients-in-spinach-kale/

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/kale-vs-spinach

https://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition-pictures/best-salad-greens-for-your-health.aspx

Today's Vitamin Bomb contains spinach, kale, carrots, ginger, raspberries, fresh milk (and banana for J)

Vitamin Bomb is ready :-)

Bottoms up :-)

Easy Homemade Raspberry Jam

Ingredients:

1. A handful of frozen or fresh raspberries approx. 100 - 125 g

2. 1/2 tsp of chia seeds

3. 1 - 3 TBS honey to sweeten as desired

Directions:

1. Add berries and chia seeds and cook under medium heat until soften approx. 10 minutes.

2. Add honey to sweeten and mix well.

3. Let cool and serve or store in jam jar

Additional Information:

I have made no-cook jam for my family (https://www.familyfecs.com/2019/01/easy-all-natural-no-cook-strawberry.html), but they still prefer the cooked ones. So I make this.

I use chia seeds to thicken the jam, as it is very nutritious - rich in calcium and dietary fiber. But if you don't like the taste of dietary fiber, you can grind the chia seeds into powder or simply substitute it with 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch dissolved in a bit of water to thicken the jam instead.

This keeps for 3 - 5 days. I normally make it on the day of consumption, as I like it fresh, usually during the weekend. Thus, I only make a very small portion, just enough for the day's consumption. While it is cooking on the stove, I prepare breakfast. Thus, it is quite labor free. When it is ready, breakfast is also done.

I sometimes use strawberries as well. But raspberries are much quicker to cook, so if I want it fast, I just use raspberries. Sometimes I use black currants too.

My kids love this and so does Daddy FECS.

Mixed Berries Spinach Smoothie

Serves 2

Ingredients:
1. 1 cup (205 ml) fresh skimmed milk
2. 1/3 cup low fat natural yogurt
3. 1 tsp flax seeds ground
4. 1 cup spinach leaves
5. 1 large ripe banana
6. 1 cup mixed frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, blackcurrant, redcurrants and raspberries)

Directions:
Add all ingredients in the order listed above into a blender and blend until smooth.

Additional Information:
This smoothie is high in anti-oxidants from the berries. Blackcurrants and redcurrants have the highest vitamins among berries, at least according to my research.

Personal Journal:
The kids like it and Daddy FECS likes it too. So I will continue to make this.

References:
http://www.alaskafromscratch.com/2013/05/29/blueberry-spinach-smoothie/?utm_content=buffer76b54&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&fbclid=IwAR2dIFAGELjo38-h5AJAvSblkgrFXz9N22nitS35seB1cUs4eL_ukrF_4Yk

Easy & All Natural No-Cook Strawberry & Raspberry Jam with Chia Seeds

Recipe from Pick Up Limes

Preparation: 25 mins

Ingredients:
1. 1 cup frozen strawberries
2. 1 cup frozen raspberries
3. 2 TBS chia seeds
4. 1 TBS orange juice
5. 3 TBS honey (optional)

Directions:
1. Rinse and drain the berries.
2. Mash it with a fork, leaving some chunks behind.
3. Add chia seeds, juice and mix well.
4. Transfer into a jam jar and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes until the chia seeds absorb the juice of the berries and become jelly-like, or overnight and ready for breakfast next morning :-)

Additional Information:
Chia seeds is used to thicken the jam. I rinsed the frozen berries with water, partly because Daddy FECS are paranoid about the cleanliness of frozen berries, and partly because it is a quick way to thaw the berries. Otherwise, you can thaw it in microwave oven or wait longer for it to thaw naturally. In this way, I can mash it a fork immediately. I added 1.5 chopped dried dates (since I had some left-over). I also compromised and added 1 TBS honey to serve the sweet tooth within us - Baby FECS*. While waiting for the berries juice to work on the chia seeds, I prepared the lunch boxes. Thereafter, I included a small portion of the jam in the lunch box.

It's amazing it tastes just like jam, especially if you sweeten it like store-bought jam (although we didn't do that, of course :-)), except that there is no cooking on stove involved.

It says it can store for 5 days in the fridge... I haven't tried that it, as it is normally eaten by then.

This recipe fills a full jam jar. But if you cannot finish within 5 days, make half a portion instead.

In this picture, I only made half a portion, as I didn't want to keep them for too long. Since it's so easy to make, I would rather make a fresh batch, when we need it.

* I intend to gradually reduce the amount of honey I am adding into this jam, but I thought I will ensure that Baby FECS develop a liking for my homemade jam first.

References:
https://www.pickuplimes.com/single-post/2017/04/06/Easy-Berry-Chia-Seed-Jam

 Frozen berries

Add 1 cup of frozen raspberries

Add 1 cup of frozen strawberries

Here are the frozen berries :-)

Rinse the berries under water to make sure that it is clean and it also helps to thaw it faster.

Add 2 TBS chia seeds

Mash it with a fork

I added some raspberries back for the chunks as I had forgotten and mashed up completely all the berries

Squeezing orange juice...

Add 1 TBS orange juice... and for the balance, Daddy FECS drank it :-)


I also added  dried date chopped for the crunch (optional)

Cover and leave it in the fridge for 30 mins until the chia seeds absorb the juice from the berries and become jelly-like or overnight.

Transfer to jam jar

Now it's done :-)

It can keep in the fridge for 5 days... according to Pick Up Limes

I saved a portion and placed it in the lunch box.

I spread it on rye bread.

Our Little FECS suggested to make a Danish flag out of it :-)

23 Jan 2019 (2Y8M7D): Our Baby FECS loves the rye-bread with homemade no-cook strawberry jam... she ate 4 pieces...

Updates 26 Jan 2019:

I made a full batch today:

Strawberry Popsicle

Makes 9 popsicles

Ingredients:

1. 2 apples sliced
2. 2 oranges sliced
3. A handful of strawberries
4. 1 tsp of sugar, honey or maple syrup (optional)

Directions:

1. Juice out the above fruits using a cold-pressed juicer (we use Hurom fine filter setting for juice)
2. Pour into Popsicle mold.
3. Freeze in freezer overnight or until it turn into ice.

Additional Information:

It was J's idea to freeze orange juice with ice-cube mold. Then I built on it - making Popsicles with fruit juice.

We didn't get to go to church today. The road was blocked for Marathon, and I could not drive out. So we made this today.

I have bought the LEGO popsicle mold from Legoland a few years ago, when J was still very very young and never got to use it, since I don't see a pressing need to introduce ice-cream to him. So this is the very first time it made its maiden's debut :-)

This is a very healthy way to eat ice-cream - no artificial favoring, all from real fruit using real strawberries and raspberries for favoring. You can sweeten it with sugar, but it is sweet enough for us.

It is another way of enjoying healthy and nutritious juicing :-)

We only have 3 popsicle molds, so we drank the rest of the fruit juice instead.

6 May 2016 (7Y2M1D): J wanted to make more fruit popsicle today. We made it in the morning and froze it ready for this evening.

6 May 2016 (7Y2M1D): Eating homemade popsicle with po po.