I do have a few things in my cooking repertoire that the whole family will eat. Like smoothies. Okay, drink. Well, not Ella, except for occasionally. Depends on her mood. It's about as close as I'm going to get to a family meal, so I'm going with it.
Recently I went to a juicing party at this amazing place called Miss Lily's. It's a hip restaurant on Houston St. in the village offering many things, including Jamaican food, a bake shop and great coffee. But I was there to learn about juicing by the juice legend, Melvin Major Jr. He's entertaining. He's fun. He knows how to make a good juice. He made a spicy beet juice with ginger and cayenne and I drank so much I spent the entire afternoon peeing. Sorry, TMI. And I don't even like beet juice.
He also showed us how to make smoothies. I learned a thing or two about my Vitamix. Like I've been using it all wrong. Before Melvin, I threw in all my ingredients, blasted it up to high for a minute, and, well, that was it. Wrong, said Melvin. You're cooking your smoothie. Uh, that's kind of gross. Seven. Turn it to level Seven. He drew out the word Seven, sort of like in Spinal Tap when they turned the volume up to Eleven. I should stop, I'm showing my age.
I went home, played around with ingredients, found something for the whole family. Here's what I came up with. All credit to Melvin for showing me the way.
Ingredients
4 apples, juiced
1/2 - 1 inch cube of fresh ginger (we love ginger, so I go for the inch)
1/4 - 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup blueberries (I use frozen)
few handfuls of kale (I loosely fill the blender)
1 banana
scoop of protein powder (optional)
makes about 18 oz, so adjust accordingly.
I juice the apples ahead of time, like the night before. Our mornings are crazy enough without adding a whole juice project to it. Or I juice a bag of apples and use them during the week. Even if we don't make smoothies, the girls love fresh apple juice.
Peel the banana and toss it into the blender.
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| I love my Vitamix, no need to slice the banana. |
Take a nice bunch of kale, wash it, and stuff that in.
Peel the ginger (or just cut away the skin), slice it, and throw it in.
Pour in the protein powder if you're using it.
Throw in the blueberries. I use frozen. It's so easy, they're always in the freezer when I need them and they keep the smoothie cold.
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| My mouth is watering. Hello, gorgeous! |
Squeeze the lemon half over everything.
Pour in the fresh delicious sweet apple juice.
Blend. If you're using a Vitamix, blend on Seven. Are you stretching out the word Seven? For about 45 seconds to a minute. Or until everything is completely blended.
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| See that beautiful color? Don't get used to it. |
Okay, so the color is not the pretty pink you get when you use strawberries or raspberries with peaches and mangos. Which sounds really good. Another time. But trust me, this is so delicious you'll soon go color blind to it.
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| Drink up. Your body and taste buds will thank you. |
You could even throw in some grapes (a Melvin inspiration) if you want more sweetness. Just a thought.
