Omega Green Smoothie Recipe + Benefits of Spirulina
Don’t have any spirulina? No worries, you can make this smoothie without it, and it tastes like a bright orange delight.
NOTES: that is ginger powder, but you could also grate in fresh ginger if you have it.
Lives these days are sprinting by in a breath of change, and getting nutritious food in the system can be difficult: but it’s no less essential.
If you’re still in the refined sugar rut, maybe try substituting a smoothie where you’d usually reach for some other refined delight. (<—I was a pure Hobbit for Snickers, donuts, and whatever-baked-good-I’d-made-on-hand.)
We’ve all fallen into the trap of reaching for garbage-junk when we’re at our most frazzled, and that refined/fatty/over-processed crap will acutely bring home the feeling of “You are what you eat”. I know well that cycle because I lived in that pit for years, and I can’t imagine having that same ol’ exhausted/HANGRY feeling while also navigating this tempestuous 2020. (I’m over here recovering from surgery, starting a business, working on imperative environmental activism every-single-dang-day, and doing remote kindergarten (<—where for the bulk of his full-day I am understandably both bureaucratic guide and teacher’s aid…then lunch lady :-D) so I need all the energy I can get! :-D)
If you’re having a week like us and you want something quick, delicious, and energizing: give this a try!
Smoothies are packed with fiber and are a healthy “whole-food”: you’re also delivering vitamins, minerals, and protein. When done thoughtfully, smoothies are a win-win all around: nutritious, environmentally kind, compassionate, and you’ll be filled up without launching yourself into a sugar crash. For energy and robust health (<— ie really ANY DAY, but maybe especially during these wild times?), fiber and phytonutrients are what you want in your system, and smoothies have those in spades.
Continue for our: Omega Green Smoothie (or Orange, Mango, Ginger Smoothie if you won’t have/don’t want to get the spirulina); benefits of the algae for getting omegas, protein, vitamins, minerals (and making stuff look like Ecto Cooler); remote kindergarten 2020; 3 days of plant-based whole-food low-waste big-love living.
Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.
Add it all the a blender, add more or less ginger per flavor preference. Season per taste. Blend. :-)
Enjoy!
If you don’t have spirulina, you can keep it out and you’ll get this delicious orange concoction. :-)
Spirulina is a blue-green algae that is usually consumed either in powder form or as a supplement. It is full of long-chain Omegas, the same you’d be wanting to get from the fish that got it from this algae. If you’ve had nori on sushi, it tastes like a lighter version of that and can be completely masked when mixed with citrus and other fruits.
The best part? You’re not needlessly killing an animal that is only giving you disease and perpetuating our environmental collapse. Sound hyperbolic? Fish are full of mercury and PCBs, all the microplastics you can imagine, and if they are farm-raised you’re getting antibiotics to boot. They are even high in cholesterol and TMAO! (<— tied to the #1 cause of death in America <—And all of that is just what fish are doing to your body, the environmental consequences are as staggering as they are heartbreaking.)
But you do need omega fatty acids because they:
It’s easy breezy with spirulina. This nutrient-dense food is where the fish are getting their own Omegas, and it is packed with vitamins A, C, E and B's; as well as a whole host of minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc and selenium. It’s even been tied to reducing symptoms in folks with allergic rhinitis!
This algae is also an excellent vegan source of iron, providing 2mg per tablespoon (7g) which is about 23% of the Nutrient Reference Value (NRV) for men over 18 years and women over 50 years, and 13% of the NRV for women aged 19-49 years old.
Spirulina is also high in protein, with just 1 tbsp = 4g of protein.
Where to find this glorious food offering? You can get it in most grocery stores where ever the supplements are, lots of places online, and we get ours from Blue Mountain Organics.
Give your microbiome (<—which again plays into your whole dang health) a beneficial diversity boost and get some spirulina into your life. It’s super good for you and it makes everything look like Hi-C Ecto Cooler. :-)
Plant-Based Whole-Food Breakfast (black bean brownie sandwich with cashew cream and peanut butter) with grapes.
Lifestyle Medicine Essentials: keeping active and keeping connected. These two love doing recreation together.
Making sauce together <3
Plant-Based Whole-Food Family Feasting: Curried Zucchini and Summer Squash Bisque with greens, easy avocado, kalamata olives, and sweet potato flatbread from Crystal.
Plant-Based Whole-Food Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal, peanut butter, berry sauce, and banana.
Plant-Based Whole-Food Lunch: black rice with roasted eggplant and green beans, golden balasamic tomatoes, and easy avocado.
Remote Learning has been a whirl. Full days for him, full days for me. He’s been good throughout but is BURNT out by the end of the day.
He was asked to draw his favorite part of the weekend, and he drew “Me and grandma watching the Dune trailer.”
It’s the first time he’s tried to do the perspective of the room and I was impressed for his serious little 5yr old soul. <3
They’d been sitting at the table watching it on the computer, so this is kind of the view he was going for: but doing so from memory!
Plant-Based Whole-Food Lunch: black bean pasta with Ian’s pesto, homemade heirloom marinara, and balsamic tomatoes.
9.15 Was Ian’s birthday. Never one to draw a fuss toward himself that isn’t even mentioned in this incredibly thoughtful note he left Q. (Ian often leaves for work before Q is awake and if they doesn’t cross paths, Ian leaves him a note and Q answers back with a drawing. For this, Q drew “Papa riding the biggest shai-hulud of them all!”)
Working on his Papa’s birthday drawing
The benefits of remote learning: you can work outside while Mama and her business partner discuss opening details….downside/real-side, I was giving directions every few breaths and we eventually cut that meeting short.
What it looks like to start work on Taco/Tostada Tuesday.
Plant-Based Whole-Food Taco/Tostada Tuesday: refried black beans, queso, ten-minute tomatillo, balsamic tomatoes, diced swiss chard,
Plant-Based Whole-Food Dessert: black bean brownie with cashew cream and peanut butter
Yoga <3
Outdoor time with the romanesco that are as tall as Quillan
Crystal gifted us some fig cake and it was AMAZING.
Greeting the Birthday Bear.
This is a household of homemade cards, and it was good for the heart to see Q finally at the age where he is making cards by himself and getting to show them off with the pride of knowing it’s entirely your creation.
Humorously (and unplanned) though, our cards had similar themes and even shared the same moon!
What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️
Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕
Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥
Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎
Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️
What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health, Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.
We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️
Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️
If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕
We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖
