What better way to test drive my brand new Vitamix 750 blender than with a 30 day smoothie challenge!
30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge
I have downloaded the “30 day green smoothie challenge” by young and raw on my Iphone. So far this is a great app. It includes a shopping list, which will only add the first 5 days of smoothie ingredients to your shopping list. You can however manually add the next 5 days as well.
Freeze your Smoothie Challenge
I don’t go to the shop a lot; it’s 65km away and really, I prefer to stay home. Never been much of a shopper (except for online shopping, that’s a passion!), so getting smoothie supplies for at least 10 days was a must for me. I added the 10 days of smoothies to the apps shopping list and it spat out a nice list.
Give them a Bath
I have just been to the shop to get all my beautiful veggies and fruits. First stop for them is a salt bath!
Sometimes, in the supermarket when I buy my salt in bulk, people approach me and tell me that too much salt is not good for your health. You know the type; so helpful its annoying. Not to worry. My salt is not for food (although I do like to add salt to my food), but the salt I buy in bulk is to wash my veggies when they arrive at my house.
It is been proven that salt is one of the most efficient ways of removing chemicals and pesticides from your veggies and fruit. You don’t need to spend money on fruit and vegetables washes to have an efficient way of washing your fruit and vegetables.
Why Freeze the Challenge?
I am going to freeze my supplies for the first 10 days of the challenge. Not only because I like my ingredients frozen in a smoothie so it becomes like a milkshake, but also because I don’t go to the supermarket that often. I tend to go to the grocery store maybe once every 2 to 3 weeks. So, for me buying veggies in bulk (which often saves a lot of money as well), is the way to go. I will prepare all my smoothies for the first 10 days of the smoothie challenge today and put them in the freezer. This will save me time in the morning and makes it super easy to stick to the challenge.
Off we go!
So let’s see what I have. I have:
- baby spinach and mixed salad leaves in the fridge
- I have three different types of mixed berries in the freezer; blueberries blackberries and strawberries.
- Outside of the fridge and freezer at the moment, waiting for a wash, is a giant bunch of celery, a leak, bok choy, corn, lemons, limes, tomatoes, apples, cucumbers, kiwifruit, ginger, pears, a bunch of continental parsley, a bunch of coriander, two nectarines, and a whole lot of mushrooms which I don’t think are for the smoothie challenge. Mushroom smoothies; could be something?
- In the fruit bowl I also have bananas, two grapefruits, and two bunches of oranges I picked up at the fruit store down the road the other day.
About the Salt Bath
Most of the veggies go straight into the salt bath without fuss. I like to take the stickers off the apples and lemons and things like that. I take the husk of the corn. And I haven’t soaked the salary yet. It will go by itself since it’s huge.
I’m going to leave them for a while to soak. Sometimes they are soaking for up to a couple of hours, but I prefer just giving them maybe half an hour or so. I do not put Kiwi fruits, garlic or mushrooms in the salt bath. I might change my mind about the garlic in the future, considering a recent Vitamix demonstration I saw, where they add garlic WITH skin straight into the blender.
I like to give them a little stir every now and then. Because I like to get my hands on them, but also because I feel like it gives them more of a wash.
To be continued!
