The Organic Climber – Vegetarian running, cycling, swimming, rock climbing and raw foods.

Lately I haven’t quite been feeling myself. My stomach has been a bit upset, and I haven’t had as much energy as I usually do. I know there is a strong connection to the fact that I have not been eating as much raw foods lately and I haven’t been running as much either. I believe the combination of the two has lead to poor digestion and lower energy levels.

So, knowing this I decided to forgo a cooked meal this particular evening and make another green smoothie. This made for a nearly 100% raw day. Since I knew I really needed some greens I loaded this one up with lots of green stuff. It wasn’t as sweet as the berry smoothies I make that usually just have greens powder, or the occasional hand full of spinach, but the apple and banana made it just sweet enough to enjoy and the ginger added a nice kick to it, thus the fire!

One of the main reasons I put ginger into this smoothie was for it’s medicinal properties. Ginger is known for aiding in digestion and helping circulate blood flow. It’s also a good warming food for those colder months when you are consuming raw foods, but today it was primarily to help with digestion. I also cut some up and brewed a tea from it as well that actually tasted surprisingly well, I didn’t even add sweetener to it as I usually do with my tea.

Ginger is actually classified as a stimulant, which makes sense, seeing as how it helps increase the circulation of blood flow. As I mentioned already it helps with digestion, but also helps combat constipation and colic. My stomach pains lately are somewhat odd, but consuming the ginger really did help. I will have to start keeping this stuff around more often, especially when I’m not consuming a high amount of raw foods.

The Recipe

• 1 large hand full of spinach
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1/2 frozen banana (optional but helps sweeten it a bit)
• 1/2 granny smith apple
• about 1/2 of a medium sized piece of ginger peeled and cut into slices for easier blending
• 1 cup of water
• 6-8 cubes of ice

Blend thoroughly and enjoy! This particular smoothie is much “greener” than what I usually make, but lately I haven’t been feeling as well and felt I needed more greens.

RAW Food, Smoothie Tuesday by OrganicClimber
apple, celery, ginger, granny smith, green smoothie, raw smoothie, smoothie, spinach
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It’s Smoothie Tuesday again! This time I bring you a creation I just invented last night, I call it the, “Granny Drink Your Greens Smoothie.” I made this one after getting back from a climbing workout at the gym. I was extremely hungry but didn’t have a lot to eat so I decided to make some nut butter to go with a sprouted grain tortilla. After I was done with that I had a nice base of nut butter left stuck in the blades at the bottom of the blender container. I will actually be posting that nut butter recipe latter this week.

So, since I was to lazy to scrape out the bottom of the container I decided to make a smoothie, this worked out really well since I needed a recipe for today’s blog. I had plenty of green things lying around, so I just started throwing stuff in. This one was very experimental. I personally was not extremely satisfied with the taste, but all three of my roommates loved it. But it’s definitely one I would make again.

The Recipe

• 1 stalk of celery
• 1  granny smith apple chopped (skin on)
• 2 bananas
• 1 small hand full of spinach
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp of coconut oil
• 4 tbsp of agave nectar
• 1 cup of almond milk
• 1/2 cup of water
• 4+ TBSP of almond butter

Add all ingredients into a blender (I use a Vita-Mix) and blend until smooth.

And for an added treat, I leave you with a photo I recently took while on a climbing trip in Arkansas. Funny thing about this photo was I used a rock as a tripod. I typically bring my tripod on trips with me, but this time opted to leave it at home and this was the one time I actually really wished I had it. I still really like the results of this photo though, especially how our neighbors campfire lit up the trees behind our tents. Enjoy!

Click on the photo for a larger view.

RAW Food, Smoothie Tuesday by OrganicClimber
agave nectar, almond milk, apple, banana, celery, coconut oil, granny smith, RAW, smoothie, spinach
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This smoothie was pretty much an accident, but a good one if you ask me. Sunday afternoon I was making some Kale Chips, and as I was tearing off the leaves I kept having small pieces that were to small to make chips out of, so I would just toss them in my blender which was right in front of me, after all was said and done I had a small hand full of kale greens in the bottom of my blender.

After that I decided to make my salad for the next day and had a fuji apple I sliced up to put in the salad, but an entire apple was going to be too much for the salad, so I tossed about a 1/2 – 3/4 of the apple into the blender as well. In addition to the apple I tossed in 1/2 an avocado as well. At this point I thought I had something pretty good going, so I continued adding ingredients to the blender. When all was said and done I had added 4 TBSP of honey, 2 bananas and a cup of almond milk.

The finished smoothie originally only had one banana but the taste of the kale was still very strong, so I added one more to smooth things out a bit, for those of you that like a strong “greens” taste to your smoothie you may consider not adding the extra banana, but even with two bananas the smoothie still had a bit of a “green” taste to it, but not overwhelmingly so. Just perfect in my book.

The final recipe:

• 1/2 – 3/4 of a fuji apple chopped

• 1/2 an avocado

• 2 bananas

• 1 small hand full of kale

• 4 TBSP of honey

• 1 cup of almond milk

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth

Nutritional Benefits: Kale is one of the most nutrient rich greens you can eat. It contains almost all of your daily requirement of vitamin C, it also provides loads of vitamin A and K, it is also high in fiber as well. Additionally kale contains phytonutrients, which help increase enzymes in the body that ward off harmful carcinogens. The plant is also rich in calcium, lutein (which helps improve eye sight) and iron.

I love discovering new smoothies on accident. I will likely be making this one a lot more since I don’t really care for the taste of kale by itself.
Even though the University of North Texas Mean Green lost Saturday night I still decided to name this smoothie after them; I think they will end up having a decent season.

Health & Fitness, RAW Food, Recipes, Smoothie Tuesday by OrganicClimber
almond milk, apple, avocado, banana, calcium, enzymes, green, kale, lutein, mean green, nutrition, RAW, smoothie, smothy, vitamin
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