The Organic Climber – Blogging about climbing, RAW foods, vegetarianism, running and cycling.

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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One of my favorite raw foods is avocados, these creamy fruits are great as a snack with a bit of sea salt, in a salad, on a raw taco or a raw sandwich in this case. The thick creamy texture of this amazing fruit makes them ideal for sandwiches in my opinion.  Avocados are a staple food in my raw diet, along with nuts, they are one of my main sources of healthy fats. They are also a great source of calories. One medium sized avocado packs in 276 calories. I almost always have whole avocado in my salad every day.

Making this raw avocado sandwich is simple, and requires very little time to make. Although, not truly raw, for this recipe I use Ezekiel sprouted grain buns. Made from organically grown grains, these buns are cooked at low temperatures (higher than required to preserve enzymes) and are healthier than any of your typical store bough buns.

The Recipe

• 1 Ezekiel sprouted grain bun
• 1 roma tomato, cut into slices length wise
• 1 small avocado, cut into slices
• 1 slice of onion
• stone ground mustard

The Directions

Pile all the above ingredients onto your Ezekiel bun and spread the desired amount of stone ground mustard on the bun. Eat, and enjoy. If you want to make this meal 100% raw you can substitute the Ezekiel bread for a romaine lettuce leaf or any number of raw bread recipes.

As a side I had some of the flax seed crackers I made the other day. It was a nice filling meal.

RAW Food, Recipes by OrganicClimber
avocado, ezekiel, flax crackers, raw avocado sandwich, roma tomato, spinach, sprouted grain bread, stone ground mustard
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The other day I found myself making another batch of almond butter in the Vita-Mix. My tradition is to always make a smoothie immediately afterwards, because of all the nut butter that sticks to the bottom of the blades. There are usually at least two tablespoons worth, if not more. By making a smoothie I don’t have to waste the almond butter by washing it out. This is also where I tend to go crazy and get creative rather than making my standard mixed berry smoothie.

For this particular smoothie I decided to use some Flax Seed oil since I was experiencing some inflammation. The flax seed oil also ads a nice flavor in my opinion. Some people may not like it, but I think it’s awesome. It’s also great as a base in salad dressings as well. I was also lacking in greens today so I tossed in a hand full of spinach to start with. After browsing the frozen fruit in my freezer I decided to keep it simple and just toss in some mangoes and bananas. I also added some honey to sweeten things up a bit and give the smoothie some more thickens.

The flavor of this one was a bit more “green” than I thought it was going to be. Usually just one banana will overpower a fairly large amount of spinach. So, if you aren’t a huge fan of the “green” flavor you may want to add more banana or sweetener to offset the green taste. I typically don’t like smoothies that taste strongly green, but this one I did enjoy. Just as I did my Granny drink your greens smoothie.

The Recipe

• 2 TBSP of almond butter (cashew would work well too)
• 2 TBSP of honey
• 1-2 TBSP of flax seed oil (optional, but good)
• 1-2 frozen bananas
• 1/4 package of frozen mangoes (10oz package)
• 1 hand full of spinach

This smoothie provides a good source of calcium and protein, and is anti-inflammatory. A great post climb or run recovery drink. For additional protein add a couple table spoons of hemp seed protein.

RAW Food, Smoothie Tuesday by OrganicClimber
almond butter, flax seed oil, inflammation, RAW Food, smoothie, spinach
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This is one of my all-time favorite smoothie recipes. It was one that I made countless times when I first started eating raw foods. This simple green smoothie is brightly colored and is sweet and tasty to boot. All you need is spinach, bananas and water. It’s that simple! Alternatively you can use almond or hemp seed milk to add to the flavor and provide additional nutrients.

The Recipe

• 2 hand fulls of spinach
• 2 bananas
• 6 ice cubes (or omit if your bananas are frozen)
• 1 cup of water or your favorite “milk”
• 2 TBSP of hemp seed protein (totally optional)

Directions: Throw it all in a blender and WHIRRRRR

If you want to spice it up even more use a chocolate greens powder such as Amazing Grass, or just use cacao powder. One of my favorite things about this drink is how much it freaks people out when they say it. Their reaction is always, “eww, your going to drink that”. But I promise, what looks like it flowed right out of a nuclear waste dump is one of the most delicious smoothies you will ever taste.

RAW Food, Recipes, Smoothie Tuesday, Uncategorized by OrganicClimber
almond milk, banana, cacao, green, hemp seed, protein, RAW, smoothie, spinach
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I gave myself a big pat on the back after making this smoothie! Simply put, this one is amazing! I was hoping to incorporate a fruit I don’t normally use in my smoothies and just happened to have a couple of ripe nectariens lying around the kitchen. So, I looked around to see what else I had and ended up using some frozen strawberries I had just put in the freezer the day before, added a banana and then tossed in the nectarine and pure amazingness happened.

The Recipe

• About 8 oz of frozen strawberries (or one BIG hand full)
• 1 pitted nectarine (ripe is essential)
• 1 banana
• 1 cup of almond milk

Blend in high speed blender until smooth. Optionally, you can add greens to this as well. I actually ended up adding a huge hand-full of spinach after taking the picture and it didn’t affect the taste too much at all. This will definitely be a repeat smoothie for me. The nectarine really added some punch to what would normally be a mundane strawberry banana smoothie.

RAW Food, Smoothie Tuesday by OrganicClimber
almond milk, banana, nectarine, smoothie, smoothy, spinach, strawberries
1 comment

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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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