My favorite green smoothie

Happy new year! It feels like last year flew by, and it’s crazy to think that it’s 2019 already. I hope you all had a lovely, restful holiday season and are looking forward to the new year and the promises and hopes that come along with that.

2019 looks to be a big one for us. If you follow me on Instagram you would know that I’m pregnant! We are expecting our little one early next month, so lots of excited, nervous thoughts and feelings going on at the moment.

Having a child and becoming a mother was never one of those things that I 100% knew I wanted to do growing up. I think when I was younger, I just assumed I would grow up and get married and have two kids – likely all in my early 20s! – because thats just what happens when you’re an adult, right? But as I actually got older I had a lot of doubts stemming from a lot of different things, but my early 20s came and went and while I got two University degrees and spent two years living abroad during this time, I definitely didn’t ‘settle down’.

In late 2017, B and I spent 7 weeks travelling overseas – more on this in my next post! – and once we came back I thought it was time I needed to decide whether I wanted kids or not. It was a long process for me to decide whether I wanted to start trying – it plagued my thoughts constantly for months and lead to a lot of anxiety. I was worried that I would regret not trying if we didn’t, but was also so content with the life I had that I didn’t know if I wanted it to change the way it would if we had a child. Plus of course, all of the worries that come along with having a child and being a parent – I’m quite prone to over-thinking and have somewhat of an anxious disposition, and wasn’t quite sure (and still aren’t!) how I will go at parenting…

But – long story short! – we decided to try and here we are now a little over five weeks out from out due date.

I’ve been incredibly lucky so far in my pregnancy. I’ve had the usual symptoms – morning sickness, food aversions, and I also had terrible insomnia in my first trimester where I only got one full nights sleep the entire first 13 weeks! – but on the whole it’s been pretty smooth sailing and there haven’t been any major issues with me or the baby which has been a relief.

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My diet throughout my pregnancy has been very different to usual! I remember friends telling me that they went off vegetables during their pregnancies and ignorantly I thought, “maybe you went off veggies, but I love veggies, that would never happen to me!” But – surprise, surprise – it did. I completely went off veggies in my first trimester, and even now I will eat them but I definitely don’t crave them like I used to. And funnily enough, Im more likely to eat them if I haven’t cooked or prepared them myself!

One of the ways I have been getting in my veggies is with smoothies, especially now that the weather has heated up. This recipe is one that I’ve been using for a few years now, and it’s definitely my favorite way to have green smoothies. It’s thick, creamy, and delicious without being too high in sugar like some smoothies are which are packed with dates, loads of fruit and additional sugars.

I’ve found one of the keys to getting delicious flavour in your green smoothies is to freeze all of your veggies first. This creates a really creamy consistency and for some reason removes some of the ‘vegetable-y’ flavour. Adding a little raw cacao powder also helps to mask any ‘vegetable-y’ taste. If however you are used to drinking sweeter smoothies which contain more fruit, dates or sweeteners, you may need to sweeten this one initially. While the above help to reduce the vegetable flavour, it is still more of a vegetable smoothie than what it is a fruit smoothie. I find half a frozen banana (make sure they are really ripe when you freeze them!) and a little stevia is enough for me, but you may need to add the other half banana or even a date or two to get your required sweetness.

With regards to the veggies – I like to prepare them in bulk – chopping the broccoli into florets, slicing the zucchini, scooping out the avocado flesh and steaming the pumpkin, and then freezing them all. I usually place them on trays and then, once frozen, move to airtight containers. In the morning, all you need to do is throw all the ingredients in a blender and your smoothie is ready in under five minutes.