Green smoothie recipes to lower cholesterol: The Antioxidant Wonder!
How are your green smoothie or health resolutions coming along? If your blender is still hot from your last smoothie – well done!!! If you’ve fallen off the horse, don’t worry, failure is to be expected and nothing to worry about. Just get your blender out and make yourself one of these bad boys!
I have been playing with green smoothie recipes this month, and am excited to share today’s heart healthy antioxidant wonder with you. I hope you will add this to your growing list of green smoothie recipes for optimal health, and reach for it often.
Main benefits of eating this
- Get your day’s worth of antioxidants and disease fighters all at once
- Heart healthy: you can read my primer on green smoothies, ORAC antioxidant values, and cholesterol reduction here.
- Total ORAC Score of this recipe: 22,477!!
(Note: You need 7000 ORAC units a day for basic health and 20000 ORAC units a day if you’re trying avoid degenerative diseases or seeking optimum health) - ORAC Breakdowns. Spinach- 5 oz of spinach in 2 cups: 3771. Apple – A medium-size apple weighs 154 gram or 5.5 ounces: 4444. Blueberries -1 cup is 150g: 7003. Almond butter – (2 Tbsp / 14 almonds): 688. Cinnamon (5g): 6571.
Green smoothie recipes to lower cholesterol: The Antioxidant Wonder!
Ingredients
- 2 cups spinach
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1
apple
coconut water or water to cover
Instructions
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Put spinach into the blender first, followed by all the other ingredients
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Blend for about 1 min until smooth and lumps are gone
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Drink!
Recipe Notes
If you're doing the
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I really love drinking this smoothie. The almond butter creaminess makes it taste so rich and satisfying. I tend to have 2 green smoothies a day, and like to shake up my recipes so that I eat a wide range of fruits and vegetables. I make sure to have this one at least once a week for it’s off the charts antioxidant power! I hope you enjoy it![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
In March I’m going to try substituting my morning coffee for a morning smoothie for 21 days. I’ll have to come back to this post for the recipe 🙂
Nice habit swap MK! I think you’ll enjoy it – I found the first 3 days without coffee were hard, but after that, I had a lot more energy.
Can I use frozen spinach
Hi Riki, yes frozen spinach is a good choice. When I add in frozen ingredients, I tend to leave out any added ice, as the smoothie will be cold enough from the frozen ingredients that you add.
Can I use kale instead of spinach?
Can kale be used?
Hi Marivel, kale is a good choice and I love the kale/blueberry/almond butter combination. It’s one of my favs!
Can I refrigerate the second portion for the next day?
Hi Nikki – personally I don’t love the taste of a refrigerated smoothie after a couple hours. Once the blender does its job, the food spoiling process begins quickly via oxygen exposure (oxidation). Your best bet to slow this down is refrigeration, airtight containers and freezing your extra bits, if you want to keep them until the next day. You could freeze a smoothie in small containers, and then stick it in the fridge the next day to warm up again. I find that it’s often easier to make another one, rather than go through the freezing/unfreezing process.
I am not much of a smoothie maker but looking for options to lower my cholesterol. Your recipe is very easy to follow but I am not sure how much ice to add to this, If I make it in the morning before work would it refrigerate well until lunch?