Smoothie-licious – yummy juices & smoothie recipes for your DIY detox

Juicing is awesome. It is a brilliant way to get loads of nutrients into your body without consuming a massive mountain of fruit & veggies. In our kitchen on Tuesday, I took a pic of the amount of fruit & veg that goes into a 3 day cleanse. Holy nutrients Batman! That doesn’t even include the ingredients for our smoothies.

As well as bursting with nutrients, fresh juices also contain antioxidant vitamins, natural antibiotics, anti-inflammatory properties and enzymes to improve the quality of your digestion. Good stuff.

A couple of things to remember about juicing:

1.    Drink your juices straight away. If you are using a home juicer or buying your juices from a juice bar, make sure you drink them straight away. We use special slow, cold press juicers that retain nutrients for way longer, but if you’re using a commercial or home juicer, they tend to oxidate (you know how apple juice starts to turn brown after a few minutes) rather quickly, so you should drink them immediately after juicing.
2.    Use high quality ingredients. You want the freshest and most lovely ingredients to go into your juices.
3.    Experiment and innovate. I’m always making new juices and smoothies, depending on what’s in season (and what’s in my fridge) at the time. Throw whatever takes your fancy in.

As promised, here are some de-lovely smoothie & juice recipes.

Apple, mint & lime juice
3-4 Granny Smith apples
2 sprigs of mint
¼ lime

Wash all ingredients. Core and quarter the apples. Roughly chop the peel off the lime. Juice. Drink. Yum.

Carrot, apple and celery juice
3 carrots
2 Granny Smith apples
2 celery stalks

Wash all ingredients. Core and quarter the apples. Cut the bottom ends of the carrot and celery and chop into pieces that will fit through your juicer. Juice. Drink. Yum.

Blueberry, spinach and apple juice
1 cup blueberries
Small handful baby spinach
3 Granny Smith apples

Wash all ingredients. Core and quarter the apples. Juice. Drink. Yum.

A word about smoothies
Smoothies are pretty awesome too. That's why we've added some to our cleanses. They are very easy to digest - your digestive system is best able to absorb nutrients from 1mm size pieces of food. That's why juices and smoothies are so good - they make all the nutrients readily available and easy to absorb. Green smoothies are particularly good. The late Dr Ann Wigmore (a pioneer in the healthy eating and living movement) spoke of an instant surge of energy and brain focus with her first green smoothie. That's how I feel when I drink my morning smoothie - bursting with energy and enthusiasm.  

Strawberry mango smoothie
1 cup frozen mango cheeks
1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
1 cup rice milk

Combine all ingredients and blend. So yum.

Blueberry kale smoothie
1 cup frozen blueberries
4 kale leaves (or small handful spinach)
½ cup of water
1 banana

Wash kale leaves. Peel banana (duh). Combine all ingredients and blend.

Green smoothie
Small handful baby spinach
1 celery stalk
1 banana
1 pear
1 apple
½ cup water

For extra protein and essential fatty acids, you can add a tablespoon of linseeds (also known as flax seeds) or chia seeds to any of the smoothies. If you use chia seeds, soak them in ¼ cup of water first until they form a gel like substance and then add them to the blender.

You can also add superfood powders or liquids to your smoothies. I love Vital Greens (it almost has a chocolatey taste), spirulina and acai berry powder. We use these in the Urban Remedy smoothies and they add an extra burst of goodness and nutrients.

Next week I’ll talk more about cravings and how to satisfy them with healthy options. I’ll also upload a DIY detox yoga sequence as well as some other ideas, hints and tips.

Happy DIY detoxing.

So...
What’s your plan to make the most of your DIY detox?
Do you have any juice or smoothie recipes you want to share?

Emma x