How To Cook Healthy For Beginners: 6 easy smoothies and juices

Want to learn how to cook healthy? Healthista’s Vanessa Chalmers does. In her column this week, Vanessa recommends easy smoothies and juices from The Earth Diet

A healthy lifestyle is achievable for anyone. But there are tons of recipes out there that are difficult to grasp when you’ve just picked up a lettuce for the first time since before Christmas. I find the ‘new year new you’ a bit too full-on after party season, opting instead to ease myself back into healthy habits gradually. By the beginning of Spring, I feel much more into the swing of a healthy lifestyle.

By experimenting with my smoothies the past few weeks, I am finding myself full for hours – who would have thought?

At the moment I’m really into my breakfast smoothies. I prefer a sweet taste in the morning, but nutritionists such as May Simpkin say sugary cereals are a no-no, and toast would never keep me full past 10am. However, by experimenting with my smoothies the past few weeks, I am finding myself full for hours – who would have thought? Certainly not me, an avid porridge praiser (topped with honey, fruits, cinamon, you name it, whoops). My favourite smoothie at the moment is almond milk, half a banana, half an avocado, two strawberries, a handful of spinach, a teaspoon of flaxseed and vanilla protein powder. Or the Berry Blast in our 30 Day Smoothie Challenge, created by nutrionist Rick Hay, never gets boring!

This week I thought I would share some simple smoothie recipes from Liana Werner-Gray’s The Earth Diet: Your Complete Guide to Living Using Earth’s Natural Ingredients. At first this book sounds, may I dare say, a little hippy. But actually, it is bursting with over 100 recipes, both for vegans and meat-eaters, using natural foods, all that i actually recognise the name of.

MORE: Healthista 30 Day Smoothie Challenge

This book was written by Liana Werner-Gray after a change in her diet and lifestyle healed her life-threatening heart complaint in just three months. She shares her knowledge of how foods high in the good stuff and low in refined, processed and GMO foods, and foods that contain chemical additives. Her guidelines are really simple to follow, and strip your diet back to what the earth naturally provides for us.

If getting your 10 a day (fruit and vegetables) in seems like a ridiculous notion, or you don’t know where to start with joining the green smoothie clan, give one of these incredibly easy drinks a whizz

MORE: How to get your 10-a-day without REALLY noticing

Fat Blaster Juice

Did you know that grapefruit contains 88–95 per cent limonene, a powerful agent for blasting fat and cellulite away?

Ingredients

2 oranges, peeled

1 grapefruit, peeled

1 lemon with rind

Method

1. Put all the ingredients in the juicer.
2. Juice and drink.

Tips

1. To feel even closer to nature, for this one you can squeeze the fruit by hand, discarding the rind. If you hand squeeze the lemon but still want to include the rind, you can use a vegetable peeler and scrape off some rind into the juice, then stir.

2. Add more oranges if you would like it sweeter.

Variation

Add a dash of cayenne pepper for a Hot Fat Blaster.

MORE: 3 smoothies for weight loss

Apple Cucumber Ginger Juice

This is a juice for cleansing and supporting the gall bladder. It’s just 203 calories.

Ingredients

2 large green apples

1 large cucumber

1-inch piece ginger

Method

1. Put all the ingredients in the juicer.
2. Juice and drink.

Tips

Add 1 lemon with rind for a vitamin C boost.

Strawberry Shake

Ingredients

1 cup Almond Milk or Seed Milk (recipes for these are in the book, or they can be bought in the supermarket).

1/2 cup strawberries

3 seedless dates

1/2 cup ice

Method

1. Put all ingredients in the blender.
2. Mix until well combined.

Tips:

1. Instead of dates use 2–3 tablespoons maple syrup (or raw honey).
2. Add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract or ¼ teaspoon of salt for enhanced flavor.
3. Freeze the strawberries to make a thicker, cooler shake.
4. Make the shake a smoothie by adding another 1/2 cup of strawberries and 1/2 cup ice.

Variation

Add 1–2 bananas for a Strawberry-Banana Smoothie.

MORE: 60 second smoothie for weight loss – Day 23 Watermelon Wonder

Chocolate Shake

Ingredients

1 cup Almond Milk or Seed Milk (recipes for these are in the book, or they can be bought in the supermarket).

2 teaspoons cacao powder

4 seedless dates

1/2 cup ice

Method

1. Put all ingredients in the blender.
2. Mix until well combined.

Tips

1. Instead of dates use 2 teaspoons maple syrup (or raw honey).
2. Add 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract.
3. Add 1/8 teaspoon salt, for enhanced flavor.
4. Add 1–2 bananas or 2 cups crushed ice, to transform your shake into a smoothie.

Paradise Smoothie

Ingredients

1 papaya, peeled and cut in chunks

1 pineapple, peeled and cut in chunks

9 passion fruits

Method

1. Peel and cut the pineapple and papaya into pieces and add to blender.
2. Scoop out the insides of the passion fruit and add to blender.
3. Blend on high speed until the mixture reaches a smooth consistency.

Tip

Add 1 cup of ice to the blender, if you want a cold smoothie.

Variations

1. Add 1 mango for Mango Paradise Smoothie.
2. Add 1 lemon for Lemon Paradise Smoothie.
3. Add 1 tablespoon coconut oil and 2 tablespoons coconut flakes for Coconut Paradise Smoothie.

MORE: 60 second smoothies – best smoothie for energy – Day 25 creamy coconut

Green Smoothie

A great way to get your greens into one good-tasting drink!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup Almond Milk (recipes for these are in the book, or they can be bought in the supermarket) or water

2 cups kale

2 bananas

Method

1. Put all ingredients in the blender.
2. Blend until the mixture reaches

a smooth consistency.

Tips

1. If you want it smoother, add more water.
2. Add 1 avocado, peeled.
3. Add a handful of spinach.
4. Add a handful of cilantro.
5. Add 1 cucumber.
6. Add 3 seedless dates (or 1 tablespoon of raw honey or maple syrup).
7. Add 1 tablespoon spirulina, for extra protein and vitamins.

Variation

Freeze this smoothie for 2 hours for Green Smoothie Ice Cream.

Buy The Earth Diet: Your Complete Guide to Living Using Earth’s Natural Ingredients, £13.48

What’s your favourite smoothie? Tag us in your next Instagram post @HealthistaTV

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