Week 4 – 2021

This is another post from the series “I tried something new this week”.

Lately I have been trying to minimise food waste as much as possible. In general, I try to minimise waste of any kind but throwing away food is something that I hardly tolerate. Yes, we have everything at our fingertips, from takeaway food to grocery deliveries. But it’s hard to find vegetables with a good shelf life.

During the lockdown I tried to organise my groceries by ordering deliveries for staples and go to the local market for fresh ingredients. This way I get to support the local market as well. And even when I organise the food well I still end up with a surplus of vegetables or fruits sometimes.

I found a really good way to prevent any fresh vegetables or fruits go to waste, I do smoothies. They make a great breakfast or afternoon snack and they keep well in the fridge for at least one day in a sealed jar.

I am going to share with you some of my ideas for smoothies. It’s all about trial and error and adjusting after your own taste. For example I like green smoothies, with a fresh, sometimes even a bit bitter taste.

Spinach Smoothie

This smoothie has a slightly bitter taste, but it’s very fresh and it keeps well in the fridge for about 2 days.

Ingredients

• spinach
• apple
• mint
• lemon juice
• cucumber
• banana
• pineapple
• milk/almond milk

Tips

I have a blender with 1 1/2 liters capacity and I made this smoothie with a lot of spinach, about 3 quarters of the blender cup. If you like a bit of bitterness in it, keep the stems as well.

I used green apples, again, because they are not so sweet. The apples and the cucumber have so much water in them that you don’t need a lot of milk, I added about 200 ml of it.

If you have any frozen banana you can add it as well, it blends perfectly with the rest of the ingredients.

Celery Smoothie

Celery is one of these vegetables that is sold for some reason in huge bunches. I love it in salads and as a snack but more often than not I have a few celery sticks left and starting to get soft.
I tried it in a smoothie and it went great! Here is what I used:

• celery sticks
• apple
• frozen pineapple
• frozen banana
• cucumber
• mint
• milk

Tips

The celery can leave a few strings in the smoothie. They didn’t bother me but you might want to use a strainer. Be aware that blended celery has an overpowering taste. I added quite a few mint leaves to balance that. The frozen fruits add a nice, slightly sweet taste to it and I used very little milk for this, around 200 ml.

I am really enjoying how much fruits and vegetables I am able to incorporate in my diet with those smoothies, I am going to keep on experimenting with different combinations!