TASTY, HEALTHY, AND SMOOTH!
The topic of this post is how to contend with purchased produce
that has reached its final hours in a way that is healthy, quick, and
inexpensive.
As someone undergoing the ravages of our bad economy, I have
learned that salvaging, processing, and freezing produce is one of the most
economical ways to eat. It is also my most recent discovery that blended drinks
provide the least expensive, healthiest, and tastiest alternative to wasting
food.
On the subject of health:
Books such as the Okinawa Program, and the China
Study, discuss the specifics of how eastern cultures, who indulge in low
calorie vegetarian diets (both through choice and the limitations of poverty),
have shown a delayed and reduced occurrence to the "affluent diseases of
the West,” as well as generously extended life-spans.
Other benefits to a low calorie high nutrient diet include a natural, slow, and steady weight
loss. Joel Fuhrman's Eat to Live diet program highly recommends the
health benefits of eating large amounts of hearty cruciferous vegetables like
kale, spinach, and Swiss chard; all of which are frequently sold at Quest and
easy to include in blended drinks, and which add extra nutrients/antioxidants
and roughage.
On the subject of cost:
For the past three months I have been using my blender,
freezer, and Quest card religiously to help maintain my healthy and humble diet.
So far I have purchased:
- 30 pounds of blood oranges ($9.00 at 30 cents a pound)
- 30 peeled and frozen bananas ($2.40 at 80 cents a 2.5 lb bag)
- 5 x 1 lb bags of pre-washed parsley ($7.50 at 1.50 at bag)
- 3 x 2.5 lb bags of kale ($9.00 at 3.00 at bag)
- 10 lb of pears ($1.00 at 10 cents a pound
- 8 x 1.89 litre carton of soy milk ($2.00 at 25 cents/carton)
- Total Mass: 96 lb
- Total Cost: $30.90
- Average cost per pound: 32 cents
With an average cost per pound at 32 cents, this means that for
every liberally sized breakfast drink I create (an approximate 2.5 lb), I am
spending 80 cents- UNDER A DOLLAR!
I usually chop oranges, bananas, and other large fruit into
one inch pieces before freezing them, so that it's easier and faster for the
blender to process. If you want to spend the extra time, you can freeze them
first on baking sheets so that the pieces of fruit don't stick together when
you put them into the bags. All of this, of course, takes time and effort, but
for a healthy and wholesome breakfast at 80 cents a serving, I think it's time
is well spent.
When it comes to the hardware in this equation, blenders can
be purchased at your own risk from places like Craigslist and Value Village .
Big box stores also have frequent sales on blending devices like the magic
bullets which can work equally as well.
On the Subject of taste:
It would be silly of me to write a post on the benefits of a
blended breakfast diet without including a recipe. The following is one that I
find particularly refreshing, and it is comprised of ingredients that are
available at Quest on an ongoing basis:
2 large handfuls of Parsley
2 Whole Blood Oranges
(washed quartered and unpeeled)
1.5 cup of Strawberry Soy Milk
2 tablespoons of Flax Seeds
1 Frozen Banana (peeled)
1 cup water
5 cubes of ice (if none of the fruit is already frozen)
I won't patronize you by giving you instructions on what to
do with these ingredients, except to say that if any of the ingredients are
frozen, you may want to start blending the softer ingredients first- it's
easier on the mechanics of the blender. Enjoy!
Author: Sarah Smith (Quest Volunteer)
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