Ways to get your "greens" in, besides eating salads!

 
Our Red and Crimson Clover seeds

Greens are such an important food to add to our diet.  The varitey of greens is simply amazing, and I think the supermarket doesn't even touch on the variety and types of greens there are, not to mention greens from sprouting seeds! 

The benefits and rewards of adding greens to our diet is profound.  More energy (yes, please!), a more alkiline body (always a good thing), detoxing (we all gotta lot of junk in us), not to mention the boost to our immune systems (and who doesn't need that this time of year?)

Sprouting

One way I like to add greens to our diet this time of year...well, any time of year actually...but it's so nice to have something "green" growing this time of the year....is by growing sprouts.  It's also the perfect activity to have the kids help you with.  An amazing lesson on how God takes the little seed, and helps it to grow!  Life!  For growing sprouts in the kitchen, I like to use a sprouting jar with a metal mesh lid.  I believe you can even find them on amazon.  Different seeds will have different soaking lengths and sprouting times.  Easy to google and find out for the seeds you have obtained.  This week, we are growing red and crimson clover seeds. 

It really is just child's play---soak, rinse, drain, rinse, drain, ...rain, drinse, oh, sorry, make that drain, rinse....you get the picture!  I usually place about 2 Tablespoons of seeds into the jar, cover with the mesh lid, and then add about half a jar of water, and let them soak for a good 8 hours.  After that, begins the drain and rinse part.  Drain out the water, and rinse well.  I tip my jar at an angle in a bowl, so any water dripping out will be caught by the bowl.  Some people may like to place them on a dish dryer.  (You know, the metal or plastic rack that dishes dry on after being hand washed.)

You will see the little sprouts starting to grow.  When they are to a length you like, put them in a sunny window for a bit, and you'll see them green up as benificial chlorophyll is being added! Greens that are easy to grow, a great lesson for children, and cost pennies...gotta love that!

Powdered greens

No, I'm not making a bit of money for recommending Garden of life products, but I do love them.  I have their Perfect Food raw organic green supor food powder.  Now, this is something that is more expensive.  I don't feed this to my whole family...usually just myself.  Mama needs energy to raise 5 (very!) energetic kiddos, and be the wife and everything else I need to be.  I will put a scoop of this in a glass of good juice....shake it up....gulp it down.  You don't really taste the green at all, just the juice....but it definitely has green color!   And, there is no "crash" later. Keeps me runnin' like a top!

Adding greens to smoothies

 This morning we just finished our blueberry yogurt smoothies....with kale!  Some folks are more hard-core than me, and add TONS of greens to their smoothies.  My kiddos are not big on green colored smoothies....however, I can add quite a bit without changing the taste or color of the smoothie.  Especially if there is a little sweetener in it.  Using orange juice concentrate as the sweetener in place of honey or something else, really masks the "green" taste, and is a great natural way to a great tasting smoothie! 

You can use all sorts of greens or sprouts, to add a nutritional punch to your smoothies.  Kale, romaine, lettuces, endive, the list goes on and on.

Add spinach to cooked dishes:

I always have a ton of spinach in my fridge.  The beauty of spinach, is that you can throw some into almost any dish.  Most of the dishes in my home have quite a bit of flavor, since I love using herbs and spices.  Not just for flavor, but for their nutritional value as well. Many, many dishes can have spinach added to them, without anyone ever noticing.  I just grab a handul or two, tear them up, and throw them in before the dish bakes, or at the end of sauteing my veggies.  Just a minute or two in the pan, and they'll be wilted, so wait til the end. 

Meatloaf, spaghetti, lasagna, meat casseroles, are just a few of the dishes that spinach is easily added to. 

Blessings to you and your family,

Joy~

{This post is a part of Monday Mania, Works for me Wednesday and Real Food Wednesday, Pennywise Platter, Simple Lives Thursday, Frugal Friday and Fight Back Friday}

Comments

[kayla]

thanks for the advise. What time of blender do you use to blend in the kale? Do you have a special heavy duty brand, like the vita-mix, or will a regular blender work?

[Meagan]

I do the spinach thing too to cooked dishes ;)

[wordplayhouse®]

You know, we love greens (especially sprouts). And we love smoothies. We haven't put the two together and I don't know why not. Surprising the kids with a green drink sounds like adding tons of fun all around the kitchen table!

This was a great informational piece on sprouts.

['Becca]

Thanks for the great ideas! You might like my 17+ ways to use kale, all of which work with at least some of the other leafy greens.

You didn't explain why a more alkaline body is healthy. I just learned about this myself: Too much acid in the body increases the risk of osteoporosis. The acid does NOT come from eating acidic foods like lemons; it's from grains, red meat, and I think some dairy products. I just looked for a link to article I read, but it's not online.

[Joy Y.]

Kayla,

Your welcome! I don't have any fancy blender...it's a ninja from Wal-mart, but any blender would work fine. I do tend to remove the leaves quickly before blending...no "chewy" parts in my smoothies...thank you very much =)So glad you came by.

Meagan...thanks for the words...and it's fun to find other mamas doing the same thing, isn't it?

Heather,

Hope your family absolutely loves the smoothies. I can't help but beam, when my kids are drinking their way to health! Yummy!

Becca,

I will definitely check out your post. And, yes, I neglected to add about the benifits of an alkiline body...I have ALOT to say about the subject, so I thought I may give it it's own post sometime in the near future. However, thank you for sharing what you've learned with us! Isn't it peculiar how lemons are one of the most alkiline foods? I would have thought the opposite! Hope to 'hear' from you again!

Joy~

[Emily @ Butter Believer]

These are great tips! I've been trying to add spinach into my cooking too, but mostly in stir-fry veggies. I wouldn't have thought to put it in spaghetti sauce or meatloaf!

I'd love for you to come share this post at our new blog carnival, Sunday School! It's up right now if you'd like to come stop by!
http://butterbeliever.com/2011/11/13/sunday-school-real-food-link-love-blog-carnival-4/