my green smoothie

i try to make a green smoothie for breakfast most days of the week. this way, no matter what i eat the rest of the day, (hopefully it's still pretty healthy) i've already had a good amount of fruit and veggies. green smoothies sound (and look) a bit strange at first, but try a google search for 'green smoothies' and you'll see a lot of people are making them. bottoms up!

makes about 1 quart

1 cup orange juice
4+ cups greens (i like spinach, collard greens, or kale)
2 tablespoons raw cashews or almonds (soaked in water for a few hours or over night)
3 pitted dates
1 banana
2 cups frozen mixed fruit (i get the spectrum blend from costco)

blend the first 4 ingredients in a blender for a few minutes until smooth. while that's going, i put the frozen fruit in the microwave on defrost for 2 minutes - so i won't destroy my blender. add the banana and frozen-ish fruit. blend for a few minutes more until smooth.

carrot cake smoothie

a while back, i bought a big bag of raw cashews i was planning on using to make cashew milk. though i love cashews, i discovered i don't like cashew milk. ew. i found this recipe at choosingraw.com and i had to buy a big bag of carrots to go with that big bag of nuts. i could seriously drink this smoothie every day.
adapted from choosingraw.com

serves 2-3

1 1/2 cups fresh carrot juice (from about 6-8 large carrots)
1 cup ice
1/2 cup cashews, raw
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice (i just use cloves since i don't have allspice)
2 tablespoons honey (or to taste)

soak the cashews in a cup of water in the refrigerator for a few hours. drain. process the carrot juice and cashews in a blender for a few minutes until smooth. add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. (if you have a really cool blender like this one or that one, then you could just throw all the ingredients in at once, but this is how i have to do it in my blender.)

brazilian lemonade

serves 4

2 limes

1/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk

3 cups cold water

ice

Zest the limes then remove the rinds with a knife. Discard rinds. Cut limes into large chunks. In a blender, combine the limes, zest, sweetened condensed milk and water. Blend until well combined, about 15 seconds. Pour mixture through a fine meshed strainer and serve over ice.