Drinking Lunch

     Since I've known my husband (at least the past 11 years) he's always been very health conscious. He's always been one to be fine with trading lunch for a smoothie or something similar and just as healthy. For the last 3-4 years, ever since the "Will It Blend?" videos on YouTube were popular, my husband has been wanting to get a BlendTec blender (http://www.blendtec.com). Then when the $400 for that was out of the question a few years went by and we put some serious thought into getting a Vitamix (www.vitamix.com). Of course, once again by that time being a family on a budget the price of a Vitamix was a large investment. So when he saw the advertisement for the Nutri Bullet (www.nutribullet.com) on TV one night he started talking about it every day and every night for a few weeks straight. When I saw the price at $99 I considered picking one up for him for Christmas, but decided I wanted to read more reviews. Luckily for us, he received one as a birthday gift last month.
     Now we had gotten a juicer a few years ago, and last year when I went through some health issues of my own and couldn't eat for a week, juicing was a great option. However for us, juicing has always been an expense issue. We buy organic where organic needs to be (the dirty dozen and few others),  and the amount of juice that comes out of 3 carrots compared to the waste that comes out of 3 organic carrots, it's bothersome to me. I think about all of the things I could have made using the entire carrot instead of juicing it and tossing half of it away. There are a LOT of people out there with their own opinions about blending vs juicing and which is better for you, etc. The way I've decided to look at it is that if you don't have money to basically throw away and you are on a tight budget like we are, my 3 carrots and hand full of spinach is going to go a lot further blended into a smoothie type juice rather than having to use 2 or 3 times as much to get enough juice to supplement a meal or snack.
     Not only is it my opinion, it's been a little over a month now and having done both, I've witnessed it. Some days we've replaced lunches with a drink made with the Nutri Bullet, and some days it replaces the after dinner ice cream we may have had but no longer buy.  Just like my recent quest of vegetarianism, this is not some big diet sham or quest for weight loss. Am I losing weight? Absolutely! But it's all a part of getting healthier and actually using food for nutrients instead of eating foods void of nutrients for fun. Pizza is good, do I still eat it as a treat now and then? Of course, but I can't eat pizza everyday and then down the road wonder why my body is failing to function the way it is supposed to when I'm not giving it what it needs to function. Most people know that filling up on spinach is better for you than filling up on french fries, to do it is a very different and sometimes difficult choice. No one makes the best choices all the time, but if it takes drinking a smoothie made up half of spinach and kale and the other half bananas, berries, and almonds for you to get nutrients from healthy sources you normally may not have gotten, then it's worth it. It's also true that making one healthy choice leads to more healthy choices, if you don't believe me what will you lose if you try?
     I'll leave with a couple of drink combinations that are our favorites lately. Please, leave opinions, start discussions.

What we call "the chocolate chip milk shake"
    1 banana
    handful of almonds
    handful of cocoa nibs
    1 tsp honey (even better with the organic raw acacia honey that deserves it's own post later on, but   any honey will work.)
    1 tsp of coconut butter (optional, it's good with or without)
    half a cup of almond milk
     2 ice cubes
    water

My usual breakfast drink:

  two handfuls of spinach
  a few leaves of kale (too much kale can make it bitter so it depends on what you like)
 frozen organic peaches
 fresh pineapple slices
 1 tsp honey (once again same as above)
 1 banana
  handful of goji berries
 1 tsp coconut butter (optional, but in this drink it gives a great tropical flavor)
 water
(Also in this drink sometimes I replace the peaches and pineapple with strawberries, or a strawberry, blue berry, raspberry mixture)

Note: One more thing about the drinks made with the Nutri Bullet. Sometimes I use frozen fruit which gives it a "cold" smoothie texture. I include Ice in some drinks (like the milkshake) because some people aren't fond of the texture of the room temperature smoothie. It's a personal preference.