Drink Your Vegetables.

I've mentioned here before that I typically eat a very good dinner at the end of each day. The rest of the day, well, not so much.  For breakfast, I'll have an almond milk latte, a banana and either a piece of wheat toast or a bar on my way out the door, and lunch is typically leftovers from the night before, or whatever the kids are heaving (read a PBJ.)  When Gray is in school, two afternoons a week, I'll grab a salad or soup out, and wednesday's are always reserved for sushi with my girlfriend.  While I definitely take in enough calories, and am eating whole foods that can be described as healthy(ish) it's clear that something is most definitely lacking from my daily diet; vegetables.  I know, right, a vegetarian not eating enough vegetables, we've all heard this one before.  At night I try to make up for what I missed in the day, but I have to say it is really, really, hard to eat more than 4-5 servings of veggies in one meal. Our guinea pig can do it. I cannot. I used to think five servings a day was enough, but with the most recent recommendations being that we should try to get nine servings of vegetables a day, I started to look for an easy way to get more greens in my daytime routine, while still allowing me to eat on the run. 

Enter Macro Greens.  For less than 1$ a day, you can get 5 servings of fruit and veggies out of one little scoop of this green enriched powder that surpasses those found in raw veggies.  You can read all about it here, but I have to say that after a month making smoothies with this, I'm sold.  I'm not going to lie, on its own the powder tastes awful, and they say it's tolerable mixed in a glass of juice, but after one sip I couldn't keep going.  In a smoothie, however, you can't even taste it, and when made with fruit, you hit your nine servings in one drink! 

I don't make the same one each time, mixing it up with whatever produce that we have that is going bad, but as the base I always use about a cup of unsweetened almond milk, and a handful of frozen berries.  The berries really mask the flavor of the greens, and of course, are nutritious on their own, so it's a win/ win.  After that, I'll throw in a slash of orange juice, banana, avocado, or apple, and in the end it always tastes pretty damn good. Or at least I'm telling myself that. 

The only downside is that it is a lot of fiber in one sitting, and there is no real way to say this nicely, but you will want a bathroom close by. I've found that if I drink half in the morning, and freeze the rest until afternoon, my body tolerates it better. I'm not sure if this is a positive or negative side effect, but just be sure not to down this on a cross country road trip, if you get my drift. ;)

One drink. 8-9 servings of vegetables a day? Yes, it really is that easy.  If any of you try it, please, please, please let me know what other concoctions you come up with.  This powder is pretty much a staple for me now, so I'd love to try out some tested recipes!