Pretty, Simple

This lovely hue was achieved in a Vitamix:  a beet, a carrot, a cucumber, a couple of shakes of dry ginger, 1/2 cup coconut milk, water and ice.  This was such an easy way to consume more root veggies, but I've found beet sugar makes me a little crazy and "buzzy", even though the beet was only the size of a golf ball.  Roots are very grounding, so it's ironic the sugars are so overwhelming.  I had to drink this very slowly to stretch out the rush.  Because the effects were so powerful, beets will be part of my smoothies only occasionally.  Still, it was nutritious and delicious -- and pretty!

A Waste of a Good Bunch of Mint

Fresh mint is so lovely in salads, spicy stews and smoothies.  I love the combination of lemon with mint in a smoothie and crafted one recently that had a wonderful start with these organic grapes, some coconut milk, cucumber and romaine.  Then I went too far and ruined the whole thing with another ingredient:  matcha green tea powder -- just a teaspoon of it.  Yuck.

I knew the smoothie would be ugly because purple and green make beige, but I didn't know how bad it would taste.  I didn't waste it -- I choked it down over the course of an hour or so because of the nutrition, but I didn't enjoy it either.  I love tea, except green tea, and I especially dislike matcha.  I'll get my antioxidants elsewhere.

I'm glad I took this pretty photo before my planning went south.  You win some, you lose some, that's how we learn.  I won't make this mistake again!