Monthly Archives: July 2011
Smoothie Recipe – The Staple 2.0
I went back to the drawing board with The Staple. Thinking it over, it had too much sugar (71+ grams). I decided to test it out without the 2 biggest sugar containing items, bananas and apples.
I mentioned in the last post that there is a reason for me picking these ingredients to start. I’ll get into more detail some other time, but the ones I picked have the highest nutritional value antioxidant wise–and provide a variety of antioxidants. Taking out bananas and apples did not disrupt this too much. I tried (and an continuing to try) to keep it simple too. I don’t want to have to search far and wide for something. And I don’t want to include overly expensive things either. Also, I leave out things that don’t agree with me taste wise, like tomatoes. High nutritional value, high taste value, high convenience value, low cost.
Without a banana and an apple, the sugar is down to 41 grams. We’re also looking at 620 calories (down from 820).
And to simplify it some more, I took out broccoli in favor of more spinach and kale. What broccoli provided in nutrition is also found in spinach and kale. It was become more of a PITA than what it was worth. So broccoli got axed.
And the taste… It still isn’t bad! And it keeps me full through lunch.
Here is the recipe:
1 cup cranberry juice (the real deal, not the sugary crap)
1 cup water
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup mix kale and spinach
1 cup mix raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, blackberry
1 carrot
about a cup of watermelon
2 tablespoons of crushed flax seed
1 scoop of whey protein
Google+, My Prediction
It’s another flop.
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.
-Charles Mingus
From day 1, most of the posts on there are people figuring out how to use it. Tons of posts on how it’s sooooooooo much better than Facebook and Twitter, only if we can just figure it out some more.
Google has a sneaky way of bragging about things. How it’s the fastest growing social network. Ummm, both Facebook and Twitter didn’t have the clout Google has to begin with. They grew from nothing. I’ve seen this misleading hype from Google when Buzz launched and during the growth of their Chrome browser.
Google+ right now is an echo chamber. Early adopters (who all seem to hate Facebook and Microsoft) figuring out what to do with the new shiny object. Something that struck me with Buzz is my less tech savvy friends and family asking me “what’s this for and what do I do with it.” Exactly! I get the same vibe with Google+.
Supposedly Google+ is looking beyond simply a social networking tool and into an integration of tools like Google Docs, where collaboration is revolutionized. Sounds like Wave to me. What ever happened to that? Plus, again just by polling my non-tech friends and family, very few use Docs, Calendar, Reader, etc. Mostly all only use Gmail and search.
I’ll wait and see. I’m not very impressed so far. I think it’s going to end up on my list one day.
Smoothie Recipe – The Staple
I’ve gone back to the drawing board and changed up The Bigger Deal a little bit. I’ve named this one The Staple. I don’t know how much more I’m going to add/subtract anymore.
I found that the sugar content in other mix was getting up there. I checked everything for nutritional value and peaches were the odd fruit/veggie out. I think I had been adding them in for taste anyway. So I swapped a peach with a 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats.
Soon I’ll be posting the reasoning behind all of these ingredients. I’ll say it again… It does not taste bad at all! Or else I would not be able to tolerate it–especially in the morning.
This bad boy comes in at 825 calories. Consumed throughout the morning. And relied upon to keep me full so I don’t get too hungry before lunch. It’s been doing the trick.
1 cup cranberry juice (the real deal, not the sugary crap)
1 cup water
1 apple
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 banana
1 cup mix kale, spinach, broccoli
1 cup mix raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, blackberry
1 carrot
about a cup of watermelon
2 tablespoons of crushed flax seed
1 scoop of whey protein