A serious arm-sculpting and squat session today called for sharpish recovery fuel - in the delectable form of a super-smoothie, to guzzle within 15 minutes of finishing my workout for optimum muscle forgiveness (verdict to come when I wake tomorrow morning and can/can't drag myself out of bed...we'll see).
There's something deeply nourishing and satisfying about drinking smoothies. Perhaps I'm recalling the happy (slash not-so-happy, and not-so-pretty) fat-days; the bogof Frijj milkshake deal from the local Co-op in fresher's year played a likely role in my inevitable university weight-gain. Oh, it's all flooding back now....
But, equally, smoothies just quench the thirst in a way that presents itself as a unique sensory experience; the thickness of the liquid that you could almost chew, the natural sweetness and multi-dimension of flavours to tickle your tastebuds, and the knowledge that you're giving your body the ultimate fuel for energy and/or fast recovery - depending on your chosen contents, of course. Top marks if it's green, too (cos let's face it, it must be healthy if it's green, right?).
Spinach Super-Smoothie ingredients:
2 handfuls of freshly washed spinach
200ml almond milk (can add more if desired)
1 banana
1/2 teaspoon honey
Juice of 1/2 lemon
A few grapes for extra sweetness (optional)
Blend all ingredients in one go, and then devour to your heart's content. Admittedly, this took a bit of trial-and-error to reach drinkable standards, but the sweetness of the lemon and honey soon sorted that one out. Also, some reading matter for any other smoothie-advocates out there: the perfect smoothie formula over at No Meat Athlete will pretty much guarantee your smoothies are fail-safe everytime (or can at least usually be redeemed by some kind of sweetness, or failing that, peanut butter...99% of the time, anyway). Such a good blog! Check it out, I wholly recommend (but not quite enough to see me quitting meat any time soon, I'm afraid to say), so much so that I signed up to the mailing list today too!
In other news, a few days ago I lost my coconut-cracking virginity (after draining the water out first, of course - mmmm) and used a melon-baller to remove the meat from inside - a pretty simple process that followed through without any messy mishaps, surprisingly enough (side note: I smashed the coconut against a large tree branch in my garden - there was no way a knife was getting through that beast!). However, before I knew it the meat had gone all fluffy - despite it being kept in the fridge. I was planning on making a batch of coconut butter to bake something wonderful with; alas, another coconut day will soon come, no worries! I found the coconut on offer at 55p, quite a steal considering how much meat it contained!
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