Ok, let's talk about Green Smoothies.  I am a big fan, but there are some do's and don'ts to getting the most out of your smoothie and harnessing your healthy eating intentions to their full potential.

The following is a list do's and don'ts of green smoothie making to help you avoid DSAS- Disappointed Smoothie Aversion Syndrome

Do:

• Add a good amount of greens to your smoothie (about 2 cups)
• Put your greens at the bottom of your blender to get a good smooth consistency.  Some people blend the greens with the fluid base before adding the fruit to make sure the greens get chopped up well
• Blend your smoothie until it reaches a nice smooth texture (hence the name- we're not making lumpies here people!)
• Chop up fruit and keep it in a container ready to go for convenience
• Freeze fruit to add a nice chill to your smoothie
• Add a smidge of banana or avocado for a creamy texture
• Add a good protein source such as nuts, seeds, or protein powder
• Add a good source of fibre, such as ground linseeds, chia, or psyllium husk
• Play with flavours that your love
• Have an idea of your smoothie combo and what will work before you start to avoid disappointment
• Try to use organically grown food as much as possible and wash all fruit before blending

Don't

• Use too much raw kale or raw brassica's.  Raw kale dampens thyroid function, so unless that is your desired effect, go easy on the kale and use other green leafy's
• Use too much fruit.  If your smoothie is too fruity it will spike your blood sugars and you will end up feeling hungry 1/2 and hour after your smoothie

Still not convinced about the Green Revolution?
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Here are 5 reasons why you should be adding a Green Smoothie to your day

1. Alkalizing: Green Leafy's are alkalizing. Alkaline foods assist in down regulating inflammation and pain and assist in preventing chronic disease.
2. Nutritious: Green Leafy's are full of amino acids (protein), vitamins, minerals and antioxidants
3. Gut Healing: Spinach is very high in the gut healing amino acid, Glutamine.  Green smoothies are an excellent source of daily fibre for bowel health
4. Convenient: Green smoothies are a fantastic breakfast for busy people.  You can sip your green smoothie while you are putting pig tails in your kids hair or while on route to the office
5. Tasty: I concede that it's hard to make a green smoothie look good on Instagram, but it's not hard to make them taste delicious.

Getting the picture??

Ok, so are you ready to give yourself the goodness of GREEN?

Here are some basics for your blend
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2 Cups- Baby spinach (good for beginners), parsley, dandelion greens or lettuce​
1 Cup- Flavoursome fruit: berries, mango, melon...ect
1/4- Banana or avocado for creaminess
1 tbs- of ground linseeds or chia seeds
1 tbs- protein powder or nut butter or coconut paste
2 Cups- Filtered water or nutmilk 
1-2 tsp- Superfood powder of your choice; matcha, macca, acia, camu camu...ect

Happy Blending Beautiful Buds 
​X Melanie

As you can guess, I 'aint no food styler.....  

What I try to do is bring to you snippets of stuff that inspires me and makes me feel good in the hope that it'll do the same for you.  
Quite honestly I don't have time to scatter micro basil leaves or arrange a linen tea towel lovingly under the plate....not that there is anything wrong with that!  It's just that I'd be hard pressed even finding a tea towel that wasn't stained or frayed in my kitchen.  And quite honestly, it's hard enough grabbing a picture of this stuff before it is devoured!  

But I'm not going to let that stop me from bringing some deliciousness into your kitchen.  

My eldest daughter works at a news agency and every second month I am salivating at her waiting for the next edition of Nourish Magazine to come out.   It's my fave magazine at the moment  it's always full of inspiring and delicious recipes. 

So anyhooo... this cake is inspired by a  Raw white chocolate & raspberry slice by Sally O'Neil (@thefitfoodieblog) that appeared in the latest copy of Nourish.

I made this cake one sunny Saturday afternoon after a busy day cleaning the house and spending quality time with the kids; as in taking my eldest to and from work, and a beach crawl with the two younger ones (just like a pub crawl only with beaches).

Base 
1 cup of organic almonds
1 cup of organic desiccated coconut
8 mejool dates

Blend this up in your food processor and squash it in to line the bottom of a pie mold.  Put this in the freezer or fridge to chill.

Filling
2 cups of soaked organic cashews (soak the night before in filtered water)
1 cup of frozen raspberries
1/2-2/3 cup of creamed coconut (I mean the hard stuff in the jar not coconut cream in a can) 
2 tbs of maple syrup
handful of coconut chips to sprinkle on top

Put jar of creamed coconut in a bowl of hot water to melt.  Lay the raspberries out on a tray lined with baking paper and drizzle the creamed coconut over them until the raspberries are covered.  Put this in the freezer.  
Put cashews and maple syrup in to food processor and blend until creamy and smooth.  Get the coconut covered raspberries out of the freezer and break them up.  Carefully stir the raspberries through the cashew cream (try and do it a bit more carefully than me, or you'll end up with a messy looking cake: see above).  
Spread filling on to base.  Refrigerate until you can't stand it any more and then have a piece.

If you divide the cake into 16 pieces each piece has just over 9g of carbohydrates. (for those of you that need to count that kind of thing!)

Do enjoy, my lovelies, my pretties, my precious-es,

​Melanie