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Wellness

Liquid Brain Power: Your Guide to Smoothie Making

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at McGill chapter.

It seems that most of my days end up revolving around food and where my next meal is coming from. It also doesn’t help that we live in foodie heaven with all the outstanding restaurants in Montreal.

Despite my immense love for food, I find that the occasional juicing or smoothie day gets me feeling refreshed and gives my insides a break from digesting solid foods all the time. I’m going to give you collegiates a couple of tips on smoothie making and include my mum’s daily smoothie recipe!

First things first, a Vitamix is the absolute best blender but unfortunately it isn’t student budget friendly and could end up setting you back a couple hundred dollars. But for those who are willing to splurge, you can purchase this life-long piece of equipment from various places but Amazon sells them and delivery is free!

For those who have to stick to a tight budget, Walmart sells The Magic Bullet for $49! For most students’ pockets the latter is probably the way to go.

The idea behind liquid nutrition is that you get everything you need in a liquid form. Therefore it is way easier to digest and not only gives you direct energy, but allows your digestive system to take a rest.

In order to get started with your smoothie making here is the essential items you’ll need on your shopping list:

  • Not green bananas which ideally you will peel and freeze and other frozen fruit of your choice (blueberries are a very good source of anti-oxidants)
  • Rice milk or almond milk
  • A good health store will sell hemp hearts and this may seem a little pricey but this is the best product and tastes totally awesome. This is your essential protein and will also make your smoothie fabulously creamy (yum!)
  • Add kale or spinach. It’s good to change your greens up every now and again.
  • Also raw cacao for those who love the taste of chocolate. It’s decadent and fear not, it’s actually good for you!

Here is my mum’s daily recipe: 

  • 1 fresh banana
  • A few frozen strawberries and a few frozen blueberries, with rice milk (or almond milk) a scoop of hemp, a scoop of cacao and a pinch of cayenne pepper for a good spicy kick and a large handful of spinach and here you have a ‘hot’ chocolate raw fruit smoothie
  • And voila! You’re good to go.

Buy a lovely big travel cup and a box of straws so that you can take it with you on campus.

There is always the alternative option if you’re not feeling up to making one yourself. Liquid Nutrition is an amazing smoothie and juice place on campus in SSMU. Try one of their smoothies and they’ll also give you some good ideas for your own future smoothie making endeavors!

Enjoy and stay healthy!

Images obtained from:

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/rainbow-smoothie…

http://media3.onsugar.com/files/2013/03/10/1/192/1922729/3677cd4d2a098b3…

http://images.medicaldaily.com/sites/medicaldaily.com/files/2013/08/04/0…

http://www.chowstatic.com/assets/models/product_photos/images/166/origin…

http://static.ca.groupon-content.net/52/41/1294953004152.jpg