Not Craft: Quick Raw Food Smoothie

Recently I've been reading a lot about raw food diets. I guess it's kind of a trendy diet at the moment.  Woody Harrelson eats mainly raw food and that's where the (tenuous) parallels end. Anyway, I think I eat a pretty healthy diet, with fruit, vegetables, low fat protein and natural starchy carbohydrates. But, like a lot of people, I have too much refined sugar and not enough fruit and vegetables in my diet.  I think I have habits that mean I depend on some foods that I think will pick me up and make me feel good, when in fact they probably make me feel more lethargic, sleepy and bloated (special shout out to the biscuit industry there).
So last weekend I went to a green fair in Hampshire and there was a talk on raw food.  While the talk wasn't very inspiring, it led me to look up what it's all about, look for some raw food smoothies and find out how to get started/get more raw food in to your diet. Going the whole hog would firstly mean no hog, but also seems like a rather expensive and time consuming option which I won't be pursuing.
Not to mention extreme. I can imagine the conversations after dinner invitations with friends now: "Go out for pizza, great! Is it made with flax seeds and dehydrated cauliflower? No? Oh, I'll have to stay at home then". Not cool.
But I do like they idea of being a bit healthier and I have found a couple of great smoothie recipes that mean I get an extra hit of raw fruit, vegetables and some so-called superfoods in my diet.  Items such as coconut oil (we're not sure of the super-foodiness of that one, but still), hemp seeds (a complete protein and high in amino acids) and coconut milk (just plain yummy) can be bought at health food shops like Wild Oats on Lower Redland Road and Harvest on Gloucester Road. Like me, you might want to just try one or two out before investing too much money.  Or none, I think the message is try to eat more raw fruit and veg and if that means in smoothie form, excellent!
For this one I used:
200 ml water
100ml coconut milk
1 third of a pineapple
2 handfuls of raw spinach and/or romaine lettuce
2 bananas
2 tsps hemp seeds
1 tsp coconut oil
2 tsps soy lecithin (high in fatty acids, great for breaking down fats)
Needless to say, blitz it all up and go!

Ok, enough about all the health benefits, it tastes really amazing and I totally thought it would be disgusting. It's a great alternative for breakfast and it's a good snack for replacing biscuits and crackers with cheese at that classic time of hunger when it's not quite dinner time: 4/5 oclock.
If you try it out I hope you enjoy it! Let me know. I also picked up these delicious raw chocolate granola snacks from Wild Oats:

In other news, this week I met with some fantastic people at Heart Space Studios and I'll be writing up my interview with them this week. I took lots of pictures and I'm really excited about what they're doing. If you want to follow my blog to find out more about that (and any other food related adventures I might have in the future, as well as my writing on crafts), click the orange top left hand icon under the 'Home' button.