LOS ANGELES, March 21, 2013 — Spring is here and with this season of renewal comes a variety of tender, young green vegetables at the farmers’ market and the grocery store shelves. Working on a project called The 10 Steps to Sexy Diet has made me more aware of the nutrients I consume. Suddenly, these vibrant green things have become the object of my desire.
Now, it isn’t as though I didn’t want to eat my veggies all winter. I love a good salad. In fact, I used to make one for lunch almost every day. But that was B.C. (before Charlie, the nine-month-old who keeps me hopping from dawn till dusk). Now, I’m lucky if I have a hand free to shovel in a few spoonfuls of yogurt. There are days when even I, a proponent of healthy eating if you’ve ever found one, will shovel in a handful of cookies and call it lunch.
It was while I was making lunch for Charlie that inspiration struck. Watching handfuls of baby chard, cucumber, spinach and mango whirl in the blender to produce a thick puree the color of health itself, it occurred to me: why couldn’t I take the freshest of the season’s produce and make a pure fruit and vegetable smoothie for myself?
So the next morning, while the baby chewed on frozen strawberries, I tossed a variety of farmers’ market ingredients into my Vitamix blender. (The secret to my smoothies is the Vitamix, but if you don’t have one, I’ve been told that the more affordable Magic Bullet works well.) The result positively captured the season in a glass and all it took was two minutes and a straw.
To make your own spring smoothie, I recommend adding about 1 cup of fruit to 2 cups of vegetables (3-4 cups if you’re using leafy greens), plus a few ice cubes to the mixture. (This will give you approximately three servings of fruits and vegetables in one glass.) I change up the blend depending on what’s on hand, but I highly recommend freezing at least one ingredient. (Sometimes I buy the bags of frozen mangoes and pineapple at Trader Joes. These work well. But freezing fresh from the market strawberries or cucumber works equally well and helps you stick with the freshest ingredients available.)
If you enjoy your drink with a kiss of sweetness, stir in agave nectar 1 tsp at a time (up to 2 teaspoons). Or you can thin the drink slightly with a splash of fresh fruit juice like apple or orange. For added aphrodisiac benefit, add a nickel-sized chunk of raw ginger to the blender before mixing. Ginger will raise body temperature as well as aid digestion. For more on ginger’s aphrodisiac benefits, visit EatSomethingSexy.com.
The right choice of ingredients will benefit not only your heart, mind and overall health but can directly impact your libido. Now that’s living The 10 Steps to Sexy Diet!
Some of the best libido-boosting smoothie ingredients include:
Arugula
Avocado
Blueberries
Celery
Cucumber
Mangos
Strawberries
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