Mean Green Kale Smoothie

Mean Green Kale Smoothie

This smoothie was pretty much an accident, but a good one if you ask me. Sunday afternoon I was making some Kale Chips, and as I was tearing off the leaves I kept having small pieces that were to small to make chips out of, so I would just toss them in my blender which was right in front of me, after all was said and done I had a small hand full of kale greens in the bottom of my blender.

After that I decided to make my salad for the next day and had a fuji apple I sliced up to put in the salad, but an entire apple was going to be too much for the salad, so I tossed about a 1/2 - 3/4 of the apple into the blender as well. In addition to the apple I tossed in 1/2 an avocado as well. At this point I thought I had something pretty good going, so I continued adding ingredients to the blender. When all was said and done I had added 4 TBSP of honey, 2 bananas and a cup of almond milk.

The finished smoothie originally only had one banana but the taste of the kale was still very strong, so I added one more to smooth things out a bit, for those of you that like a strong “greens” taste to your smoothie you may consider not adding the extra banana, but even with two bananas the smoothie still had a bit of a “green” taste to it, but not overwhelmingly so. Just perfect in my book.

The final recipe:

• 1/2 - 3/4 of a fuji apple chopped

• 1/2 an avocado

• 2 bananas

• 1 small hand full of kale

• 4 TBSP of honey

• 1 cup of almond milk

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth

Nutritional Benefits: Kale is one of the most nutrient rich greens you can eat. It contains almost all of your daily requirement of vitamin C, it also provides loads of vitamin A and K, it is also high in fiber as well. Additionally kale contains phytonutrients, which help increase enzymes in the body that ward off harmful carcinogens. The plant is also rich in calcium, lutein (which helps improve eye sight) and iron.

I love discovering new smoothies on accident. I will likely be making this one a lot more since I don’t really care for the taste of kale by itself.

OrganicClimber.com

Yummy dehydrated mangoes

Delecious Dehydrated Mangoes

One of my favorite fruits is the mango, especially ripe juicy ones. One problem I have though is that often times I can be lazy and not want to mess with deseeding a mango just to eat a snack. I also frequently crave these when on climbing trips, but they are often quite messy and would certainly be a pain to deseed while out on the trail or even while car camping for that matter. So I decided to dehydrate this tasty fruit after tasting a store bought version.  Mine of course are cheaper, taste better and have zero preservatives or artificial ingredients. I would most definitely say this is the beef jerky of fruit. Anyway, without further or do here are the directions on how to dehydrate mangoes.

Ripe juicy mangoes.

First grab two to three ripe juicy mangoes.
Step two, deseed those bad boys. See Image below.

Deseeded Mango

To deseed a mango hold the mango vertically and find the “knot” at the top of the mango. Take your knife and move a bit to the side and then slice all the way down. You may have to maneuver around the seed a bit as they are never exactly in the middle. After this, repeat on the other side. Also, it will be worth your time to remove excess mango flesh from the seed to throw into the dehydrator with your slices. No need to waste.

Skinning the mango.

Third, skin the mango. You will notice from the picture I skinned the mango after deseeding. I have since discovered it is much easier to skin the mangoe FIRST, then deseed. However, if you wish to leave some skin on your dehydrated mangoes you will want to skin them after you deseed. In this case I was leaving the skin on several of them so this would be the best method. Although the skins are harder to eat, especially dehydrated, they contain lots of nutrients.

After skinning the mango, cut into evenly sized slices and line them on a mesh dehydrator sheet. I believe one mango makes about a tray of evenly spaced mango slices if using the Nine tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator.

Sliced mangoes lined on dehydrator sheets.

After placing the mangoes on the dehydrator trays, insert them into the dehydrator and dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 24 hours.

The finished product will have a nice leathery texture but still have somewhat of a moist feel to them. You don’t want to turn these into chips, so be careful not to dehydrate for too long. I also recommend about 1/4 inche slices, but feel free to experiment and find out what you like best. But remember the thicker the slice the longer you will have to dehydrate.

For those that don’t have a food dehydrator I highly recommend the investment, especially if you are the outdoors type and spend lots of money on things like granola, nuts, seeds and things like Power Bars and Cliff Bars. With these bad boys you can make your own homemade version for a fraction of the cost, and you have fun doing it in the process. It’s also much more gratifying to eat something you made yourself.

They dehydrator I used and recommend is the Excalibur. They have a 4, 5 and 9 tray model. I rarely use all 9 trays, but when I do need that extra space I am glad I have it. The size of the trays also are different on each model, so that is something else to consider as well when looking to purchase a dehydrator. I would also suggest staying away from the circular dehydrators that are stacked. The downside to these is your drying temperatures are not even at each level, you have to rotate your trays throughout drying times. With the Excalibur you get consistent drying temperatures on every tray.

Be sure to visit my Web site The Organic Climber.

RAW Buckwheat Treats

For my first post I thought I would share one of my favorite recipes that I like taking with me on rock climbing trips.  Since I started eating a high RAW diet I struggled with what I could bring with me on my climbing trips other than fruit and nuts, and then one day it hit me - RAW Granola!  I bought a package from a local whole foods type store that had all the ingredients listed on the back, so I took most of them, added a few of my own, and came up with RAW Buckwheat Treats.  These are now my favorite snack on climbing days, they pack plenty of calories and are extremely nutritious. Not only that, but they are extremely light and pack well.  I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

RAW Buckwheat Treats

12 Pitted Dates

1/4 cup Agave Nectar

1/2 cup of Water

1/4 cup Sunflower Seeds

1/4 cup Walnuts

1/4 cup Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup Ground Flax Seed

2 Teaspoons of Pumpkin Spice or Cinnamon (I prefer pumpkin spice)

1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla extract

2 cups of Buckwheat Grouts

Add 1/4 cup Sprouted Wheat Berries (optional)

Sea Salt

1. Place pitted dates, agave nectar and water in a food processor and blend until a paste is formed, scraping the walls as needed.
2. Then add the sunflower seeds, walnuts and pumpkin seeds to the mix and process again until seeds and nuts are mixed well throughout the paste.
3. Next add the ground flax seeds, pumpkin spice, vanilla extract and a few dashes of sea salt to the mixture and process again.
4. Once thoroughly processed, dump the mixture into a large mixing bowl, adding the buckwheat grouts and wheat berries. Now, with a spatula or wooden spoon mix thoroughly.
5. After this is done, place the mixture into clumps on a teflex dehydrator sheet and dehydrate at 100 degrees for about 12 hours. Makes about two sheets.

Don’t have a food dehydrator?  I am guessing an oven would work as well, but you will need to keep a close eye on them and will likely need to rotate the treats and even turn them upside down as well so they are thoroughly “cooked”. In order to keep the recipe RAW a food dehydrator is your best option, but either way they will still be really nutritious.

Be sure to check out my blog The Organic Climber.