Food Friday: New favourite toy and changing eating habits.

Fitness and healthy eating isn't something I've shared before on the blog. It's not something I've really been sharing in any part of my life. Especially healthy eating. While in England I had the worst diet. Chips and crips, pizza and beer made up the majority of my diet, and I think my health suffered for it. One of the ladies at work had bought one of those 'mix and go' blenders, where you put the fruit and veg in the cup and blend it, so you can drink out of it too. I thought it was a fantastic idea, and something I should think about getting when I get home. I'll let you in on a secret here: I've never eaten fruit. I just could never stand it. I wouldn't even touch berry yoghurts or muffins. This had to change if I wanted to get healthy.

When I got home I pulled out mum and dad's old juicer, and started making juices in the mornings. I wasn't a fan of all the wastage, and you had to use a lot of vegetables to make a small amount of juice. I started looking for a good 'mix and go' blender, but wasn't happy with what I could find, and then along came the Bellini Gourmet Wizard, which comes with 7 cups, 2 blades and a juicer attachment. Perfect!

So since then I've been trying out loads of different combinations of smoothies. I bought bags of frozen berries, cut up and froze a pineapple, and kept my fridge stocked with lots of veggies. I've been getting a lot of inspiration from Sandra from The Black Pearl Blog, including how to make nut milks (almond milk with dates and vanilla... amazing!!). I've been drinking them for breakfast, and although I usually need something else with my breakfast to fill me up, I've been adding a lot more fruit and veg to my diet that I would usually have. I'd love to share a few of my recipes with you in the future, so stay tuned.

Here's one of my favourite smoothies at the moment. Made with baby spinach, apple, blueberries and cucumber with cranberry juice. This was the first smoothie I made with avocado and I was super pleased. I usually add flaxseed when I'm making a smoothie in the morning to try and keep me fuller for longer - flaxseed has fibre and protein. For someone who usually has a sweet iced coffee and vegemite on toast for breakfast, this is pretty yummy. I guess it's all the sugar in the cranberry juice, which I hope to soon replace with coconut water, or even just water (coconut water is a little expensive).

 

The Gourmet Wizard, although small, is pretty good at blending everything up to a smooth drink. I only have problems when I'm using frozen mango I get a few chunks of mango because they're not cut up small enough. It's also not great with ice, so I'll have to play around with that a bit - maybe use smaller cubes, because I love a good cocktail slushy! I have had a few problems with the blender wearing away in a few places, the base of the blades, and the notches at the top of the cup (you can see them just underneath the blue ring of the cup below). So far it still functions well though. I usually only blend for around 10-20 seconds at a time as I'm worried about burning out the motor (which I've read is a common problem in blenders this size).