Healthy PMS-worthy Cocoa Smoothie

[muppetk]

Considering how much I've been loving this and how many times I describe it to someone ("chocolate softserve icecream meets tropical drink") and they go, "ooooooh, recipe?", I thought I should post it here for posterity:

My basic indulgent PMS-remedying tropical chocolate smoothie recipe: (yes, it's in a mathematical ratio, where X = 1, 2 or 3,

Comments

nom!

[rainbow]

if you have other friends who can't handle the sugar from the fruit, freezing coconut milk or nut milk in ice cube trays and using as many cubes as one wants with the cocoa, some stevia, and some cinnamon or cardamom or vanilla or some frozen strawberries or raspberries or orange eo or peppermint eo (or you get the idea) makes a wonderful slushy drink.

and for cold weather one can make it with boiling water and as much coconut or nut milk as one likes.

when i was having gallbladder issues i found having lots of dandelion (leaves raw and cooked, root as tea), milkthistle seed, burdock root, and gold coin grass to be very helpful (ymmv, of course!)

Re: nom!

[muppetk]

OH MY GOD MINT! I COULD USE MINT EXTRACT! YOU'RE A GENIUS!!!!

(all caps are deliberate, yes) :)

As for the gallbladder, thank you. Mostly it seems to be fine, and only get cranky at me when I feed it coconut oil. (And then I needle myself, yay acupuncture, and that takes care of it.) I don't seem to have the problem w/coconut milk curries & will have to try the recipe again replacing the water with coconut milk to see how that sits.

Re: nom!

[rainbow]

mint cocoa is WONDERFUL.

and i forgot GINGER cocoa; some powdered ginger, or if you're using a blender anyway, some crystalised. mmmMMMmm

and you're welcome! i like the natural value "natural" coconut milks; no veg gums added (i react to them). plus i like the company's ethics *g*

[wetdryvac]

Change all you want - this is useful, and may I pass it on?

Regarding cardamom: Reduction rather than full replace with vanilla has worked pretty well for me in recipes where the options were either cardamom *or* vanilla/allspice - crepes and crepe fillings with vanilla + cardamom are lovely indeed.

For greens: Most of my smoothies have spirulina/chlorella mix in them, which is generally easier to cover than the more bitter greens - I once made a smoothie with kale, which was most sad - and seems to treat me well. To get powdered spirulina/chlorella to mix easily without clumping, I make a sugar syrup of 8x water, 1x sugar, 4x spirulina/chlorella by volume, which gets stirred to colloidal suspension and stored in the fridge in a honey bear.

For fresh greens, I find that lightly steamed spinach works really well, as does lambs quarters, dark kelp, and fresh mints.

[muppetk]

My preferred greens are Romaine, baby spinach & bok choy. Bok Choi is seriously THE most inoffensive thing out there. It's practically invisible. Baby bok choi even more so.

I haven't actually tried any of the greens powders yet - I suppose they might be handy on days that I've run out of fresh. Do you have any particular brands you're especially partial to?

And feel free to pass it on. I'm proud of it. It is goddamn tasty!

[muppetk]

And yeah, mint. I've got to try using a bunch of fresh mint in this sometime. It's got to be incredible!

[wetdryvac]

Excellent, I'll pass it on.

Regarding spirulina: I use BulkFoods.com S15-65 is the reference number, and I believe 47457 is the product number.

Fresh mint: About 3 leaves of peppermint, or five of spearmint per X is about the ration I use. Flaked dry peppermint from BulkFoods.com also works if it's included at the same volume as the spirulina once the heat is off on the syrup.

Oh, syrup making:

Heat water, add sugar at just before boil, allow to boil a couple seconds and turn off heat. Stir. After about a minute add small quantities of spirulina (and peppermint) constantly stirring until it's all in and mixed.

Alternately, if you want a really thick suspension, double the sugar, bring heat down to really low after boil (such that it's staying hot but not boiling) and add spirulina until the consistency is that of a grade B maple syrup.

[skyefyr]

X+2shakes cardamom..... I really need to know if x = tsp or tbl. I like caradamom but if it goes over the "too much" edge it can be a bit overwhelming.

Something else that helps my pms (although nowhere near as tasty) is stinging nettle infusions around that time. Plus there's so much iron in them that they also help with anemia if you have that problem too.

[muppetk]

Eh, it's rough. X is just however many bananas you use. Start with 3 shakes, probably 1/2 tsp cardamom.

I actually have other primary herbal treatments for PMS, this smoothie is more for the fun indulgence of it without triggering sugar binges. Drinking one of these kills 90-100% of any desire I had to run out & eat a pint of ice cream or box of cookies. That's a HUGE win for me! I feel far FAR better when I limit the amount of refined sugar/flour that I eat. (The fact that it has enough cocoa in it to dissipate the sad & crankies is just a bonus.)

[muppetk]

When making my more fruit/green smoothies, I generally use 1tsp cardamom & it makes a huge difference in flavor. Since it can be too much for you, figure that's your rough guideline. Definitely not a tbsp.

[muppetk]

Which is to say (because I keep hitting enter too damn fast), I use a cardamom bottle with a shaker top and used to measure when I first added them to my fruit/veg smoothies, but haven't for a while since I've gotten lazy and just shake the damn thing a few times. :D