Today I must have been seriously craving some hulked out greens, because both of my juices were straight up GREEN.

For breakfast before heading out to the grocery store I made a very simple kale juice. I did not have too many items around the house to create a lot of water for this, but with the use of some lemons, pears and romaine lettuce I managed to get enough juice!

Kale itself does not produce much liquid, I personally think it has a stronger taste and color instead. When I juice kale, I like to trim the bottoms and juice the kale whole, stems and all. This is where most of the nutrients are. Let’s think about the stem this way, it’s the main vein to all of the tiny veins that stretch out to each leaf.

There is this interesting rumor going around for years that if you do not wash your produce you are more likely to get B12. Just wanted to throw it out there that there is no actual hard evidence of this. There is also no evidence that vegetarians are more “at risk” for having lower levels. As a whole population, 39% of people are low in B12. This is a major concern for ALL of us.

If you think you have be low in B12, speak to your practitioner about checking your MMA status, also called methylmalonic acid. This type of test requires a blood or urine sample. Sadly, the symptoms of being low in B12 are typical of many other nutrients one may be low in. Such as, mood, brain function and memory just to name a few.

That being said I think it’s best to wash your produce carefully, and check with a doctor before going down the supplement isle and filling your basket.

Here is a photograph and the recipe for my Keepin’ It Real, Really Green Juice ❤

1 Pear

1 Lemon with rind (only if organic)

Half a head of Romaine Lettuce

4 Leaves of Kale

A Handful of Cilantro

Wash, Cut, Juice & Enjoy!

Pear juice adds a great thickness and feels amazingly smooth. Once in a while I like to surprise friends with adding this ingredient into drinks, to some it has a fairly unique taste.

At the grocery store I bought a persimmon that looked like it was ready to explode with yumminess! I ate that at lunch time and made myself a delicious smoothie when I got home.

I kept it pretty simple, just like I did with my breakfast juice, and was amazed at the flavor combinations going on with this one. Sweet, bitter, spicy and pungent were all together. It may sound like some sort of battle royale going on but seriously, it helped satisfy any cravings or needs I had.

Mango Spinach Basil Ginger Smoothie

1 Small Mango about one cup when rough chopped

2 cups Spinach

2 Tablespoons chopped basil

Ginger according to your taste buds, I used about 1 tablespoon peeled & diced

6oz filtered water

First add the water, then the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth! If you want this to be super thick like a pudding, use frozen mangoes or add a cup of ice.

Basil is high in iron, which is hard for all human beings to get enough of. Other iron rich plant foods are; spirulina, raisins, dandelion greens, strawberries and thyme just to name a few 😀

The Dietary Reference Intake of Iron is 8mg for men and post-menopausal women. For pre-menopausal women and menstruating women it is 18 mg.

There is such a thing as consuming too much iron, but only in the heme form. Heme iron, the form primarily found in animal foods and supplements if consumed in too high of amounts can cause toxicity. Thankfully with plant based foods(non-heme iron) we do not have to be concerned with this 🙂 Interesting aye?

It’s interesting to see how so many people out there think they need to take supplements and/or consume animal products because there are “no other ways” of getting those nutrients. If the animals have a little in them, where do you think they got it from then? By eating more fruits and vegetables we all can get the direct source 😀

To stay on track with this “simple” theme I have going on today I’m going to cut myself off there! I hope this article has given you all some ideas that you can adapt into your lifestyle. Also, I really do hope you all are washing your greens. I know there are several different brands of boxed spinach on recall right now. Have an awesome Monday and thank you dearly for taking the time to stop by my site. Much love and raw power ❤ 😉