Kale Smoothies & Right Motives

Lily eating the Kale smoothie, I'm not sure she got much in her mouth but she loved it!

Today I am sharing a smoothie recipe that I found online while researching the veggie kale.  I found this recipe on a random blog that came up in Google so I cannot take credit for it at all.  The blog was Kandeeland and she said she got it from somewhere else.  So who really knows where it came from?!  All that matters is it that it has changed my life.  Well, maybe that's a bit dramatic but it has done the body good, that's for sure.  The Graham household has to adhere to a very odd diet.  I have Celiac Disease so cannot have gluten, which ellimantes the whole wheat, rye, and barley family and Lily Cait cannot have any corn products or anything containing corn, and Michael, well he can eat whatever he wants but is sometimes forced to eat on our diet because its just easier that way. What a sport he is! 

Even though we eat very healthy around here because of our allergies we still lack the nutrients that we should be getting everyday from veggies and fruits.  This smoothie recipe packs all those vitamins into a 12 ounce cup and serves it to you in a delicious manner.  Plus, I cannot tell you how great I feel after drinking this smoothie.  It gives me energy, stamina, helps my digestive system, makes my skin feel and look better, and just makes me feel like a healthier human being!  The power food in this smoothie recipe is kale, also known as borecole.  This is such a nutritient rich vegetable that is known to be one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet.  That's healthy yall!  I didn't want to bore you with every single health benefit so here is a link that you can go and read about kale till your hearts content (if you so desire to).  Benefits of Kale  

WARNING!!! This is a super duper healthy tasting beverage, which of course means it does not taste like a sugary Frullati smoothie from the mall.  So be advised that if you try to feed it to your hubby he will probably make a terrible face and say that it tastes like salad (this is the response I got from Michael :).  However, I am used to weird food so I love it!  We just have American taste buds so healthy stuff isn't in our pallet but it needs to be!  That doesn't mean you have to try to choke down one of these smoothies everyday, it just means we need to have a desire for healthy foods that have AMAZING benefits!  I'm trying to get there people, but its a process as is everything...

So without further a due, I know your excited...

Here is the recipe for the Super Healthy Kale Smoothie!

Frozen Acai, My Smoothie, and My Orange Blender :)

SUPER HEALTHY KALE SMOOTHIE!

8-10 ounces Coconut Milk (So Delicious Organic Coconut Milk)

1/2 or whole banana (I like to freeze them before)

2 giant leaves of kale (or basically a handful rinsed and torn in half)

about a 1/4 cup of blueberries

1 pack of Sambazon frozen Acai

2 Tablespoons ground flax seeds (Spectrum Organic Ground Flax Seeds)

P.S. I got EVERYTHING at Natural Grocers but you could get the bananas and blueberries at Walmart for cheaper!

Grace Moment for the Day:  I thought I would keep with the theme of the blog post for today. Here is the verse I chose,  "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." 1 Corin. 6:19-20.  Today's post was just a fun one not very serious at all.  However, I had a greater purpose at hand.  Whether or not we drink kale smoothies doesn't really matter at all.  The bigger picture is what matters.  

I have been deeply convicted lately about how I take care of my body.  There are two extremes out there.  The first is, the super duper healthy freak movement where people are only concerned with their health for vain and worldly reasons.  Then second, there is the "don't care" mentality, where people are indifferent towards health and taking care of themselves and just become plain lazy.  I sadly, have fallen deeply into both categories.  I used to be consumed with what I looked like, how much I ate, and how much I exercised to the point where it lead me down a very sad and sinful road.  Then, I also fell into the other camp, I stopped caring about my body and found it fun to consume as much terrible food as I could and never exercise.  

Neither one was glorifying to God and neither one was taking care of the temple of the Holy Spirit, that was given to me by God.  That is a powerful concept.  Our body is not our own but was given to us by God.  Wow.  Then, to add to that, we were bought with a price, a very high price at that.  The precious blood of God's beloved Son Jesus was the price in which we were bought.  Therefore, we are given a command at the end of the verse, a call to action!  "So glorify God in your body!"  We must do this Beloved, we must find the middle ground on taking care of the temple of the Holy Spirit and letting it fall to the pits just because we don't really care.  

Let us not do this in attempt to get the world to acknowledge how healthy or fit we are but may we do it in a heart of forgetting self and aiming to bring glory to where glory is due, to Jesus Christ.  Because He has purchased us from the bonds of slavery, and called us to eternal glory where these temperal bodies will be done away with and we will be given glorified bodies that will never fail and we will get to spend an eternity praising the Lamb of God, what a joyous day that will be!!!  So be encouraged, the Lord will help us with this if we ask Him to, He is our ever present help in time of need.  I am going to pray that the Lord would help me in all of my MANY weaknesses, He is so merciful and loving and will help us become more effective vessels for His Kingdom, all we have to do is APTAT.  I heard this from John Piper and I love it, Admit that we cannot do it, Pray for help, Trust that He will help us, Act and obey His word, and then Thank Him for helping us.  APTAT.  

He Is Faithful,

Hope you enjoy the Kale Smoothie!

Much Love,

Cait Graham