HEALTHY RECIPES

 HEALTHY RECIPES FOR PROPER NUTRITION

Clean and healthy food re-energizes your body and enhances your skin. It is clearly possible to cleanse one’s body with a glass of juice or smoothie on an everyday basis. Fruits and vegetables are essential in our bodies and when consumed as juice or smoothie, absorption rate of nutrients increases and digestion becomes much easier.

FRUIT JUICE

Fruit juice is something most people love especially when it is fresh, but vegetable juice, not that much as it is associated with bad tastes. On the other hand, vegetable juices are very nutritional and here are some ways to make them taste good;

1. Add fruits or vegetables such as carrots which will help get rid of harsher flavors of vegetables.
2. Select produce that will add benefits eg. Banana as an ingredient will require no addition of sugar, lemons or lime will rid harsh flavors and add tang to your juice.
3. Test different fruits and make a comparison on how to balance the ingredients eg. Spinach and pineapple, broccoli and passion fruit.
4. Select the freshest and most organic fruits and vegetables since it is the better it will taste and will have more nutritional value.
5. Peels or skin of fruits is where most nutritional value lies. Don’t peel fruits except for hardened fruits such as pumpkins, butternut squash, watermelons.
6. Use a variety of ingredients in your juice. We tend to consider it as a refreshment but why not keep it nutritional also by adding various fruits and vegetables to get the benefits eg. Mango, passion, broccoli.

This will at the end of the day provide you with good tasting juice that you don’t like but force yourself to drink due to happy medium flavors. Fruit juices provide complex carbohydrates to fuel energy therefore, work best during the first half of the day and so do smoothies.

Example of a fresh juice recipe

HEALTHY ORANGE JUICE (240kcal/ 350ml)

Ingredients

• 3 Oranges (300g)
• 1 Mango (40g)
• 1 Banana (100g)

Procedure

• Peel the oranges and banana
• Peel the mango and remove the seed.
• Blend the fruits and add honey or sugar to sweeten as desired.

The fruits used are good sources of nutrient and can improve your physical condition and wellbeing with the juice.

PINEAPPLE AND COCONUT JUICE (168kcal/ 350ml)

Ingredients

• 1 Coconut fruit with its water (200g)
• 1 Pineapple (200g)
• 1 Lime (20g)

Procedure

• Cut the coconut fruit, collect its water and cut its meat into pieces.
• Peel the pineapple
• Blend the fruits together.
• Use a strainer to extract the juice.
• Cut in half the lime and squeeze it the juice then mix.

This juice is refreshing, good for hydration, low in sugar and calories, source of natural electrolytes and contains minerals such as calcium, magnesium and potassium.

SMOOTHIES

A smoothie is a rich, sweet and thick beverage made by blending ingredients in a blender. It commonly has a liquid base such as milk, fruit juice, yoghurt or ice cream. Other ingredients to be added can be vegetables, fruits (can be fresh or frozen), ice cubes, nutritional supplements, nuts, seeds, sugar, honey. 

Smoothies can be made in several delicious ways while making the most use of seasonal fruits and vegetables. They are a great way of getting a satisfying and delicious vitamin boost in a day. Its recipes are quick and easy to follow just by adding ingredients in a blender (can be a heavy duty blender) then mix until smooth. Just like fruit juices mixed with vegetables, principles on how to make them taste good can be the same. 

The main difference between fruit juice and smoothies is that, in the juice the fruit pulp is removed and discarded. But as for the smoothies nothing is sieved and the pulp is consumed within the drink. This makes smoothie a more interesting drink as it is also rich in fibre.

Example of healthy smoothies

PUMPKIN MILKY SMOOTHIE (327kcal per 350ml)

Ingredients

• Steamed/ boiled pumpkin of butternut 100g
• 1 Frozen banana
• A handful of Almonds or groundnuts (30g)
• Milk (250ml)
• Honey

Procedure

• Prepare the pumpkin and cut to small pieces.
• Defrost the frozen banana for 5 minutes. 
• Add the steamed/ boiled pumpkin, frozen banana, almond and milk in the blender and blend.
• Add honey and stir well ready to drink.

The ingredients are rich in beta carotene, amino acids and iron that are necessary for children growth. Thus, the smoothie can be consumed by people of any age.

SPINACH SMOOTHIE (418 kcal/ 350ml)

Ingredients

• A handful of baby spinach (approx. 30g)
• 1 Frozen banana (70g)
• A handful of Walnuts or groundnuts (approx. 30g)
• Milk (250g)

Procedure

• Wash the spinach well and cut.
• Defrost the banana for 5 minutes.
• Add spinach, banana, walnuts and milk in blender and blend.

Nuts supplement proteins, unsaturated fatty acids re-energize the body and lutein from spinach prevents eye related diseases.

Things to note;

All these are made with raw ingredients, therefore hygiene should be well observed during preparation. Failure to do so can lead to food infectious diseases such as salmonella infections, E. colli contamination, typhoid, amoeba.

Prepared by:

MGESI NYAISA

AfyaBora Nutrition Organization