No-Banana Green Smoothie

Happy Tuesday everyone! I had not really planned on taking the weekend off from blogging, especially since I worked yesterday and packed a lunchbox, but that is how things worked out.  I will save yesterday’s lunchbox for a day where I am on vacation in November.  Speaking of, if you are curious about why I started the lunchbox series, click here and if you would like to be a lunchbox guest blogger here, do get in touch with me at citylifeeats at gmail dot com.  The only requirements of the lunchbox guest blog posts is that the lunchbox be gluten-free and based on whole foods as much as possible.

So today’s lunch – one thing that people always talk about a great time-saver is a freezer stash of leftovers. I agree, but our freezer is only so  big, and already crammed with beans (i.e. dried beans that I, soaked, cooked in the rice cooker and then froze in 1 1/2 to 2 cup servings), my stash of seeds and nuts, frozen bananas and other fruit for smoothies and desserts, a bit of chicken breast and bison bought at the farmer’s market, and other odds and ends.  I do freeze leftovers though, and all of a sudden have a critical mass of them (meaning my freezer needs space freed up).  So today’s lunch and two snacks include:

• Gena’s Sweet Potato and Chickpea Burger (you can tell it is still frozen on the picture)
• Leftover chana dal cooked with eggplant and onions.  This was an attempt at a recipe idea that turned out only ok.  As with most of those attempts, I tend to freeze them in frustration and give myself a break from eating a recipe I am not that happy with.
• Tomato paste designed to help with the flavor of the chana dal and also to top the burger with some tomato-ey goodness (there was only a couple of tablespoons left in the jar so I packed the whole jar to make packing lunch faster).
• Gena’s awesome sweet-potato avocado and chocolate pudding, made with a tablespoon of agave instead of dates (see here for my slight variation). I made a full recipe last night and put half in the fridge for today.  You might remember my rave for Gena’s blog here. She has some great easy recipes. 
• A green smoothie, which is an attempt at making a smoothie I like without bananas, as I have been eating an awful lot of them lately and need to rotate my foods more (recipe below).

 No-Banana Green Smoothie (gluten-free, vegan)
Makes 2 16oz smoothies

• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 oz (about two heaping tablespoons) goji berries
• 1 Tbsp chia seeds
• 1 scoop vanilla rice protein powder (I used this one)
• 1 cup spinach
• 2 large collard leaves (about 2 cups)
• 8 ice cubes

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

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