Shake The Ground

Ok, I've officially failed at staying on my content schedule not two weeks into it.  I'm late posting this week, the original post I had scheduled for this week is barely even started, and the replacement post I wrote for that post is ALMOST done but still needs some serious editing, so I guess we're falling back to (a hastily concocted) Plan C: Shake and "Juice" Recipes!  I'll admit that I'm the last person to be posting recipes since I don't really cook anymore, but I figured maybe some hard information as opposed to my usual load of anecdote and observation might be a welcome change.  That and how hard can it be to screw up shake recipes?  Of course, I make no promises to the effectiveness of these recipes for you, I just know they work for me.  But they are pretty tasty (again, my opinion).

...Burroughs had his own ideas about what should go in shakes, I'm sure.

    The astute among you are probably wondering why Juice is presented in quotes above.  I'm glad you asked!  See, when most people think of juice, I get the impression that their idea is basically the combined humours of various members of the vegetable kingdom.  This is both valid and correct, however, here in Landbear Territory, juice basically means pulp.  Pulp means fiber, and for someone that eats meat like I do, fiber is good.  With that in mind, I have to take a moment and plug my shakemaker of choice, the Ninja Mega Kitchen System.  Now, I know this thing has gotten some bad press from some juicing sites, and rightly so if your idea of juice is purely liquid, but for me it's great because I don't have to have two devices, one for juice and one for blended shakes.  So if you like your juice with some punch, grab one of these.  Really, my only complaint would have to be the choice of names, I mean, the way this thing goes to town on just about everything that make the bad decision to wander to close to its six blades designed only for the massacre of foodstuffs, I think "Berserker" would've been a much better historical warrior for this thing's namesake.  Seriously, that's my only complaint, so onto the recipes...

...it's basically a whirling tornado of food evisceration.

I Drink This In The Morning

• 2 small cucumbers
• handful or so of kale (a handful is about 3/4 of a wet cup, I don't pack it in, I just grab a handful...or so)
• handful or so of spinach
• handful or so of lettuce (greenleaf or romaine, iceberg is somewhat nutrient devoid)
• handful or so broccoli florets
• maybe two handfuls of frozen berries (or 1/3 of a package of Trader Joe's frozen berry medley)
• 1 fuji apple
• 2 stalks celery
• 6-8 "baby" carrots (I know, they're not really baby carrots, just peeled and cut down normal carrots)
• 5 or 6 cherry tomatoes
• 16-20 oz chilled green tea
• Water to top off (or sugarfree beverage, I use Crystal Lite)
• (Optional) 1 scoop protein powder (something fruit, vanilla, or plain flavored, I use Isopure)
• (Optional) 1 or 2 servings of your greens powder of choice (I use Biotest Superfood)
• (Optional) 4 packets of stevia, Splenda, or other low/no-cal sweetener

Sometimes I Drink This At Night

• 16oz almond juice (or some other nut juice, I refuse to call it milk, sorry)
• 2 scoops chocolate-ish protein (I use one scoop of Sun Warrior and one scoop of Isopure)
• 1/2 cup yogurt (I use Pavel's Original Russian, it's the only full-fat stuff I can find around here)
• 4 packets splenda, stevia, or some other natural sweetener
• 1 tbsp PB2 chocolate
• 4 tbsp peanut butter (PB Co White and Dark Chocolate are awesome)
• sugar free chocolate syrup
• 5 ice cubes

    No clue about macros, calories, other than I think the first one has a ton of fiber and no fat, and the second one should have more fat and protein than carbs.  May not be the best choice if you're trying to keep calories down, but if I've learned anything in the last few months, it's that I've been keeping my calories too far down, so I'm trying to focus more on keeping my macros in check and not worrying so much about total calories, given the volume and types of training I'm doing.  Enjoy!