SS&GF: Simply Sugar and Gluten Free

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Meet Tess! She’s the mastermind behind Healthy Blender Recipes. We met on Facebook. I was so impressed with her creativity and energy from the very beginning. When we started The Balanced Platter, I knew I wanted her to be part of it. She’s got the most innovative blender recipe site in the blogosphere today. Stop by and check it out – you’ll find something yummy to whirl up. I promise.

Hey everyone!

I have admired Amy, and the Simply Sugar and Gluten Free community for a long time now, and I am honored to be writing a guest post here while Amy and Joe welcome their gorgeous little boy into the world. It is such a special time, and I wish them much joy and love as they enjoy their new life as parents. Amy manages to achieve so much, that I have often wondered when she sleeps! I will be thinking about that a lot more now! LOL!

I shared a fabulous raw vegan chocolate spinach shake in my first contribution to The Balanced Platter, as part of a story I did about sneaking veggies into “green phobic” adults and children.  You would never know there was spinach in this drink! Its tastes just like a delicious rich chocolate milkshake. I was overwhelmed with emails of gratitude from parents the first time I posted that smoothie on my website, and I have received similar letters of love since I posted it on The Balanced Platter a couple of weeks ago.

So I decided to continue my “sneaky green” theme in this post today, and share an even better way to sneak green vegetables into your children. This raw vegan sweet kale smoothie is my absolute favourite way to introduce people to the joys of green smoothies. This sweet kale shake is so delicious it will seduce even the most fervent “greenaphobe”. This smoothie tastes just like dairy-laden pistachio ice cream. It is absolutely unbelievable. You would never guess there was no dairy in it; and you would certainly never suspect there was kale in it. All of the ingredients come together in just the right quantities to create a taste sensation that I can only describe as “blendsational”.

I posted this raw vegan pistachio ice cream kale smoothie during the month of January to celebrate my Vitamix giveaway, when I was posting a blender recipe a day using this fabulous machine. This recipe was the most popular recipe that I posted the entire month! It went viral on Facebook and Twitter and received over 10,000 hits in just a couple of days. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed with blog comments, emails, tweets, and facebook messages of joy about this smoothie. The most common comment was along the lines of, “this is the most delicious smoothie I have ever tasted. You would never know it had kale in it and it really DOES taste just like pistachio ice cream!” A lot of people wrote to me recounting hilarious stories about how they gave it to their children, friends, or partners who didn’t normally eat greens, and they gobbled it up and asked for seconds!

This smoothie is so incredible I had to share it with all of you. I actually can’t really claim full credit for this recipe. This smoothie was inspired by the Sunpower Café sweet kale shake that won “Best Smoothie in L.A.” The first time I tasted that shake I was prepared to coat-check my teeth and swear off solids for life! I simply had to come home and recreate some of the magic! My first blend was a triumph, and I haven’t changed the recipe since.

Now, I will say right out of the chute, that this is not the most “low calorie” smoothie I make! There are a lot of sugar free green smoothies that I drink on a daily basis. This one is all about the fun! It is a delightful little treat….that I admit to having devoured over 5 times last month! What can I say? I am addicted to this smoothie! If you want to make this smoothie a little more forgiving, you could use some dates and stevia instead of the agave nectar.  There are also some other great variations from readers on the recipe page.

Either way, open up your mind, read some of the many exclamations of joy about this recipe on my original blog post, and give this sweet kale shake a go. You will not be sorry.

Kale-skeptics far and wide agree: this recipe is a stunner, a winner, and not to be missed!

Tess Masters, AKA “The Blender Girl”  writes a quirky blog called Healthy Blender Recipes, sharing super quick and easy allergy friendly vegetarian, vegan, and raw recipes using a blender, mixer or food processor. All of her healthy recipes are gluten free, and utilise whole foods and natural flavourings and sweeteners. Many of the recipes are also dairy free, egg free, nut free, and soy free. You can search for recipes for specific diets or food allergies by using the handy clickable icons on her website.