bone building smoothie

I've started tracking my food again. Not for calories this time but to make sure I'm giving my body all the nutrition it needs. Since having to give up dairy I really need to pay attention to ensure I'm getting enough calcium in my diet. Variety is key to avoid relying on copious amounts of almonds milk.

If you read nutrition labels on food you'll notice calcium is usually recorded in daily % value. Calcium rich foods have 10% DV per serving. I aim for 8 servings a day with the remaining 20% coming from the rest of my food.

Great sources of calcium:
1c fortified almond or coconut milk
1/4c almonds
21-30g goat's cheese
50g figs
1T tahini or sesame seeds
1c dark green vegetables, cooked (kale, broccoli, arugula, collards, bok choy)
1T chia seeds
100g tofu/tempeh
1c rhubarb (who knew?)

Do you get enough?

Lately I've been starting my day with a calcium rich smoothie, just to give myself a boost. I have a base recipe that I follow and then jazz it up with different fruit/veg combos. The possibilities are endless!

Base for Strong Bones
1-2 cups almond milk
1 cup spinach leaves
1/2 banana
1 scoop protein powder

tip: if your blender doesn't handle greens well blend them with the milk first, then incorporate everything else

We just go a new blender so I've gone a little smoothie crazy, lol. So far I've whipped up:

• My Current Obsession = cantaloupe + ginger (I like to grate my ginger then squeeze the pulp through a fine mesh sieve)
• Summertime = mango + raspberry
• Classic = orange +  strawberry (or try peach!)
• Sun Tan = orange + mango + carrot
• Pina "Kale"ada = pineapple + kale + coconut flavour
• Creamsicle = orange + pineapple
• Green = kale + apple + celery