Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

  • I teach yoga, Nia, and stretch online!

    ALL CLASSES ARE ON ZOOM AT 10:00 AM PDT

    Tuesday Gentle Yoga 

    Wednesday Nia

    Thursday Stretch

    Please see my website for details!

    I am also available for private Nia / yoga / Personal Training all virtual, of course!

  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  • My Bloggey Past

  • ******

    Chose a month above to visit archives, or click below to visit a page.

Posts Tagged ‘green smoothie’

My List Of Foods Containing Quercetin

Posted by terrepruitt on August 30, 2014

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classesI was looking in a catalog of supplements . . . one of my Nia students gave it to me after class.  We didn’t even have a chance to discuss it because she handed it to me as she was leaving, so I didn’t even realize it was a catalog of supplements until I flipped through it and saw every other page was an advertisement for a supplement.  Anyway . . . it had an article in it about the flavonoid, quercetin.  It reminded me of the information stating that it has been proven to be an anti-inflammatory and an antihistamine.  Since I primarily mention eating onions, apples, and citrus fruit in my two posts, An Apple a Day and Allergy Relief, I thought I would look up some information regarding what other foods contain this interesting plant component.  I found two sites with the same list.  I went through the list and found the things that I eat or would eat.  Some of the foods listed I didn’t even know what they were, such as Bog wortleberries, dock leaves, and lovage leaves.  Some I wouldn’t eat because they are peppers, such as ancho peppers and hot green chili peppers.  But I would eat some of the items listed.  I DO eat some of the items listed.  I could increase my consumption of some of them.

Here is my list.

Food Chart

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classesThis is a food chart showing fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains rich in quercetin.
mg/100 g.
Apple, raw with skin        4.42
Apricot, raw                    2.55
Blueberries, raw             3.11
Broccoli, cooked            1.06
Broccoli, raw                  3.21
Butterhead lettuce         1.19
Cherries, raw                 1.25
Cherry tomatoes, raw     2.77
Green beans, raw           2.73
Kale, raw                        7.71
Plums, raw                     1.20
Red grapes                    3.54
Red onion, raw             19.93
Spinach, raw                  4.86
Tea, black brewed          2.07
Tea, decaf brewed         2.84
Tea, decaf green brewed    2.77
Tea, green brewed         2.69
White sweet onion, raw      5.19

I love apples.  I could easily eat more of those.  I don’t experience apricots that much, but I like them ok.  I think you know how I feel about blueberries, but I did discover I like them in a green smoothie.  I LOVE cherries!  Not so sure about eating green beans raw, but I just had kale in a green smoothie this past week.  I have received plums and grapes in my produce box.  But I don’t eat them often.  I eat onions pretty much every day in a green salad.  It is good to know that quercetin is in tea.

So what about you?  Do you know what a Bog wortleberry is?  It has a lot of quercetin in it but not as much as canned capers or dock leaves.  Since I don’t know what dock leaves are I don’t know if you would eat a 100 grams of them, but I can’t imagine someone eating 100 grams of capers.  So, I guess it is good that they have so much quercetin in them.  You can still get some from a smaller amount.

I am sure there are a lot of people who eat a lot more than is on my list.  The peppers alone.  I know many people who love peppers.  Anything on my list that you eat?  Anything you might think of increasing consumption of?  What about the full list? 

Posted in Food, Fruit, Vegetables | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Broken Blendtec – Smoothie With Arugula

Posted by terrepruitt on September 21, 2013

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaThe other day I was using my Blendtec with the Wildside jar.  I had it on Ice Cream – Frozen Yogurt.  I usually press that button and let it blend a bit then stop it.  I don’t let it finish the entire cycle.  Then I pulse it for a little.  Then add more ingredients and let it blend.  Well, I pressed the button to make it stop then pressed pulse and it sounded odd.  I didn’t understand the sound, so I pulsed it a few more times.  As I think about it I realize what I was hearing.  I was hearing the motor whir, but not the items in the jar being blended.  When I opened the jar and started to scrape the sides, I was really confused as to why my spoon was not coming in contact with the blade.  Then I was REALLY confused when I saw a piece of metal near the side of the jar.  It took me a few seconds to realize that I was not feeling the blade at the bottom because the metal I was seeing was the blade.  The blade assembly broke.  I was so sad.  I was sad and I was concerned because I had not sent in the registration.  Ya know those cards just never seem to get in the mail.  I told my husband and he said it didn’t matter they could look it up.  I was not as confident.  I thought it was going to be a hassle.  Later on I realized that it really wasn’t the whole blender that was broken.  It was just the jar.  In my surprise and concern I was thinking “broken blender” not broken jar as was the actual case.  And I have another jar.  That is one reason why I got the blender it was a good deal because it came with two jars.  One regular and the Wildside.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaBecause I was putting it off thinking it would be a hassle I didn’t call Blendtec until a day later.  I got my headset on and got all prepared for a long wait and the hassle that it was going to be.  It was not.  The customer service person did ask that I return the jar because she thought the WAY it broke sounded unusual, but they shipped the new jar out to me the next day with a label for returning the broken one.  Cool and easy.  I was so relieved.

I haven’t actually been making green smoothies, but I do use the blender.  In our organic produce delivery this week we received lettuce.  We have lettuce . . . A LOT of lettuce so I thought to use the spinach I have in a smoothie.  Then I thought, “Oh, I should put some arugula in it.”  WOW!  What a treat.  It makes it fun.  I don’t know why but when I sip the smoothie I think, “How fun!”  So I give arugula smoothies two thumbs up.

_________________________________

Arugula and Spinach Smoothie

8 ounces of water
1 small apple
1/4 (a little more than) a small avocado
1 cup baby spinach
1 cup arugula
3/4 of a frozen banana
7 ice moons

Blend according to your blenders instructions.

_____________________________________

I list the ingredients in the order that my blender instructs items to be put in the jar.

It was really good.  I really like arugula as you might know.

Ahhhh.  So . . . . I am very happy with the wonderful customer service I received from Blendtec and I am very happy with the arugula in the green smoothie.

So have you tried it?  Have you put arugula in a green smoothie?

Posted in "Recipes", Food, Smoothies | Tagged: , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

No More Oil Wrestling

Posted by terrepruitt on November 10, 2012

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaOk, so just like the Green Smoothie kick I am a little behind on the olive oil sprayers.  I have seen them for a long time, but I thought they were just regular pump sprayers, which is fine, I could do that, but I have a little bottle that does a great job for me.  It “pours” a drop at a time.  But being in that HUGE warehouse store recently I decided to grab a package of the Misto sprayers.  They came in a two pack.  So as I often am late to the party, I JUST got them.  These things are cool.  Although they might be a little leaky, it is still cool to get the misty spray of an aerosol without the added chemicals that they put in the aerosol cans.  I am not sure what it is — probably the additional chemicals they put in the cans — but when I used one of those “cooking sprays” like Pam the pan gets this weird coating on it that won’t come off.  My first thought is, “Dang I don’t want that weird coating on my dishes.”  But then I get that “D’oh!” moment and realize I don’t want that weird coating in my body.  I don’t even know what it is, but it DOES NOT COME OFF.  So now with the sprayer I am getting a nice mist and no weird coating I have to try to wrestling off of the pan.
Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba

When I was excitedly sharing information of this new-to-me spray bottle with my friend, she laughed at me and said they had been around for a long time, but I did start my story with that same statement.  I had explained that I had seen them for a long time, but never bothered.  The path of our conversation lead to the stuff that coats the dishes when other cooking spray is used.  So I was happy to know it was not just my imagination or my sub par dishwashing skills.  After having noticed that weird coating, I was buying Trader Joe’s Olive Oil spray which does not leave a weird coating on things, but still has additional chemicals in it.

This pump and spray Misto is cool.  I like it.  I prefer a sprayer because not only do I use it to “oil” my pans, but I use it to dress my salad.  I just use olive oil and vinegar on my salad so it is so nice to not have to pour.  My little bottle works good, but so does the sprayer!  Then, of course, I also use it to spritz the veggies as I am cooking them. I feel I use a lot less oil with the sprayer!

Since the package came with two I will probably use the other one for vinegar that way I can just completely spritz my salad.

So I know I am late on actually using one of these, do any of you have an oil sprayer?  Do you have a sprayer that you use for something other than oil or vinegar?  What do you use it for?

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Birthday Puts Me In The Green

Posted by terrepruitt on September 25, 2012

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaThis year my husband was really on the ball.  In July he started asking me what I wanted for my birthday.  Since going out of town isn’t something we have in our budget, I thought about it for a bit, then decided that is what I wanted to do for my birthday.  I wanted to go to a bed a breakfast place on the coast that we both love.  So I got my heart set on a weekend at THAT particular bed and breakfast. When I looked it up on the internet I was happy to see it is still there, however, it is no longer a bed and breakfast establishment.  The house is for rent as a vacation rental, but it is no longer a place to rent a room for the weekend.  I was sad.  I was so bummed that one of our places is gone.  Plus I was bummed because I had to come up with something else for my birthday.  He asked me every month.  I thought I had found something, but then circumstances changed and so that didn’t work out.  Then I remembered there was a time when I entertained the thought of one of those super blenders.  But really, to me that is an outrageous purchase unless you are really going to use it.  Having it sit in my cupboard would be a waste.  In my opinion there are a lot of things that are outrageous if they just sit and not get used, but when I use things often I feel I get my money’s worth.  I would like to include more vegetables in my diet.  I like to serve a green salad every night and a vegetable, so I was thinking another way to add fruits and vegetables would be to make green smoothies.  I don’t drink fruit smoothies so I really wanted to TRY a green one before I had my hubby make the investment.  I hear that green smoothies are an acquired taste and I don’t just want to blend fruit.  I want more veggies than fruit.  But then I started looking at some recipes online of other things I could make in a “super blender”.  I think I have posted about how my hummus is not smooth.  I made a joke about being the inventor of “whole bean” hummus — which is basically just chickpeas.  So I thought I could use the power of a super blender to make hummus.  So I decided to ask for a blender for my birthday.

When I received my blender I didn’t have any greens, but I was going to get some delivered the very next day.  In my box I received a new-to-me veggie.  The box contained Rainbow Chard and so I thought I could put that in my first smoothie.  I think of it as a fruit smoothie with some green since it really didn’t have that much green.  I am breaking myself in slowly — as has been suggested.

Another suggestion that I have seen on various website is that if it is an “ugly” green smoothie put it in a mug and if it is a “pretty” green smoothie use a pretty glass.  I think that is just the type of silly suggestion I can follow.  It makes an odd kind of sense.

Well so far I have used my blender four times.  I am sure you are going to hear about each time in future posts.  Well, perhaps not all four times . . . but maybe, we will see.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaSo my first fruit/”green” smoothie was:

1 Cup water
1/2 of apple chopped
1 banana (sliced)
1 leaf of rainbow chard (cut up)

My blender has a smoothie button so I just used that and it worked great.  There were NO chunks at all.  What I really love and was somewhat surprised to see is, it comes out frothy!

I think my first “green” smoothie was pretty good.  Although, I think that one leaf of green and 1.5 “fruits” is a larger fruit ratio than I want to stick with.  I am going to work my way up to more greens and less fruit.  My idea is to like and drink the more-veggie-than-fruit smoothies, but also enjoy the more-fruit-than-veggie smoothies when I feel the desire.

I am thinking I might have a smoothie before Nia, but I am not sure.  I usually try not to drink so much liquid before class.  🙂

Have you heard of these blenders that blend SMOOTH smoothies?

Posted in "Recipes", Food, Smoothies, Vegetables | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments »