I had a health crisis back in June -- combination of edema (which exacerbated my carpal tunnel syndrome) and angina. It was REALLY scary and stressful. I could not type (hands too swollen and cramped up) and could not walk without great pain. I started living on green smoothies (a la Victoria Boutenko) almost exclusively. Within 4-6 weeks all chest pains were gone and then it took another month or two before the edema was almost gone in my feet. In the past month I started eating more (cooked) other foods and the edema started coming back and I know I really need to keep the green drinks as a major part of my diet and continue working toward all or almost-all raw.

In July and August I used watermelon a LOT in the drinks, which made them cheaper to make. Took a while to figure out what to make the smoothies of (on the fruit side) for winter, esp. with a limited food budget. What I have ended up doing is adding 100% juice by Dole, and water. That has worked out pretty well, though I am not thrilled about using commercial packaged juices. Would love to hear of any other ideas for making green smoothies in winter.

Use apples and bananas. You can get apples for about 99 cents per pound and bananas even cheaper.

I am in Canada and have been using pears, bananas, apples. I also buy frozen raspberries and blueberries as they are not TOO expensive and I just throw a handful in for flavouring.

If you go to some of the discount grocers or watch sales you can sometimes get really good deals on produce.

I've been starting to use some packaged juice (Dole 100%) for now. But yes, apples and bananas are a definite staple in my green smoothies! Using the Dole juice tends to make the smoothies a little too sweet, which has worked out perfectly since I just bought a truckload (exaggerating) of fresh cranberries to use in green drink. They are so tart that they set off the sweetness very well -- and can keep in the freezer for up to a year.

mango parsely and passionfruit

Hi Avocadess,

Why not just use water? I make mine with about a cup of water, spinach,
mango and 2 bananas. So delish!!!! I have never used juice in my smoothies
and never missed it!

Cheers!
Ferg.

Thanks, Ferg. I'm moving in that direction now! I know that the drink will be a hundred times more healing without the pasteurized juice. I used half as much juice today, and more apples.

Yesterday I used arugula mostly for the greens. Man, I love that stuff, even been craving it. With kale and such I don't care for the taste as much, but with arugula I just looooooove its flavor. I've finally, the past few days, gotten to almost all raw again except for the pasteurized juice (which I'm using half as much now) and a couple corn tortillas. I think corn is a problem in general. It's just that last bastion of holding on to the idea of breads or crackers, that sort of thing.