A Purple, Green Smoothie

So last week, after my discussion of the search for a filling meal, and then the follow-up discussion on delicious green smoothie recipes, I finally made one. And it's purple! 

After my shift at the food co-op where I volunteer, I was given a ton of overripe bananas (fair trade! free!) and therefore found no excuse to my banana boycott. I used Rachel at Suburban Yogini's recipe that she had posted here (as quoted):

make up 250 ml with a mix of soy or almond milk and water.
Add one tablespoon of flaxseed/protein powder/peanut butter (one of the above)
One banana
two handfuls of blueberries
two handfuls of spinach

The results were delicious and consumed in spurts of joy. It tasted quite nutty in a foody (not crazy) kind of way. The picture is kind of terrible, I may never get good at the media part of this, but you might be able to see that it was a dark, dark purple. Quite pretty, really. The spinach leaf is for aesthetics, but I ate that, too. Honestly, if you make it yourselves, I would recommend no changes to the recipe. All the goodness of spinach, no weird spinach taste in your drink. The best part? Kept me full for hours. Huzzah!

A Purple, Green Smoothie

In case you ended up doing the 108 sun salutations yesterday, for today, here is a meditation practice designed to tie into the solstice.

 

1. Surya Bhedana: 

Sit in a comfortable position and make Mrigi Mudra with your hands (thumb, ring, and pinky out, pointer and middle fingers down). Block your left nostril and inhale through your right. Then close the right and exhale through the left. Continue in this manner, inhale right, exhale left, for 1 to 3 minutes.

     2. Return to normal breath for 1-3 minutes

     3. Chandra Bhedana:

Follow the instructions for step 1, but reverse the breath (inhale left, exhale right)

     4. Return to normal breath for 1-3 minutes

     5. Svara Yoga Pranayama

     6. Use a candle as a drishti/focal point, and meditate on the light for 10-15 minutes