On Tin Foil Hats and Blueberries

Lord Married With Veggies likes to dismiss my craziest worries by saying "is it time to whip out the tin foil hat?" when I get creeped out that my money is all digital and wonder if we should buy gold instead or handing my produce to the cashier at the grocery store because the thought of putting things I'll eat on the conveyor where every other thing has been wigs me out or insisting that the little camera that's used with one of his gaming systems be turned to the wall when it's off  because having a camera trained on me makes me feel like Big Brother's watching. Fine. Yes. He has a point. All of the preceding really are kind of tin-foil-hat worries, and I'm glad to have him tease me to remind me that I'm veering dangerously close to becoming the kind of person who thinks it's perfectly normal to write X-files fan fiction all day.

But I draw the line when he tries to tell me it's tin-foil-hat thinking on my part to revere the superfoods that contain a higher than normal concentration of nutrients, antioxidents, and all the rest of that good stuff (now seems like an excellent time to remind our dear readers that nobody at Married With Veggies is a trained nutritionist, so this is our experience and not actual medical advice--kay? Kay.).

Yes, "superfood is an umbrella term that is more marketing than science, but I find it a helpful shorthand to think about the kind of foods I should be reaching for. And many lists of superfoods have sirloin and salmon and eggs and yogurt on them, so as a person gravitating toward a more plant-based existence, it's confusing. But! I can definitely agree about avocado and blueberries and spinach and all the rest of the glorious plant-based superfoods on so many of the versions of the lists (I'd include a list but it changes all the time. Google it to get an idea).

At one point about a year ago, I read that blueberries and spinach and avocado were kind of aces on the superfood list (the favorites on those lists tends to dance around a bit, but these three are almost always on any given list). So I started to experiment. At the time I was making myself a smoothie of banana and cocoa as a treat, and I tried adding a little frozen blueberries to see what would happen...and it was delicious. If banana and chocolate and almond milk were milk chocolate, then banana, almond milk, and chocolate plus BLUEBERRIES was dark chocolate. Yum!

I kept experimenting. One day I was out of bananas so I tried avocado, and that was thick and oh so  delicious. And then I started to sneak in a tiny handful of spinach...and it disappeared into my fruity chocolate-y goodness, so I added more and more and more until I was basically topping the blender with spinach.

Now I basically eat this smoothie every morning. And when I don't have one in the morning, I'll whip up a version of it for a treat at night.

Why?

Because (and here's where Lord Married With Veggies cries tin foil hat) I believe that my superfood smoothie keeps me healthy. Oh, I get migraines from other things, but I don't get colds and flus. Or rather, this fall when everyone was on Facebook talking about the cold that lingered for weeks and could it  be gone right now, please, I got the sniffles for a grand total of half a day.

This week lord Married with Veggies was home with a coughing cold and wonky tummy for a day and a half. The Married With Veggies dog wasn't feeling too hot either. But I just kept making my superfood shakesand skated past it. Maybe it isn't the smoothie. Lord Married With Veggies believes that working as a tutor I have been exposed to a petri-dish gauntlet of viruses that has turned my immune system into a teflon iron man of you-can't-touch-this beauty. And maybe. But I feel better when I drink my superfood smoothie, which means I believe in it.

And if that means I need to start wearing a tin-foil hat, so be it.

Superfood Breakfast Smoothie1 cup almond milk
1 banana (spotted is best because it's sweetest) (1/4 of an avocado will work here)
1 cup blueberries
2 TBSP cocoa powder
1 packet of stevia
four handfuls (four cups maybe?) baby spinach 

Blender that baby! I usually eat a slice of backed tofu with it for protein, but you can sub soy milk for almond milk instead.  

Variation--Just do almond milk, blueberries, cocoa and sweetner for a end of the day lighter treat. Add avocado if you prefer it thicker.