Fragrant Lavender and Blueberry Green Thickie

Lavender is one of those things that people either seem to love or hate.  I just adore it.  It can be quite hard to come across for some people though so if you can’t get hold of it, just leave it out or replace the lavender with one teaspoon of vanilla extract and you’ll still have a gorgeous smoothie.

I actually have lavender in my garden as I planted a few herbs last year and after neglecting it for a whole year it’s still going strong so I thought it was high time I actually did something with it!

If you don’t have your own lavender you can actually get hold of organic dried lavender on Amazon which is even easier as you don’t even have to go into your garden!  You can use lavender in all sorts of other gorgeous creations.

Benefits of Lavender

• Aids relaxation
• Promotes restful sleep
• Promotes emotional well-being
• Alleviates everyday stresses we all get from time to time
• Supports a healthy immune system
• Supports healthy respiratory function

Sounds great to me.  I’m going to have to get creative with my lavender!   I’d love to know if you’ve ever used lavender in any of your recipes or home remedies?

Optional.  You can replace the dried lavender in this recipe with 1 drop of Lavender Essential Oil by Young Living.  You need to make sure your essential oils are food grade before you ingest them.  Find out how to buy Young Living’s Oils at wholesale prices by clicking here. 

Fragrant Lavender and Blueberry Smoothie for relaxation (Green Thickie)

• Author: Katherine Kyle
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Total Time: 5 minutes
• Yield: 2 servings 1x
• Category: Green Thickie
• Method: Blender

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 1 cup Water
• 1/4 cup Cashew Nuts/ Other nuts
• 1/2 cup Raisins/ Dates/ Date paste or other healthy sweetener
• 2 cups Blueberries

Optional

• 1 cup Oats, quinoa or other carbs (To make this into a full meal green thickie)
• 1 cup spinach or other mild greens (To make this into a green smoothie)
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
• 1/2 tablespoon Lavender

Instructions

Blend the ingredients in the following order: 

1. Blend the dry ingredients and liquid first for a short time
2. Blend the greens next. (If using)  for a short time
3. Blend the fruit and the rest of the ingredients until smooth (or as smooth as your blender will allow. High speed blenders may need 2 minutes for a green thickie, less powerful blenders may need a lot more, sometimes 5-10 minutes)

More tips

• This allows the dry ingredients to be blended for longest, it means the greens will fit in your blender and your fruit gets less blending so it doesn’t become too hot.
• Add more water if required to thin it out.
• Substitute any of the ingredients for whatever you already have.
• If your smoothie is too warm, you can cool it down in the fridge or freeze some of your ingredients before blending.  You can also replace half of the liquids with ice.  Add the ice at the end. It is better to add frozen ingredients at the end to cool the smoothie down.

Notes

How much should I drink to replace a meal?

• Only use a meal replacement if you’ve added the oats/quinoa.
• This green thickie serves 2 so you should DRINK HALF OF THIS RECIPE.  But if you have higher calorie requirements you may need to drink more.

More information about making the perfect Green Thickie

If you are new to Green Thickies and have more questions about making the perfect green thickie, please read this guide on How to make a Green Thickie.  Or read this guide on How to make a smoothie perfect every time.

Find out what greens you can add to your smoothie to ensure you get enough variety.

Find out more about adding OATS or QUINOA to your smoothies.

The RECIPE for DATE PASTE can be found here.

Suitable for Special Diets: Gluten free (Use GF Oats or Quinoa), raw (Use raw oats/quinoa), vegetarian, vegan, dairy free, egg free, refined sugar free, wheat free, soya free (don’t use soya milk or tofu), salt free (don’t add salt), nut free (replace nuts with sunflower or pumpkin seeds. This doesn’t include coconuts)

* If you want to check if you can drink green thickies on your special diet,) please read this first. This will suggest some substitutions so you can still enjoy Green Thickies with ingredients you can tolerate.

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