Meal Replacement Shake: Kalelystic

Personal trainer, nutritionist, and reality star Elizabeth Morrell shared a practical meal replacement recipe with me:

Kalelystic 

(A "souped" up protein shake!)

2 cups of kale

1 cup of carrot

1 cup nonfat Greek vanilla yogurt

1 banana

1 scoop of protein shake

1 cup pineapple juice

1tbs flax seeds (optional)

1 tbs chia seeds (optional)

 This small can of pineapple juice pictured above equalled the same serving size as the Yogurt pictured below.

Instead of buying Chia seeds and Flax seed, I purchased the GNC protein shake that had 25g of protein and 8 g of fiber.  The seeds may help with metabolism, but I was trying to keep the shake cost affordable.

So I paid $3 for the GNC shake packet above from the GNC store, and by shopping at the Food Lion grocery store, I paid $3 total for the banana, carrot, kale, yogurt, and the pineapple juice.  I was forced to buy a six pack of pineapple juice, but I figured I can drink the other cans of pineapple juice at a later date.

I used a Krups blender.  So it was NOT a $500 machine.  I doubt if my blender was even more than $60, but I had it over a decade.  Please note that if you are not using a heavy duty blender like a Vitamix, you probably should put the pineapple juice and kale in the blender first.  Then lay the banana on top to weigh the kale down to force it into the blender blades.  Once these three ingredients are mixed, then add yogurt, carrots and protein shake mix.  This two part procedure seems to make the process easier on the lightweight blender motor.

I really enjoyed my Kalelystic smoothie without the seeds.  The protein shake alone is a meal replacement.  So by adding the kale, carrots, yogurt, and banana, it was really fulfilling.

I washed the kale and skinned the carrot before putting them into the blender.  It took 25 minutes to gather the ingredients that I had purchased and another 5 to 10 minutes processing time with my particular blender to fully puree it.

I cleaned the blender immediately before the liquid mixture hardened.

The Kalelystic recipe serves two and it costs around $6 to make.

Thank you Elizabeth Morrell for sharing that healthy meal tip! (and readers can meet her on next Sunday, March 30, 2014 in metro Charlotte, NC.  Please see my separate blog article for additional information.)