Meals in Minutes: How Blenders are a Healthy Option for Quick Dinners

ReadyNutrition Readers, we have been covering a tremendous amount of information regarding nutrition and weight training over the past several months.  Emphasis needs to be placed on what you take in: your proteins, your amino acids, your whole foods, and high standards of nutritional quality.  As you may recall, there are three types of macronutrients, and they are as follows: protein, fat, and carbohydrates.  Simple, yes?  Those three form the basis for your nutrition, training, and recovery.

As I mentioned in previous articles, 1 gram of carbohydrates and 1 gram of protein both have 4 calories.  The two macronutrients are different, however, and the amount of thermic energy (that is the energy used from your daily intake to digest and process the food) is a higher requirement for proteins than it is for carbohydrates.  It takes 2 ½ times the amount of energy to break down proteins as it does for carbohydrates.

That being said, your blender is one thing you can use to help things along.  I have already told you how I’m a firm believer (and user) of high-quality protein powders that supply you with amino acids.  Enough said there.  You can use that blender of yours to blend up good juices fortified with other ingredients.  Such as what?  Such as beef, chicken, and other meats.  Yes, indeed!  All those blenders have a “liquefy” setting to them.  What you need is a “base” of juice, and then to “fortify” that juice with more protein for your consumption.

I’m not getting into juice-making, juice-machines, juice-fasting and “smoothies” to detoxify you.  Such matters are for other articles.  What I’m focusing on is a concept that you can use with you in matters besides just nutrition:

Take an existing good thing and make improvements on it to make it a great thing.

Your blender can be your best friend.  V-8 Juice is one of my favorites.  It has the juice of tomatoes, celery, carrots, beets, and other vegetables in it.  It has a bunch of vitamins, such as A and C, as well as iron and calcium.  Why not “fortify” it?  Or a simple base of tomato juice, in your blender…. with beef?  Yeah, remember that ground beef article I wrote not too long ago?  Take a quarter of a pound for a two-cup serving of juice…throw in some garlic powder and blend it up to liquefy!  What you’re doing is you’re adding a bunch of protein to your diet, and breaking it down in the blender to make it more readily digestible for you!

Yes, the protein express…next stop, your stomach!  Seriously, you can tailor these things to the way you want them.  Why not “blend” up a dinner for yourself?  Bake up a chicken pot pie?  Now chop it up and blend the daylights out of it, with some water, and maybe even a little extra meat such as chicken or beef in it.  A hardcore protein “smoothie” right out of your blender.  Tomato juice is an excellent base for you, as you can chop up virtually any vegetable you have and add to it, blending it.

You aren’t limited to just red meat or poultry either.  Hemp seeds, kale, spinach, and others have a lot of vegetable protein to even things out.  Are you looking for gains?  Well, this is the way.  You can also cook up mashed potatoes and good brown rice and blend it along with the other goodies.  These will give you some carbs and minerals you need.  A complete meal poured right out of the pitcher!  When you make this up, you can store it in a jar and take it with you to work to pop out of the fridge when you have a meal.

There aren’t any limits on what you can blend up and eat except those you set on yourself.  Whether a full-blown “carnivore” such as myself or a vegan, you can find what you need and blend it up…helping to make it more readily-absorbable and digested by your system, for a fraction of what you would pay for it in a store.  So, down the hatch and bottoms up regarding the blender!  It’s a great tool to have in your corner in your training and nutrition battles.  JJ out!