Hi! My name is Brooke and I’m a garden growing - smoothie blending mamma.

I have a wicked awesome garden. I’ve been blending smoothies for my picky kiddos since February of 2011. I grow produce or know where to find it for an amazing deal – gather and store it like a squirrel. Stashing my frozen jewels in a chest freezer (confession, I have a small upright too) and blending it for my picky people keeps them healthy. We drink smoothies 5-6 days a week all year long. I’m also a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist.

So, why Think Inside the Blender?

I love exceptional nutrition and finding ways to make eating well affordable.  Eating well with picky people takes creativity and planning especially when it feels like a glob of peanutbutter jammed the fast forward button. I’ve been there, done that and came up with an amazing process for making smoothies easy, convenient, delicious and affordable.

Thank YOU for being here and for understanding that whole food is power!

One of the best ways to include whole foods into our daily routine is through the power of smoothies.

Including smoothies daily will help you get sick less often, amp up your energy level, improve your digestion and even help with weight loss.

Sick of sick kids?  Like sick up to here sick of it with fevers, coughing, weird rashes, boogers, scoots and heaving. Uggg, so sick of doctors’ offices, rearranging your work schedule and more importantly, I was tired of reacting to life rather than leading the adventure.

Our oldest missed 18 days of school in the 3rd grade. When I dug into what she was really eating it was very clear to me that she was lacking in a lot of areas. She loved mac and cheese, white bread, peanut butter and apples....incredibly picky. On top of that she was also a very difficult little person (not a bad kid, just hard….really hard) which made it easy to just give her what she liked so we would have one less meltdown.  She also had stomach aches all the time and could camp on the potty for ages. As a registered dietitian nutrionist, I knew better so I did something better for all of us.

Smoothies changed our lives. Fast forward to today, all three of our kids rarely miss school days for sickness. Our youngest just celebrated the 100th day of school in Kindergarten and (cue the drum roll please) has not missed a single day of school due to sickness!

Smoothies aren’t an occasional treat at our house. They are our daily dose of liquid love packed with energy and nutrition the way Mother Nature intended.  Once smoothies become a daily habit your energy level will skyrocket as your people become stronger and healthier.

GROW IT. FREEZE IT. BLEND IT. FEEL IT!

Since the spring of 2011, I have honed my smoothie blending skills to make it AFFORDABLE and DELICIOUS. The best way to make a new habit stick is to make sure it’s affordable. Smoothie love is awesome but buying puffy pillows of spinach and carts full of produce week after week can drain your budget and your resolve to blend for better health.  It won’t drain your budget with the ways I will teach you!

GROW IT. Growing as much produce as you can will make this lifestyle affordable. I’ll hold your hand and show you how easy it is to grow your own stuff in your garden you can use to make smoothie blending an affordable, incredible tasting daily habit.  We will start with the easy stuff that isn’t scary or intimidating and work up from there.

No garden space? Don’t stop reading, I have skills in finding barganista furgalista produce and will share that with you.  See my second blog post "5 Ways to Save Big on Produce" from May 9, 2015.

FREEZE IT. Summer of 2014, I literally packed over 100 1-gallon sacks of garden grown jewels. Yes, it takes time and effort but wow is it worth it!  I saved over $1600 last year by simply growing my own organic produce or finding it for free. $1600 people!!!! That math blows my mind!!!! I packed away nearly 450 pounds of home grown produce in one summer. Now that I think about it, I think I deserve a nap.

BLEND IT. This is where the magic happens. I’ll help you create a "go to base" and teach you how to add crazy powerful veggies without retaliation from your people. My kids drink broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, kale, spinach, chard, apricots, peaches, mango, pineapple, blackberries, raspberries, pears, apples and more!  Not all at once though.  What goes in the blender changes from week to week but we drink them with our dinner on a daily basis. I know how to make that rainbow filled blender look and taste not-so-scary and I want to teach you how!

You will FEEL IT. Smoothie's are a blend of powerful super foods that will leave you with more energy, less down time with sickness, better digestion and a healthier future one glass at a time. It may sound odd, but especially when we go on vacation and miss smoothies for a few days in a row, my pickiest daughter will even admit to missing how good they make her feel. Bear in mind, the team does grumble daily basis about having to drink them but too bad for them.  Smoothies are the only food they are ever required to finish at the dinner table. 

My dream is to help you figure out how you can make these changes in your own life to improve your health and the health of all the people in your life!

Think Inside the Blender but outside the box...one blender at a time!

Happy Blending!

Brooke