UPDATE (02/09/2012): We’re extending the signup deadline by popular request. Lots of people are sesigning & ordering new business cards for the exchange. What a great idea! For now, it looks like we’ll start collecting cards from everyone in April. A hard deadline will be set soon. Check back for more updates.

What’s a Business Card Exchange?

Back in 2010, around this time of the year actually, I participated in a really cool event called a “Business Card Exchange”. It was hosted by one of my designer friends, Meredith Marsh, and I have wanted to host my own exchange ever since.

Well, as you might imagine, it is an organized exchange of business cards. One person decides to host the exchange and then a number of individuals all send a predetermined quantity of their own business cards into the host. Once all of the participants have mailed their cards in, the host then divides all of the cards into evenly divided stacks of cards. Each stack of cards consists of one copy of every card that was sent in. So, if 30 people participate, all 30 people get 30 unique cards in the mail! Fun, eh?

Why would I do this?

Well, there’s lots of different reasons, however my own favorite is inspiration. Business cards are very personal and often times, very creative. It can be hard to find really creative cards in small communities, where there aren’t that many designers or agencies. Also, business cards differ greatly based on the region, state, country they come from. I learned this in the last Business Card Exchange I participated in. The cards varied in color, size, paper stock, printing technique and content.

See a sampling of what I received last time I did this.

Who can participate?

Anyone who has a creative business card! You don’t have to be a designer to have an awesome card. If you’re business card is a plain old, white business card with nothing special about it…get a new card! If you’re card has a certain quality, personality or even spunk to it…share it!

What do I have to do?

It’s super easy!

1. Fill out the form below.
2. After a couple weeks I’ll email everyone to let them know how many participants we have, so they know how many cards to send. I’ll also give out my mailing address at that point.
3. I’ll receive the cards from everyone, sort them and mail your stack of various cards out!
4. You receive your very own stack of creative business cards from all over the world!

Space is limited! Don’t miss out! Note: Tentative deadline to have cards mailed in is March 17, 2012. This may change based on participants. We have several people ordering new cards for this exchange!

Original Doodle:

I just really don’t like this game. I know, I know. It’s “really similar to Minecraft”, but it honestly isn’t. The only thing that’s similar is that you dig a lot and the texture are a bit familiar. Other than that, it’s Minecraft-done-badly.

On the “annoyed me oh so much list”: graphics, side-scrolling in an environment with “3rd Dimension” objects, annoying sounds, counter-intuitive menus and interface. Waste of $9.99, in my opinion.

Description & Comments here.

==[NARWHAL]===
Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to show your support!

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===============
Blog: http://blog.steventrotter.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/steventrotter
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===============
You can play with us on our public server here: http://darkfission.net!
Just create an account and add yourself to the white list.
View on YouTube

==[NARWHAL]===
Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to show your support!

http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=narwhalmc

===============
Blog: http://blog.steventrotter.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/steventrotter
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NarwhalMC
===============
You can play with us on our public server here: http://darkfission.net!
Just create an account and add yourself to the white list.
View on YouTube

Going into making green smoothies we needed to decide what equipment to purchase. I knew we needed two things: a good blender and a juicer. I know, I know….you can make green smoothies without a juicer. However, I’m not a huge fan of bananas so I have to substitute from time to time with more fruit. Unless you have a Blendtech or Vitamix ($500?!) though, you cannot reduce all fruit to liquid very well. Apples make apple sauce, most berries have annoying seeds, mangos are mushy, etc. I’m a texture person and if there’s too much texture in something I’m drinking – I’m not going to enjoy it at all. My solution is to juice those fruits that don’t blend well.

We have been using the Ninja Master Prep for over a year now and it has never let us down. We actually used it to make our first 20 green smoothies or so, but it quickly started to get dull after using it regularly. We decided to step up to an actual blender and our natural first choice was the Ninja Professional Blender. We’ve used other brands in the past and our experience with them is that they (a) don’t crush ice very well and (b) burn out quickly. We had put our Ninja Master Prep though hell over the past year making dozens and dozens of mixed drinks, smoothies and milk shakes. There were a couple of things we really liked about the Ninja over everything else we had tried: removable blade, strong motor, and easy to clean. All of these things were included in the larger Professional Blender.

We’ve been using the Ninja Professional Blender for about a week now and it has been great! Here’s a run down of my favorite features:

• 1000 Watt Motor – For the price ($100, not on sale) this things packs a punch. To get much more power, like 100-200 more watts, you have to pay twice the price.
• Removable Blades – So, so easy to clean. This also allows the Ninja to blend things that more expensive blenders cannot. The Ninja features three blades which run up the center of the jar. Both Blendtech and Vitamix have blades at the bottom of the jar. Just try blending a jar full of frozen bananas in one of those brands. You can’t without adding milk or some other liquid. The blade just spins at the bottom. With the Ninja, it pulls all the contents down and then pushes it back up again. Sure, maybe you can’t blend an iPad with it, but I’m not putting an iPad into my smoothie anytime soon. I am making banana ice cream with it though.
• BPA-free, plastic jar – I’m clumsy. Really clumsy. I have broken my fair share of glass pots, glass lids and glass cups. I love that I can toss this thing around the kitchen (see below for photo).
• Awesome pour spout – The pouring spout on this thing is amazing. It is built into the lid and you can pour twice as fast using this versus the traditional pouring straight from the jar. You also don’t make a mess when the smoothie is really thick and wants to come out in a big lump of frozen yumminess.
• 72 ounce jar – This thing is huge. I can make 4 smoothies at one time, or I can make a single smoothie. The key is that I can choose. Every night I make 5 cups of smoothie for the next day. If Crystal and I decide to make the same recipe, I can also make all 4 in one batch. Less time blending, less clean up.

Now that we’ve been drinking green smoothies for over two weeks, we’ve gathered some recipes we really like. A few of these mention fruit juice. This requires a juicer, which has been a welcome addition to our appliances since we started this journey. It has quickly become a favorite for the whole family. We use it to make juice to use as a base for our smoothies, fresh apple and orange juice, and we’ve also just been throwing lots of fruit and vegetables at it just to see what we can come up with. We’ll post some juicing recipes at some point as we come up with some good combinations.

I have really enjoyed adding juiced fruits to my smoothies. It makes a much more texture-free smoothie, which is an issue for me. If there’s too much texture, I usually don’t finish my smoothie because I get tired of the texture. Since they make up two meals a day, I need to finish them whenever possible. Adding the juice instead, creates a much smoother smoothie. ;P

Note: Honey can be left out or replaced with agave nectar. Our local Kroger stocks some yummy organic agave nectar. You can also leave out the flax if you want. We add it to everything, but we really like the calorie boost it gives us and all of the other benefits you get from it. You can read more about green smoothie ingredient benefits here.

Apple Banana Pear Green Smoothie
1 cup water
1 apple (chopped or 2 apples juiced)
1 pear (chopped or 2 pears juiced)
1 banana
1 cup of greens of choice (romaine/spinach/chard/kale)
1 tbsp local honey
1 tbsp flax oil (or milled flax seeds)
Blend!

Mango Orange Pineapple Green Smoothie
1 cup water
1 orange (chopped or juiced)
1 mango (chopped really well or juiced)
1/2 cup pineapple chunks (or juiced)
1 cup of greens of choice (romaine/spinach/chard/kale)
1 tbsp local honey
1 tbsp flax oil (or milled flax seeds)
Blend!

Strawberry Banana Frozen Breakfast Green Smoothie
1 cup ice
1/2 cup water
2 bananas (sliced and frozen for 3hrs)
4 strawberries
1 cup of greens of choice (romaine/spinach/chard/kale)
1 tbsp local honey
1 tbsp flax oil
Blend! (this one is really thick)

Wild Berry Frozen Breakfast Green Smoothie
1 cup ice
1/2 cup water
2 bananas (sliced and frozen for 3hrs)
1 cup of frozen berries (blueberries/raspberries/blackberries)
1 cup of greens of choice (romaine/spinach/chard/kale)
1 tbsp local honey
1 tbsp flax oil
Blend! (again…really thick)

A few people have asked me “what’s the benefits of the green in green smoothies?”.

So, Crystal and I decided to break down the list of basic ingredients and give the benefits of each one. We also tossed in a few extras which are popular, but not required in a basic green smoothie recipe.

Greens (in general) – a perfect food which consists of everything we need to maintain a lenghty, althetic life. But, they must be one part of a mixture to ensure we get everything we need.

• Protein – A “perfect protein” is one which looks most like human flesh, however many people are shocked to learn that broccoli and spinach contain more than 40% protein.
• Chlorophyll – They also have chlorophyll and blood building properties. Chlorophyll neutralizes internal body odors, as well as bad breath. It also mops up free radicals that cause cancer and all other degenerative disorders.
• Calcium – Not only provided by dairy products, it’s found in high numbers in greens. The best sources are collards, parsley, watercress, dandelion greens, beet greens and kale.
• Fiber – Another must have for digestion, also aids in cancer prevention, reducing cholesterol and heart disease, as well as preventing gall stones, binds excess estrogen and assists in weight loss by creating a feeling of “fullness”.
• Folic Acid & Magnesium – Helps to prevent birth defects in pregnant women.
• Antioxidants – Vitamans A, C & E are present and bind with free radicals, which if left to their dastardly deeds can do all kinds of damage.

Spinach – Very versatile, mild tasting and cheap as compared to other greens, therefore it is really good for starters. It’s over 42% protein and also provides folic acid, iron, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C. Because of the protein  it provides, this is the “meat” of the smoothie. If you need more protein, you can add brown rice protein to make up the difference.

Swiss Red Chard – Easy to grow year round and can be harvest very often. There are many difference varities, this being one of them. They are very high in vitamins A & C.

Celery – This vegetable is high in vitamin A, B, B2, B6, A, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium. Celery is known to relieve high blood pressure for centuries in Asia. Today, we have evolved to eat only the green stalks. However, we use to eat the roots, stalks and the green, leafy tops. When making your green smoothie, toss the whole thing in there. Don’t worry…it’ll be fine.

Bananas - Potassium is the obvious one here. Adding a banana per smoothie provides much more potassium than anything you could pick up on the way to work routinely. I am able to maintain my needed level of potassium solely because of this. Without the potassium from the bananas, I would be 1500-1800 under my daily goal. If you’ve ever tried counting your potassium intake…you’ll know what I’m talking about. It doesn’t really come in abundant amounts in anything.

Flax Oil - Adding a few tablespoons to your smoothies add some “good fat” to your smoothie, which allows the many  minerals you are ingesting from the greens to process efficiently. Using flax oil is also a much safer alternative to fish oil. Flax oil has 80 times more lignans than the next highest food. Lignan acts as an antioxidant.

Although flax seed contains all sorts of healthy components, it owes its healthy reputation primarily to three ingredients:

• Omega-3 essential fatty acids, “good” fats that have been shown to have heart-healthy effects.
• Each tablespoon of ground flaxseed contains about 1.8 grams of plant omega-3s.
• Lignans, which have both plant estrogen and antioxidant qualities.
• Flax seed contains 75-800 times more lignans than other plant foods.
• Flax seed contains both the soluble and insoluble types of Fiber.

Lemons (with rind) – Can be a bit bitter, but honey and agave nectar can balance it out easily. With it’s potent flavonoids, lemon has been proven by research to kill and prevent skin cancers.

Honey – Very concentrate and perfect for smoothies. If consumed raw, it has the ability to clear or cure seasonal allergy issues. The downside is that honey is located low on the glycemic index, so it is very high in sugar. This could cause negative reactions to those with an active diabetic situation.
Two substitutes for honey, which are lower in sugar, are agave nectar and stevia. Both should be easy to find at your local grocery store.

Apples – Very high in vitamin C, beta carotene, and phyto-nutrients, flavonoids and polyphenois. A good source of B-complex vitamins, such as  B6,riboflavin and thiamine.

Cherries – they are high in antioxidants, as well as a large amount of melatonin. A bow full of cherries may have enough anti-inflammatory to combat the  inflammation which can complicate symptoms of arthritis and gout. Cherries also bring vitamin A & C, calcium, iron and a very small amount of protein to the table. Not bad for a little ol’ berry.

One week ago I began my green smoothie journey. After tons of research and watching a couple of documentaries, I decided to dive head first into this green smoothie movement and see if it could finally get me back on track to being healthy. Over the past year I have tried every diet known to man and my health has gotten worse. I guess it would help to start with my health status going into this transition. In short…it’s depressing:

• blood pressure – high, with medication (177/114)
• diabetes type 2 – minor, daily problems w/glucose levels
• weight – obese, 307lbs
• pain – chronic (arthritic hip, gall stones, fused vertebrae)
• sleep – 3hrs naturally, 8hrs if aided by Ambien & CPAP
• mental – moody and emotional

The Goal

So, just over a week ago, I decided to start the transition from meat-lover to plant-lover. Over the next few months my goal is to transition into a as-close-to-vegan-as-possible raw, seasonal diet. The first step in the process was to start with green smoothies, twice a day. For breakfast and lunch – plants only. For dinner – cooked vegetarian meals. I’ll keep this up until my body adjusts and then I will start introducing raw dinners.

Green Smoothies: Easy & Tasty

The green smoothies have been great. I was very skeptical going in, but I was so wrong. These things are great tasting and you wouldn’t believe the results in just a week’s time! I have stuck to a very basic recipe, which is very cheap and very easy to remember. I prepare two smoothies every night and place those into BPA-free smoothie containers over night. Here’s my starter recipe:

• 16oz of filtered water
• 2 large handfuls of organic spinach (baby spinach will work as well)
• 1 stalk of celery
• 2 tbsp Barlean’s flax seed oil (and/or 3 tbsp ground flax seeds)
• 2 tbsp raw, local honey
• [BLEND]
• 2 organic bananas
• 1 cup of additional fresh fruit, remove all pits (raspberries, blueberries, cherries, peaches, etc.)
• [BLEND]

Depending on your blender, you might want to chop up every ingredient. I use a Ninja Kitchen System (very sharp blade which spans the length of the blender jar) and the only thing I have to chop up are larger fruit such as mangos, peaches, etc. If your blender has a single blade at the bottom of the jar, you might want to blend after each ingredient to get a smoother blend.

This recipe makes 32oz or so of smoothie. Depending on the fruit you use, you might get more or less. Also, depending on which fruit you chose, your smoothie might range anywhere from bright green to a brown (berries tend to make smoothies brown or purple).

You can also use frozen fruit if you’d like to. I don’t prefer them since I am trying to stick to fruits which are in season, but if I’m short on time or if I want a thicker smoothie, I’ll use them.

Results After 7 Days

The results have been amazing. The first couple of days were rough, to say the least. Part of the green smoothie benefits is a detoxing of your body. In my case, I was accustomed to caffeine and fried foods.
For the first couple of days I had terrible headaches, diarrhea and couldn’t think clearly. I couldn’t concentrate on a single task, much less take on my usual load of multitasking my multitasks.

These are side effects of the detoxing. You body is using stored fat, as well as cleansing stored toxins. This causes all kinds of stuff to get mixed up until the detox is over. For me, this lasted for 3 full days.

After the detox was over though, the benefits quickly kicked in:

• blood pressure – lowered slightly (down to 153/89)
• diabetes type 2 – no symptoms
• weight – 18lbs lost
• pain – slight pain in hips only
• sleep – 5hrs naturally, 9hrs if aided by Ambien & CPAP
• mental – energetic and positive

A very noticeable difference, after only 7 days.

Vegetarian Transition

Switching over to even just 7 vegetarian meals a week has proven to be a challenge. I have to retrain my taste buds and my knowledge of vegetables and fruits. I had no idea just how little I knew about vegetables and fruit, until I decided to eat nothing but that. By the third night, I was out of clever recipes.
A quick trip to the bookstore helped a little, but I am still struggling to come up with dishes I’ll enjoy for this week. We’ll see how it goes.

Crystal, my wife, has graciously taken on this challenge with me. I couldn’t ask for better support from her. She’s been amazing. She’s also built up quite the collection of books on the topics of green smoothies and transitioning to a raw lifestyle. I’ll get a list of books together for my next post.

Until next week…bottoms up!