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As you may know, my weight loss healthy eating plan has so far been almost entirely based around a weekly Mindful Chef recipe box.
This has worked so well for me.
The Mindful Chef recipe boxes just take all of the time and effort out of healthy eating - I've lost so much weight, and got so much more fit and healthy over the last 9 months, since starting with these meals.
Mindful Chef shop range
It's not just healthy recipe boxes on offer from Mindful Chef though. They have an ever-increasing range of additional shop products, including healthy frozen ready meals, soups & broths, nutritious smoothies, healthy(ish!) desserts, and breakfasts.
I've been particularly curious about the smoothies for a while, so this week I've decided I'm going to give them a try.
Mindful Chef nutritious smoothies range
There are currently 13 different smoothies to choose from. Each smoothie flavour is sold in a pack of 5 and costs £12.00, so that works out at £2.40 per smoothie. Maybe that sounds like a lot - but when you think people regularly pay more than that for a not-very-nice, burnt-tasting cup of coffee, from places like Starbucks, it's not at all bad really!
The new Signature Smoothies range
Three of the smoothies available are a part of the new 'Signature Smoothies' range - a selection of more luxurious, creamily textured and indulgent smoothies. These smoothies are priced just a little higher, at £12.50 for a pack of 5, which works out at £2.50 per smoothie - so if you're looking to indulge it will cost you an extra 10 pence per smoothie.
The new Mindful Chef Signature Smoothies range - 1. Cheery Cherry 2. Green Zinger 3. Peanut Butter Lover
Mindful Chef smoothies bundles
I'm really not sure which flavours I want to try first - it would be good if there were an option to 'create your own bundle,' containing just one of each flavour that you wish to try. Sadly, this isn't an option at the moment - they do have a selection of pre-selected bundles available though.
After some thought, I decide to go with a couple of the bundle options. The bundles will enable me to try out a range of different smoothies - and at a slightly reduced price, compared to buying several packs of the smoothies individually.
The Mindful Chef Nut Butter smoothie bundle
For my first choice I can't resist trying the slightly indulgent sounding Signature Smoothies, which have all been bundled together in the Nut Butter smoothie bundle. As per the bundle name, each of these smoothies contains a nut butter product to create a more rich and creamy taste - almond butter in the case of the Green Zinger and Cheery Cherry smoothies, and peanut butter for the Peanut Butter Lover smoothie.
The Mindful Chef Green Cleanser smoothie bundle
To balance out all of the indulgence, I feel obligated to also order the super-healthy looking Green Cleanser bundle. This bundle contains the Kicking Kale, the Supergreens and the Matcha Green smoothies.
Mindful Chef smoothie delivery
The good thing about the Mindful Chef shop range is that it's a lot more speedy to arrive than the recipe boxes. With the recipe boxes you have to place your order at least 4 days in advance. With all of the shop range products though, you can order as late as 7pm the night before and still get your delivery the very next day.
In addition to this, if your order is over £24 you'll get free delivery (orders under £24 incur a £4.95 delivery fee).
So I don't have long at all to wait for my order to arrive. The very next morning I receive an exciting box, filled with tonnes of little smoothie portions.
How to make a Mindful Chef smoothie
The next challenge for me is figuring out how to make a smoothie. I feel like it should be a simple thing - but I've never made a smoothie before, so I spend a few minutes staring blankly at my new NutriBullet blender and my Mindful Chef smoothie portion, wondering what on earth to do next.
My mind is filled with questions. Do I defrost the ingredients first? How does this NutriBullet thing work? Do you have to add liquid to a smoothie? If so, how much...?
After a couple of minutes research on the Internet I discover that it is actually ridiculously easy to make a smoothie! (You don't need to defrost the ingredients first, you do need to add liquid, and the NutriBullet thing just magically turns itself on when you screw the cup into place).
So here's how to make a Mindful Chef smoothie:
- Grab the smoothie portion of your choice from the freezer.
- Cut open the portion. Throw the frozen contents into the NutriBullet*** cup.
- Top the NutriBullet cup up to the 'max' line, with a liquid of your choice (something like coconut milk, soya milk, oat milk, or even water - I went for oat milk).
- Fasten the lid onto the cup and screw it back onto the NutriBullet.
- Wait for a minute whilst the machine does it's stuff.
- Stop the machine by unscrewing the cup. Pour out your smoothie.
- Drink it!
*** Of course, you don't have to use a NutriBullet blender - any similar blender will do.
Here's a cheesy video of me making my first Mindful Chef smoothie, to demonstrate just how quick and easy it is!
Mindful Chef smoothies nutritional information
My only concern is that fruit smoothies contain quite a lot of sugar, which perhaps isn't ideal when I'm still trying to lose weight.
I decided to create a sortable table, to make it easier to compare the nutritional information, and in particular, the sugar content of the smoothies. The table below shows the sugar content of all of the currently available Mindful Chef smoothies, as well as the calories, carbs, fibre and protein content. Just click on the table headers to sort the table:
| Smoothie | Calories (kcal) | Fat (saturated) | Fat (unsaturated) | Carbs (g) | Sugar (g) | Fibre (g) | Protein (g) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheery Cherry | 121 | 0.3 | 3.2 | 21 | 19.4 | 3.0 | 2.5 |
| Green Zinger | 169 | 0.7 | 7.7 | 18.2 | 16.8 | 2.8 | 5.3 |
| Peanut Butter Lover | 309 | 5.2 | 8.9 | 36.4 | 31 | 6.6 | 16 |
| Big Baobab Breakfast | 126 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 19.7 | 11.3 | 5.0 | 3.1 |
| Blackberry Boost | 120 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 19.6 | 10.4 | 6.6 | 3.2 |
| Coconut Bliss | 125 | 1.3 | 3.9 | 16.8 | 16.7 | 2.2 | 1.3 |
| Golden Turmeric | 113 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 20.0 | 17.9 | 3.6 | 2.2 |
| Hydrating Honeydew | 34 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 3.8 | 3.6 | 2.3 | 2.0 |
| Kicking Kale | 139 | 1.3 | 5.8 | 11.8 | 10.2 | 3.4 | 4.9 |
| Mandarin Energiser | 76 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 15.5 | 14.1 | 2.9 | 1.1 |
| Matcha Green | 86 | 2.4 | 2.2 | 15.4 | 12.3 | 2.5 | 3.5 |
| Papaya Sunrise | 60 | 0 | 0.4 | 12.4 | 11.7 | 2.9 | 0.6 |
| Strawberry Cherry Bomb | 84 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 17.5 | 15.7 | 3.6 | 1.7 |
| Supergreens | 99 | 1.0 | 3.5 | 10.8 | 9.9 | 3.4 | 2.2 |
The sugar content of the Mindful Chef smoothies varies quite drastically depending on the fruits. At the lowest end the Hydrating Honeydew smoothie only contains 3.6g of sugar. At the more indulgent end a Peanut Butter Lover smoothie contains 31g of sugar. (It's worth noting though, that whilst the Peanut Butter Lover smoothie is high in sugar, it's also the highest protein smoothie available - so it's all 'swings and roundabouts' really...)
It's interesting to be able to compare the sugar content, and I think I will be mindful to mostly stick to ordering the lower sugar smoothies in the future. To be honest though, I think perhaps I shouldn't be worrying myself too much about it - as long as this smoothie is the only sugary thing I'm having each day, the benefit of getting a wider range of nutrients into my diet, probably outweighs the negativity of a little extra sugar intake.
As long as I'm staying active, I think just one smoothie a day probably isn't going to be enough to reverse the weight loss progress I'm making.
The verdict on Mindful chef smoothies
They get the thumbs up from me. They're reasonably priced, so quick and easy to prepare, and taste great. My favourite smoothie was most definitely the Peanut Butter Lover smoothie, as it was so decadently rich, sweet and creamy - but even the green ones, which I was a little suspicious of, tasted good!
Purchasing your Mindful Chef smoothies
Simply head over to the Mindful Chef shop, fill your shopping cart with your chosen nutritious smoothies (and perhaps also some healthy ready meals, soups & broths, healthy(ish!) desserts, and breakfasts), then head over to the checkout to pay for your goods. You won't have long to wait - for orders over £24 placed by 7pm there is free next day delivery.
Weekly food diary
This week I have been eating...
Monday
Breakfast: A bowl of muesli with oat milk. One cup of black coffee.
Snack: A banana. A plain natural yoghurt.
Lunch: Mindful Chef's Jackfruit masala with coriander rava dosa.
Snack: Two cups of tea, each with a dash of oat milk.
Dinner: Mindful Chef's Jackfruit masala with coriander rava dosa.
Snack: A small bowl of muesli with oat milk.
Tuesday
Breakfast: Two Weetabix with oat milk. One cup of black coffee.
Snack: None today.
Lunch: Three scrambled eggs on brown buttered toast, with spinach. A Mindful Chef smoothie.
Snack: Two cups of tea, each with a dash of oat milk.
Dinner: Mindful Chef's chicken and cavolo nero with sage butternut hash.
Snack: A small bowl of muesli with oat milk.
Wednesday
Breakfast: Two Weetabix with oat milk. One cup of black coffee.
Snack: None today.
Lunch: Two boiled eggs with spinach. A Mindful Chef smoothie.
Snack: Two cups of tea, each with a dash of oat milk. A banana.
Dinner: Mindful Chef's chicken and cavolo nero with sage butternut hash.
Snack: A small bowl of muesli with oat milk.
Thursday
Breakfast: Two Weetabix with oat milk. Two or three cups of black coffee throughout the morning.
Snack: None today.
Lunch: Two boiled eggs with spinach. A Mindful Chef smoothie.
Snack: Two cups of tea, each with a dash of oat milk. A banana.
Dinner: Mindful Chef's salmon, poached egg, tenderstem and seaweed.
Snack: A small bowl of muesli with oat milk.
Friday
Breakfast: A bowl of muesli with oat milk. One cup of black coffee.
Snack: None today.
Lunch: Two soft-boiled dipping eggs, with one piece of brown buttered bread and some spinach. A Mindful Chef smoothie.
Snack: Two cups of tea, each with a dash of oat milk. A chocolate chip cookie.
Dinner: Mindful Chef's salmon, poached egg, tenderstem and seaweed.
Snack: A small bowl of muesli with oat milk.
Saturday
Breakfast: Two Weetabix with oat milk. Two or three cups of black coffee throughout the morning.
Snack: None today.
Lunch: Two soft-boiled dipping eggs, with one piece of brown buttered bread and some spinach. A Mindful Chef smoothie.
Snack: Two cups of tea, each with a dash of oat milk. A chelsea bun.
Dinner: Mindful Chef's smoky chimichurri and black beans with sweet potato.
Snack: A small bowl of muesli with oat milk.
Sunday
Breakfast: Two Weetabix with oat milk. One cup of black coffee.
Snack: None today.
Lunch: Two soft-boiled dipping eggs, with one piece of brown buttered bread, and some spinach. A Mindful Chef smoothie.
Snack: One cup of tea with a dash of oat milk.
Dinner: Mindful Chef's smoky chimichurri and black beans with sweet potato.
Snack: A small bowl of muesli with oat milk.
1. Chicken & cavolo nero with sage butternut hash 2. Smoky chimichurri & black beans with sweet potato 3. Jackfruit masala with coriander rava dosa 4. Salmon, poached egg, tenderstem & seaweed
Up next - my weight loss journey week 40
Lisa
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