One hundred and fifty days of green smoothies.
What does that mean exactly? That means I kept my first New Year's Resolution. Ever.
It started off as a 30-day challenge and then I was hooked. A "green smoothie," by the way, is a smoothie containing some sort of dark, leafy green (kale, spinach, chard, bok choy, etc.). The idea is to drink your veggies (though there is plenty of debate between the juice versus smoothie camps -- a debate I won't get into today).
Back to the challenge: One green smoothie for breakfast every day since the weekend following Christmas -- and sometimes one for dinner or a late afternoon pick-me-up. It has helped that Joe's on the bandwagon, too -- and that we splurged and spent the Christmas bonus check on a Vitamix (which is like having two horses on your counter ready to spring into some serious action at any moment).
The challenge, hosted by Simple Green Smoothies, provided great support, inspirational recipes, and tips (like, to avoid gross-out start with Beginner's Luck).
And then I started experimenting on my own, tossing this and that into my blender. But not totally at random. I learned from SGS that you almost always have smoothie success if you keep these "rules" in mind:
~ Winning ratio: 2 cups greens, 2 cups liquid, 3-4 cups fruit (makes 2 servings)
~ Make one of your cups of fruit a frozen fruit and you don't need ice
~ Blend the greens with the liquid first, then add the rest of the fruit to avoid leafy clumps
~ A banana can save a smoothie that needs a little something to improve it
~ Throw a couple of dates in to sweeten a smoothie
And this is just me, but I also add a couple tsps of matcha green tea powder and a sprinkle of chia seeds to my smoothies for cancer-fighting super powers!
Some of our family-invented favorites:
Lime-tastic!
2 cups baby kale (ribs removed)
1 cup coconut water
1/2 an English (seedless) cucumber
1/2 a lime (peel and all)
1 banana
1 cup frozen pineapple
Blueberry Ginger Cooler
2 cups baby spinach
2 cups coconut milk
1 banana
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 pear
1 inch chunk of fresh ginger
Lime Vitell (named by Nia, and given 3 stars by Nia!)
2 cups baby kale
2 cups coconut milk
1 handful cilantro
2 bananas
1 avocado
1/2 a lime (peel and all)
a few pinches of unsweetened coconut
Joe's Honeydew Smoothie
2 cups greens
2 cups coconut water
2 generous cups of fresh honeydew
1 cup frozen pineapple
1/4 of a lime (peel and all)
Blackberry Zing!
2 cups greens
1 cup coconut water
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1 orange (peeled, seeded)
2 bananas
1 cup frozen blackberries
Cheers!
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