Super Green - Tart Smoothie

Inspired by my trip to Whole Foods where I saw kiwis and had to buy them, I bring you: Super Green!

Super Green - Tart Smoothie

1 green apple cut in half

2 giant kale leaves

1 small avocado (not necessary but makes it creamy)

1 peeled kiwi

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

6 or 7 ice cubes

1 cup of apple juice

1/2 cup of water

1 Tbsp agave nectar 

(or your sweetener of choice)

Makes 36 oz / 4 medium cups

Pretty green ey? And here is the best news. After sitting down with his smoothie G-boy said - I kid you not - "This is the best! You should make this one all the time!" C-baby had no words but came back for seconds.  I use a Breville which makes this combo very drinkable but I do still dream about a Vita-mix. Someday friends, someday.

And because I am sooooo super healthy I made this for dessert. So bad! I'm working to slaughter my old personal 5k record in March so I am pushing my runs and I have many thoughts of eating better. My first idea was to cut out the late night eating. Can't do it. So I decided I'm going to cut fast food completely and drink a smoothie a day. I'll let you know how it goes.

Enjoy the green!

♥

The Friendly Green Smoothie

Working overtime I've gotten lazy about my vegetables so I'm easing myself, and the children, back into it with a very friendly, Jamba Juice inspired, green smoothie. All the goodness and a spoon full of sugar to help the medicine go down. There are a lot of ingredients as I just went grocery shopping yesterday so feel free to take out a few you don't have but get yourself some orange sherbet it's the key to a friendly green drink.

Friendly Green Smoothie

1 celery stick

2 medium juicing carrots

1/3 cucumber

1 scoop of orange sherbet ice cream (that's the Jamba influence)

5 frozen strawberries

1/2 large banana

1 scoop plain greek yogurt

1 scoop vanilla Arbonne protein powder - optional

3 or 4 giant kale leaves (you'll have to squish to fit)

apple juice and water to blend

Very green and very good. I've made it two days in a row now.

Citrus-Green Juice

Oh man! I just made a really good smoothie. I wasn't going to share but now I feel I have to. I think you'll like it!

by my estimation it was:

1/3 a blender of kale

3 large beet greens I had left over

3 ice cubes

4 large baby carrots or one large carrot

5 whole frozen strawberries

1/2 can of pineapple + juice

1/2 cup apple juice

1 cup orange juice

makes 2 large glasses

It was more of a juice consistency than a smoothie, goes down easy!

Let me know if you try it.

♥

Strawberry Asparagus Smoothie

Tim hates asparagus so we don't eat it much but I wanted to take it on in a smoothie. I google-looked for recipes of asparagus smoothies and they don't seem very popular. If you want to be daring try mine!

6 asparagus sticks

7 whole frozen strawberries

(I like to defrost, I feel like they have a little more flavor that way)

1 & 1/2 cups of plain greek yogurt

1 big squeeze of the honey bear

1 tsp vanilla

(or just get a sweeter vanilla yogurt)

5 ice cubes

(I always do this so it's nice and cold)

3/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup water

C baby and Tim(!) approved it. It has a good balance of flavors and a great consistency, just like a healthy milkshake.

Also try my original green smoothie recipes.

♥

Red Beet Smoothies

Hey green smoothie people, have you ever gone red? Try a beet smoothie!

I've done it before, but this time I learned (from The Chew maybe) that you can use the beet leaves too. I didn't know! It all looks so gross I thought I was doing well just eating the beet! I bought these three for $1.50 a bunch.

Wash,

cut the top and bottom off the beet,

peel,

and quarter.

Toss in the raw cut beet and the greens.

I also added:

a cup of yogurt

5 ice cubes

1 table spoon of honey

4 table spoons of lime juice

1 apple cut in fours

(leave the seeds)

4 baby carrots

1+ cups of apple juice

This recipe doesn't hide the beet flavor so you need to like beets at least a little. When I asked G boy if he liked the green or the red better he couldn't tell me as he was gulping it down.

WARNING: Don't serve when the family is all wearing white! My blender makes extra froth on this one where a Vita-Mix would emulsify it better.

I found this website with some great healthy recipes, including a beet plum smoothie. The plum should help with the beet flavor if you need to mask it. I say if the kids can handle it the parents should too...

This website is great to find some nutritional info on your veggies.

Good luck!

♥

The Green Smoothie

You are going to see my eating habits here and they are not similar to Bob Harper's.

I eat cheese on everything, dip my veggies in ranch, and LOVE my burgers and chicken fingers! But I also play volleyball avidly, run 3 times a week with my gal pal, and feel emotionally and physically more fit than ever before in my life. I just hiked/ran Mt. Rose summit yesterday in 3 hours 40 minutes ( I know because we had to pick up G Boy from school by 3! ). The three things I do for my health and the health of my kids:

(1) little to no soda

(2) cooking 90% of our meals at home

and

(3) green smoothies!

I've been asked by a few of my friends how I make my green smoothies - mainly because my kids adore them and we all know how big of an asset that is! Guess what - I don't have a recipe! But for you I'm going to try my best. And the good news is you get to play with it until your family loves it as much as mine. You can be a hardcore raw-foodie in this or go my way and just make veggies taste good for the family.

The general concept is to keep some fruits and veggies in the house (frozen and fresh) and mix and match till your heart's content. You can also add protein power. I have a vanilla powder from Arbonne I like.

My favorites ingredients are kale, apples, carrots, tomatoes, & apple juice; I try to keep these around as much as possible and others like strawberries, spinach, yogurt, and peaches, I use on occasion.

I know some people need more direction that that, totally understandable! So here's two recipes you can feel free to follow or hack:

Today's smoothie with what I had on hand (I'll call it Super Green):

a cup of spinach

(I usually don't use spinach but stole some from dinner at my mom's last night)

3/4 my blender of (un-squished) kale leaves

4 large baby carrots

1 small tomato

1 cup of vanilla yogurt

5 ice cubes

1 cup of apple juice

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As you can see I didn't have any fruit on hand as it's time to go to the store soon and the apple tree in the backyard is past harvest for humans and on to the bird harvest. BUT the apple juice and yogurt will punch it up enough to get those veggies down - and you probably would have fed those items to your kid today anyway.

My more normal smoothie (I'll call it The Awesome Abby):

1 whole apple cut into 4's

4 baby carrots

5 frozen strawberries

3/4 a blender of fluffy kale leaves

5 ice cubes

1 cup of apple juice

1 big scoop of vanilla yogurt

And that's it! Well one more thing - if your blender sucks, your smoothie may too. Serious raw-foodies use a Vita-Mix. If you can afford it, go for it! My husband wasn't going to lay down $500 for a pregnant wife (at the time) who had a juice craving so we ended up buying a Breville from Bed Bath and Beyond. We even were blessed to pick up the floor model for 60% off! I suggest you start with what you have and after the kids drink 30 cups of kale your husband may just start to see the investment!

I'll try to get more green smoothie recipes to you approved by my kids G Boy and C Baby soon. I hoped this helped!

♥

Special Note on KALE: This green seems to last the longest in the fridge. I use a "FridgeSmart" system from Tupperware but my mom just washes and puts into a ziplock bag (wet-ish) accompanied by 3 paper towel sheets. It lasts at least two weeks, maybe three. And there's always a first time, if you don't know what kale looks like go here.