The Not So Green, Green Smoothie

Here's a little well known fact about me. It's something that I'm really good at. It's something I do well; something I've always done well. I guess you could say it's a strength of mine.

I'm excellent at eating junk food.

Like, excellent.

And I can put it away. This.girl.can.eat.

I eat Oreo's by the sleeve. I love all members of the carb family, especially when they marry a nice Mozzarella or Asiago and have an adorable pizza or pasta baby. When we get a pizza, especially BBQ Chicken pizza, I out eat my husband. I've pretty much always got a soda in my hand, and there is a drawer filing cabinet in my office devoted to one thing: candy.

That being said, I know the importance of fruits and veggies, and we always have plenty around the house. Not a meal is had without both of them (once I ran out of fresh fruit so we just had our regular meal with sides and veggies and my four year old said, "Mommy, you forgot to give me my bowl of fruit."), but that doesn't mean I don't need to be better.

One way I'm trying to cram in what's good for me (and use it to replace, oh say, my second pizza of the day), is my morning smoothie. My goal is to have one every single morning (as my breakfast--okay, there may be granola bars involved as well from time to time) and on the mornings when I don't have one, I can tell the difference in not only my hunger level throughout the day, but my energy level. It is really sweet and you don't taste the greens at all. I love feeling like I just had a treat, but knowing that I got all of those veggies and greens in my system.  However, I don't do well with a green smoothie. Maybe it's psychological, maybe it's that they taste like crap...but they're just not my thing. So this is my take on the green smoothie, even though it's not quite so green.

 

Here's the recipe:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.     8 oz. Apple Juice (Any juice is fine, or even water. Just make sure your juice is NOT juice cocktail. 100% juice, only. No added sugar, or else you might as well just drink fruit punch.)
2.     8 (ish) frozen strawberries
3.     1/2 frozen banana
4.     1/4 cup frozen blueberries
5.     1/4 cup frozen raspberries or peaches (optional)

Blend until liquid and moving easily through the blender. Then add about 1 1/2 cups fresh spinach (without stems) one at a time until they're completely blended, followed by about 1/2 cup of fresh kale (without stems). I use my Ninja blender, and it works great, although Vitamix is the bomb.com.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On my busy work mornings, I mix it up as soon as I get up, and keep it next to me all morning as I'm getting ready. If it's not all gone by the time I head out the door, I just take it with me! But on mornings like today (Saturday), magazines are definitely involved. And always a straw.

Share your smoothie recipes with me!!

-L