Going Green

Ever since Sophie got her braces we have been making a lot more smoothies. She was using the excuse that she can't have some fruits and veggies because they were too hard for her braces. So I started blending them up and we now drink them. I get out my blender so often I might as well leave it out on the counter, but I don't.

I have been hearing more and more about Green Smoothies and have looked at a number of websites and blogs that talk about them and give recipes and such. My kids don't seem to mind the green color and often it turns brownish when I have both a lot of greens and then frozen strawberries or such. The drinks go down pretty easily. So I make at least one green smoothie a day. The kids each have a cup and I feel good that they are getting their veggies for the day.

I have put carrots, squash, spinach and any other lettuce greens that I have around into my smoothies. As long as you have a strong tasting fruit like bananas or pineapple mixed in, you can't really taste the veg.

Here is the one I made yesterday. It is a lovely shade of green. All the fruit I had on hand were yellowish colored so the large amount of spinach gave it this vibrant color.

I usually start by filling the blender with huge handfuls of spinach. I pack it in because when It is blended it doesn't take up as much space. Usually I add a little liquid. What ever I have on hand. This day I had some orange juice. So I just add a little so the spinach as something to blend into. Once that was done, I put in a few spoonfuls of plain yogurt. I don't always add yogurt but I did this day. It lighted up the green color.

I then added my last speckled banana (another good thing is that the fruit that is getting a little over ripe, can just be thrown in and nobody complains about the brown spots.) a nectarine and an apple. That was all the fresh fruit I had on hand since it is shopping day tomorrow. I was going to add a few frozen berries (I have a bag of blueberries and another of strawberries in the freezer that I often put in) but the blender was too full so we just blended those three fruits into our spinach. I gave it a taste and asked Ian to take a spoonful, to get a kid opinion. He said it was good so we poured and drank.



I didn't get any complaints and since I had the camera out they started to try to give themselves green mustaches.



Sophie wouldn't do it but she still wanted to be in on the fun.



As you can tell the cups were empty and the kids were happy. I was a happy mom because I knew my kids had just had a bunch of spinach for lunch. I had my big glassful too so I am getting my greens too. This method of vegetable eating/drinking is working for us. I am now looking around the produce aisle of the grocery store to look for other things I don't normally buy or can't get my kids to eat so I can mix them into a smoothie.

My husband really wants to get me this blender. We saw it at Costco a week or two ago and he was very tempted to get it for me for my birthday (Homer's bowling ball?) but the price is a little steep for us. My blender is working for now... maybe one day I can get the fancy one that will make soup and ice cream at the press of a button. For now I am experimenting and my family are my guinea pigs. No complaints so far.