Green Smoothie, Anyone?

Pinterest has inspired me again! I have about two billion recipes that I plan for us to try at one time or another. We’ve tried a few that I’ve pinned – all but one were hits. Pretty good results to me! But recently I saw a pin for a green smoothie and started thinking that maybe I ought to try them again. I tried a couple when we were living in Minnesota, and I didn’t dislike them (well, one was gross) but I never stuck to drinking them. With all that is going on I feel like it can’t hurt me to be as nice to my body as possible. With us still staying in Wisconsin I’m not able to cook like I’d like. With a green smoothie I’ll be able to get tons of proteins, nutrients, and healthy goodness that I’m undoubtedly missing out on these days. I’ve also read that they help you lose weight (score) and….um…clean you out. So I’m kind of going to go into this as an experiment in addition to striving to provide healthiness to myself.

I found a Hamilton Beach personal blender at Target for $16.99 and went that route instead of buying a big ol’ whopper of a blender (though we do need a full-size one since our blender/food processor combo broke on us a while back). It is a 14 oz capacity, and the blender container part can be used as a cup. The lid has a slidey top to drink out of and it looks like the bottom would fit into a standard drink cup holder in your car. Pretty convenient! Oh, and it worked really well! I was wondering if it would be wimpy, but it wasn’t! You have to hold the “blend” button down the entire time, but that’s no big deal. Also, you can't blend warm/hot mixtures, but that's alright for me.

What did I put in my green smoothie? About a cup of fresh blueberries, half a peach, a medium-size banana, and about large handful of fresh baby spinach. Before when I tried this smoothie I used frozen fruit, but I think fresh fruit is the way I will go this time. Only thing about not using frozen fruit is that my smoothie today was warm…and that’s gross. Adding ice helped though, so I’m all good. If you haven’t tried a green smoothie and think that it would be nasty – and believe me I was prepared to be grossed out when I first tried them – you probably will be pleasantly surprised! You really don’t taste the spinach as the fruit makes it sweet tasting. I’m noticing an…earthy aftertaste as I sit here writing this, but it’s not bad at all. I’m planning on trying new fruits over time, and also adding increasing the greens ratio. I’ve read that any type of green will work in these types of smoothies, but spinach is sweeter so it might be a good starting point. I would recommend green smoothies! How can you go wrong with getting so many good things in one serving?! By the way, the ones I've made so far are NOT pretty. They've take on a really ugly color, but don't let that scare you!