Green Smoothies

This afternoon I spent an hour online trying to find a good recipe for green smoothies -- you know, the ones that taste like fruit but secretly have a lot of leafy green veggies in them. I didn't realize it until I started my recipe search, but apparently August 15 is International Green Smoothie Day (who knew?), so this post is unintentionally timely.

A few pieces of background:

• I used to love making smoothies & milkshakes - I even own "The Smoothie Deck," a box of 50 recipe cards - but I haven't made one in a long time. The reason? When I moved out of my apartment before Topher & I got married, we put most of my stuff (including my blender) in a storage unit on Virginia Beach Blvd. and there it remains. No blender = no smoothies.
• I love Odwalla Superfood. It's a slightly off-putting shade of green, but it tastes delicious (or maybe it's an acquired taste like V8). Anyway, several years ago when I was working in DC for the summer (and living on government per diem), I would drink one each morning for breakfast. But they're a little expensive, so I got out of the habit.

This past week I made a Target run for my good friend Heather (who is currently pregnant with twins and on strict bed rest) and while I was there, I picked up an inexpensive blender so I can start making breakfast smoothies again.

Since The Smoothie Deck is also in my storage unit, I decided to look online for recipes, and I wanted to find some that would help me in my continuing quest to eat more veggies for breakfast. Last week I made a nutritious breakfast sandwich of fried egg, sliced avocado, sliced tomato, and provolone cheese on toast with light mayo; this week I'm going to experiment with green fruit smoothies. Here are a few recipes that I want to try:

Blueberry Kale Smoothie (from a very strange-looking site called Dick's Blog)

• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 2 frozen bananas (wait until they're ripe, then cut them into 1-inch chunks & freeze in a Ziplock bag)
• 2 handfuls chopped kale
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup orange juice
• a handful of ice
• 1 T ground flax seed* (optional)

Place all ingredients in a blender, and puree.

*Ground flax seed supposedly adds omega fatty acids, fiber, and protein without interfering with the flavor. I've never had it before, but I'm going to give it a try! For more info on flax seed, look here and here.

Get Your Greens Smoothie (from the Whole Foods blog "Whole Story")

• 1 ½ cups unsweetened almond milk or soy milk
• 1 ½ cups packed baby spinach
• 1 ½ cups frozen berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, or blackberries will work)

The first recipe uses water, juice and ice; the second uses almond or soy milk. I'm not sure yet which one I'll like more - probably the one with almond/soy milk - but I want to experiment with both, using different fruits (frozen peaches or grapes, chopped apple, etc.) and different greens (maybe swiss chard or romaine). I'll let you know how it goes!

Other recipes call for yogurt. I don't have any plain yogurt on hand, but I do have plain Greek yogurt, so I might play around with that as well.

Our Green Smoothie Recipe (serves 4)

• 2 cups frozen fruit
• 2 bananas
• 4 cups baby spinach
• flaxseed
• honey

Here are a few other recipes that I found online:

• Groovy Green Smoothie
• Ode to My Green Drink
• Mixed Fruit Smoothie (doesn't actually include greens, but it's a good recipe, and greens could easily be added)
• Blueberry-Banana Smoothie (ditto)

If you have a favorite recipe for green smoothies that you're willing to share, post it in a comment - I'd love to try it!

Note: The picture at the top was found here.