"What did you do to your perfectly good smoothie?!? You really just put an avocado in there? WHY?!?!" This is about as close as I remember to my reaction of the first time someone talked to me and showed me their green smoothie. I freaked out a little bit. I was completely disgusted, and horrified. To top it off, the wonderful woman, who I adored and still do, was an older gal a sweet grandma and I just figured it must be an older person thing. Ha!
My next introduction to a green smoothie was when my friend and neighbor Jen who is quite health conscious, a vegetarian and amazing mother of five kids invited our family over for dinner. I was sure we would leave her house STARVING because she wasn't serving any meat! What were we going to eat??? (I feel bad for my past self sometimes for being so clueless). Anyway-Jen made some pasta, and sauteed some delicious fresh out of her garden zucchini and yellow squash and then a fresh (also out of her garden) salad. (I watched a spider crawl out of the lettuce but I told myself to be brave and to still try and eat the lettuce even though it was thoroughly washed post spider). Just to be clear-it was all delicious and quite filling.
SO-after dinner at her house we played games and she asked if we wanted a smoothie for dessert. She didn't mention it would be green, because if she had it would totally have been a deal breaker. I watched her start making it and my hubby and I kept exchanging worried glances back and forth as we saw an avocado, banana, strawberries, spinach, water, celery, lettuce, peaches and ice go in the blender. I wanted to throw up. ( I realize how pathetic this sounds, but I'm rather protective of my tastebuds, and my tastebuds are rather protective of my gag reflex). She blended everything together, poured the sludge into cups and divied them out. I planned out ahead of time my method for disposing of it with out her seeing me. EVERYTHING changed though when I took a sip-smooth, creamy, sweet, flavorful-and NO sign of a vegetable being in there except for the green color looking back up at me from my cup. Brilliant!
I wish I could say I was converted and made green smoothies every day from there on out, but no-I'm a wader. Just like a cold pool, I waded into green smoothies.
I now LOVE Green Smoothies and I love experimenting with different combinations and tweaking things here and there. I have a few favorite combinations to be sure.There are so many different combinations of greens and fruit for making a green smoothie which is good news for anyone worried about messing up. There is no need to worry or obsess too much over the green to fruit ration. Just get it in there.
This above picture is what I will blend when making a smoothie for my two young children and myself. It include 1 1/2 Cups mixed berries, 2 Swiss chard stalks, 2 Kale leave stalks, 3 big handfuls of spinach, 1 whole pear, 1-2 sliced frozen bananas, 2 stalks celery, 1/2 lemon juiced, and a little bit of agave or stevia to seeten things up.
This is what i would blend for just myself: 1 Chard stalk, 1 Kale stalk, 2 large handfuls spinach, 1 pear, 1 banana, 3/4 Cup mixed berries, 1/2 lemon juiced, agave/stevia to taste.
LET'S GET OUR GREEN SMOOTHIE ON!
Step 2: Add all your greens to the water and blend, WELL! Chunky greens-yuck. Blend until very smooth.
I realize the bright green color of the smoothie is a little alarming. For someone who really can't get over the color, I suggest adding more berries which turn it purple-ish or place it in a dark glass. The picture above is pre-berries.
Step 3: Add fresh fruit, blend. For this recipe I used 1 pear and 1/2 lemon juice squeezed with 1/8 of the peel.
Step 4: Add frozen fruit and blend. For this recipe I used 1 1/2 Cups frozen mixed berries and 1 frozen banana.
TIP: Taste your smoothie BEFORE committing to it. Too sweet? Add lemon, lime, ginger. Too sour/bitter? Add banana, pear, peaches or one of the sweeteners stevia or raw agave.
THE SECRETS TO KIDS DRINKING THIS HAPPILY :)
1. Get a special cup, only used for green smoothies. Get a dark cup if you need to disguise the color.
2. Get fun straws if your new cup doesn't come with one
3. On days my oldest is testing his independence and doesn't want to partake of the green goodness I bribe him with a non-food item. ie: a TV show, a game with mom, etc. I like food to be related to health and wellness not to rewards or punishments. (Bribery is usually my last resort).
4. Be excited about it-kids emulate their parents. If a parent makes a big deal about green smoothies being a special treat, kids will catch on.
5. Name your smoothie-own it! We've called ours "Super Hero Smoothies" and I've pretended to have my muscles grow as I sip, this is a riot to kid newbies. When they've been really green we've called them "Shrek Smoothies". We have also called them "Jungle Juice" and we pretend we're "jungle people". Once kids try them they will get over the green and will love them.
