Several months ago I started reading about green smoothies on some of the natural living blogs I like to read. Basically, you just add some sort of green (usually spinach, sometimes kale) to a fruit smoothie. The idea seemed a little yucky, yet somehow interesting. Since I have a wealth of spinach in my fridge, and I could surely use some extra greens in my diet, yesteray I decided to give this a try.
Basically, I took a big handful of spinach and threw it in my blender (just a regular blender, not a Vita-Mix or anything fancy), added some orange juice, and liquified it. Then I added some frozen fruit — raspberries that we’d picked last summer and some peaches I had hanging out in there as well. I blended it all together and added a little more juice as needed and voila! I had a green smoothie. I thought it looked like a big glass of pea soup, and I was a little scared, but truthfully it was really good! I swear to you that I could not taste the spinach at all. I think I want to blend up a smoothie with frozen banana and strawberries and see if I can get the boys to drink them. Maybe I can position it as a “Popeye Smoothie” or maybe even an “Incredible Hulk Smoothie” (as I’d read someone else did).
If you want to sneak some extra greens in your diet, I’d urge you to give this a try. I’m hoping to make this part of my regular diet and have maybe 3-4 per week. I think it will be fun to experiment with different combinations of fruit. I also wonder if this might be a way to sneak in the beets I know we’re going to get eventually!
Good for you for giving the green smoothie a try. When I make mine I always use the frozen bananas and strawberries. I think that makes a difference for getting children to like them. 🙂 I also do green juices. Here’s a picture of one of them if you care to take a look. http://backyardtreasures.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/61/
~~Anne
Looks yummy! I’ve been doing the green smoothies for a few months now. The whole family loves them especially my 6 year old. I never liked kale much and now I crave it. I’m growing two different kinds in my garden this year along with lambs quarters and purslane just for the smoothies.
I was just thinking last night that I’m going to give the beets to the family with whom we share our CSA, LOL! 🙂 Although, I still want to try beet brownies or beet chocolate cake.
I’ve been wanting to try a green smoothie, too. Saw a recipe on someone’s Flickr a while back. I’ve been having vanilla-banana soy protein shakes on occasion, like for breakfast or lunch. Thinking about adding fresh berries to those.
I love smoothies for they are really refreshing and healthy at the same time. But this one is different for it has green leafy vegetables on it. I wonder how does it taste. By the way, great and interesting post.