Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Green Smoothies

Spinach in your morning smoothie?  Yuck, right?  I have always thought so.

Since my "after I put the kids to bed congratulatory (everyone lived through the day) snack" has been just about daily since Bobby is gone, I've been on a quest for easy snacks.  Easy I found, this Nutella Mug Cake (that is enough for two-four people and I actually made in a bowl) is SCARY easy and delicious (and I make it with half the sugar it asks for), but seriously, if I eat that cake every night I'm gonna be 400lbs next month and I'm trying to drop a few not pack on a few.

Since I have a new addiction, Pinterest (you should have this addiction too, if you need an invite, let me know), I have seen a lot of pretty (read: gross) green smoothies popping up and today I thought...well, whatever, I'll give it a whirl.  Besides, I own a Blendtec blender, and while it is one of my favorite things in my kitchen, it is woefully under utilized.

So I threw in:

1 Frozen Banana (my kid only eats half per day, I throw the other half in the freezer, I have two bags full of frozen half bananas)
1/3 cup of Sunday's fruit salad (kiwi, pineapple, plums, nectarines, and cherries-it's gonna go bad like tomorrow if I don't use it)
Water to the 2 cup line on my blender

BLEND away.

It made about 3 cups of smoothie, I was sad I didn't have a straw because I was afraid to touch it with my lips.  It was a PRETTY green, but it was still SPINACH in my drink.  I took a deep breath and a big swig.
Note: Picture used is not my smoothie, just one I found
online that looks very similar to what I ended up with.
DELICIOUS...wait, delicious?  Yep, delicious!

I am still a little bit in shock about it.  The banana did what banana's do and took over a lot of the flavor.  Bananas are also awesomely creamy when blended from frozen so it had an almost milkshake like consistency.  The fruit I used was all just enough to add an awesome sweet/tart to the smoothie. AND, I'm not blowing smoke up your bum, I could not taste the spinach at all.

I will be making more green smoothies (in fact, I'll be using the end of my frozen spinach in the morning and getting more tomorrow).  People brag on how good they can make you look (skin glow) and feel (energy), and there are lots of people who swear by them for weight loss.  I'm not telling you that I believe they are the miracle cure that they are touted as being on some websites, but I am telling you that I'll be making more and I'll let you know if I see any changes (positive or negative) from this new staple in my diet.

3 comments:

Watson Family said...

I'm going to have to try making this, Sounds delish!

Kimberly said...

The only green smoothie I've ever had was made with romaine lettuce, a few strawberries, and lots of water. It was terrible. I've been afraid to try one since. Still, we make a lot of smoothies here and the secret is a frozen banana (like you say) and the liquid. I wonder if you'd like it more with some juice? That would up the sugar content, though. I also have friends who make smoothies with coconut water or almond milk as the liquid.

Kathryn said...

I want to try this. Since I have had serious issues with my gall bladder I have been looking for tasty things to eat. When you have to nix meat, dairy, eggs, beans, anything fried and most nuts it is hard to plan your meals.