Excuse the sloppy, messy photo. The day I planned to take this pic, we had a little "smoothie mishap" and I was in a rush (of course), so rather than clean it up and reset everything, I decided to take the pic "as is" and "keep it real." I am far from a perfectionist in many aspects of my life - as much as I'd like to be (sometimes).
In my Goals & Intentions post early last month, I said that I wanted to give green smoothies a try for at least several days in a row. It took me until about week 3 of January to finally remember to look up a few recipes, buy ingredients and then finally make a batch in the mornings before I left for the day. I'm so glad I did!
After a little experimentation, I came up with a recipe that I really like.
MARGIE'S GREEN SMOOTHIE RECIPE (EDITED on 3/6/2013)
1/2 of medium to large cucumber peeled & sliced into 1-2 inch pieces
3 cups loosely packed kale leaves (I like to use Trader Joe's ready to use bag) - spinach would work as well
1 small apple peeled, cored & sliced into 1 inch pieces
1 carrot, peeled and cut into 1-2 inch pieces
1/2 cup of blueberries
1 cup water
1 medium banana
juice of 1/2 or 1 fresh lemon (you could add lemon zest as well)
NOTE: Currently I am borrowing a blender and a food processor neither which are high powered, so I will give instructions as I make my GREEN SMOOTHIE each morning.
In food processor add cucumber, kale, apple, carrot, blueberries & water, Pulse until it reaches a grainy texture. I pulse until my bits won't get any smaller. My food processor (on loan) has its limits!
Transfer cucumber mixture into blender with banana & juice of one lemon (juice of 1/2 lemon works fine too), blend until smooth.
There is nothing like starting off your morning with a tall glass of water and one of these green smoothies. My husband and I have really grown to look forward to them every morning. Since I first made them mid to late January, we have only missed a few days when we've ran out of a key ingredient. They are much more palatable than we thought they would be and go down very easily.
We have been making smoothies for breakfast for years. As our awarness of different nutrition facts have grown, our smoothie recipes have evolved. Before trying green smoothies, we were making mixed berry, banana (optional), non-fat Greek yogurt smoothies (no sugar or juice).
How about you? Do you have a favorite GREEN SMOOTHIE recipe to share? I'd love to hear about it and what you like about it.
Now, I'm off to make my morning smoothie!
Sounds good, but I might have to wait until after the baby is born to try it. I'm just not loving being adventuresome right now!! But it does sound like something I would normally like LOL! :)
Posted by: Rebekah | February 19, 2013 at 08:38
Yes!I cant imagine a green smoothie sounds very appealing while pregnant. Save this one for next year. :)
Posted by: Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie | February 19, 2013 at 10:02