Smoothie How Tos

When you first venture into making healthy smoothies it might seem a bit intimidating. Believe me, you will get over it.  A good healthy smoothie has some definite must haves. These include: a healthy green vegetable (kale & spinach work best for me, but I hear that people use all kinds of healthy veggies including cucumbers and romaine lettuce), fresh or frozen fruits (for that sweetness AND fiber), hopefully some ground flax or chia seeds, and a liquid (this can range from water to an unsweetened non dairy milk). From there it's really up to you.
There are tons of great recipes online but you can really just try out different options. Be creative. Use whatever fruits are in season to get the biggest bang for your buck. Here on Hawai'i Island papayas are always cheap and it's avocado season so people are giving them away. That means that I have papaya and avos in my smoothies. Bananas are ALWAYS in mine, especially frozen ones because they offer a certain thickness and creaminess to my smoothies. That, along with some flax means that I can add more liquid/ice and still have lots of volume.
Some days the smoothies are better than others. But they are always drinkable and satisfying. Here's the smoothie I made yesterday. And for once, I finally did some measuring just to give you an idea of how I do it.

One morning I woke up and saw this note on the blender. I've left it there, it cracks me up. 

Scraped in one papaya (okay, you know to remove seeds first right? And no skin. Just checking.

There was about 1/4 of a small avocado in the fridge. I added that, too.

Went out in the garden and picked about 6 leaves of kale.

It would probably be okay to leave the stems but I take the leaves off the stems. The stems are thick.

This smoothie uses the mixed fruits I bought from Costco. Two cups.

Then some ground flax. This is an OLD container. I actually buy my flax in a bag from Costco then dump it in this container. I add about 2 heaping teaspoons. Or more.

This is 2 cups of unsweetened soy milk. I prefer almond but soy's what I got this week. Always watching the sales.

Then water. From the same measuring cup so I didn't wash it. milky water I guess.

But two cups of milky water wasn't enough so I added two more. Next time I'll add 2 cups of crushed ice instead.

Blending it all up.

It's a full one!

And it made all this. Two "grandes" and one "venti" plus two mason jars for freezing.

So that's how it's done. The kale makes it look really green but you don't really taste the green. You taste sweet. If you like it sweeter then add some pitted dates, 3-4, and a really ripe frozen banana. That always helps. Sometimes you can add a little bit of juice. Dr. Fuhrman uses orange juice or pomegranate juice (100%).  One 16 oz. drink should keep you full for quite a while. On my really hungry mornings I might have a small bowl of oatmeal or I'll add a 1/4-1/2 cup of raw oats to the smoothie. 

What's your favorite smoothie?