Why green smoothies?

Well, my first reaction was a little stronger... more along the lines of Who the HELL would eat THAT??. And, WHY??. I then proceeded to pretend that I had never heard of such a thing. My denial did me very well for several months. But in my roamings online, I kept hearing about them. And how wonderful they were for you. And blah, blah, blah. And how they tasted so good. (Yeah, I wasn't buying that one either.)

But then Kim and I decided to buckle down and bring our eating habits back under control. I suggested we give green smoothies a try, and Kim, supprisingly - and bravely -, agreed. I made our first ones the next morning. And they were good! Ugly... not very *green*... but GOOD. We really enjoyed them. You can see the video evidence at Kim's blog. (Make sure you watch parts one and two first.)

If you want to learn more about them, I highly recommend this book. It is a great starter book, with several yummy recipes - great for anyone wanting green smoothie info, even if you aren't a raw foodie otherwise... we aren't. And the home of the original green smoothie challenge with more yummy recipes!

And finally, a few of our own tried and true recipes. Each of these makes two 10-12 oz smoothies. So far we have only used spinach, but we're planning an adventure with kale next week, and parsley soon after. For each smoothie, assume 2 heaping cups of fresh spinach.

1 large banana
healthy splash of pineapple coconut juice (ingred. 100% pure pineapple juice, 100% pure coconut milk, water)
approx. 1 c frozen whole pitted dark cherries
approx. .5 c fresh mango


1 large banana
healthy splash of pineapple coconut juice
approx. 2 c frozen harvest berry blend (raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries, strawberries)


1 large banana
healthy splash of pineapple coconut juice
approx. 1.5 c fresh frozen pineapple chunks
approx. .5 c fresh shredded coconut
(smoothie will look like blended shamrocks - our prettiest smoothie yet, and very yummy)


1 large banana
healthy splash of pineapple coconut juice
approx. 1.5 c fresh frozen raspberries
approx. .5 c fresh frozen blueberries


1 large banana
healthy splash of pure black cherry juice (ingred. organic pitted black cherries, water)
approx. 2.5 c fresh frozen black cherries


There's a few to get you started. Enjoy!!