Nutritious and Delicious: Green (Purple) Smoothie

At our house we've really been on a big veggie kick lately.  You know you are supposed to get 3-5 servings of veggies a day, right?  Well, if you have some carrots & hummus at lunch, and some salad at dinner, that's probably only 2-3 servings (if you eat salad like we do in our house, it will definitely count as more than one serving, as each of us has a daily serving rougly the size of my 7-month-pregnant belly).  Now, ok, technically... you may have met your daily recommendation.  BUT! if you want to be an overachiever...and get to the MAX AMOUNT OF VEGGIES you can in one day...that means you need some vegetables at breakfast, too.

Enter green smoothie.  Easy, delicious, nutritious, quick to prepare, refreshing, customizeable... seriously, if you aren't on the green smoothie train you need to get on it right now.

How to make a green smoothie (and the benefits of each ingredient): 
Combine in a blender:

1. Approx. 1 cup of milk/soymilk
• Protein source (8 g per cup in either type) to help you stay full longer
• DHA, Vitamin D if fortified with these
• You can use OJ (Mike does) or almondmilk or coconutmilk if you're a dum-dum and don't care about the protein
2. 1 banana
• Potassium (Good for electrolyte balance) 
• B vitamins (Cell metabolism)
• Easy-to-digest sugars to help your body get moving in the A.M.
3. A heaping handful of raw spinach
• Vitamin A (Good for vision, skin, & immunity to name a few)
• Vitamin K (Blood and bone health)
• Folate (Important for pregnant women, to prevent spina bifida in the fetus)
4. Approx. 3/4 cup frozen berries (we get a ginormous bag at The Best Store on Earth)
• Antioxidants (GO AWAY CANCER)
• Delicious factor
• Covers up green color (although I don't really care about that)
• You can use other frozen fruits, like mango or peaches, which are also delicious!
• You could also use peanut butter + ice cubes for a stick-to-your-ribs flavor
• You can use fresh berries/fruit but decrease the liquid considerably if you do

The morning arsenal

That's it.  Four ingredients (maybe five).  For bonus nutrition, you can add:

• Ch-ch-ch-chia seeds or ground flaxseed (Omega-3 fatty acids: great for the brain!)
• Raw local honey (to help fight allergies)
• Instant coffee granules (za zoom!!  This goes awesome in the banana/PB one)

Now you have no excuse to skip breakfast (I can't beleive people do that!), and no excuse to skip your morning vegetables!  This takes all of 3 minutes to blend up and enjoy.

Notice my sweet Boston Marathon pint glass

And since I'm 5, I like to add a fun colorful straw to drink it with! 

Oh, the simple pleasures in life. Drink up!

xoxo Phae