Green Smoothies

Lest you think the weekend was filled only with sorrow, think again!

If tears were my background music, then the star of the show was a desperate housewife in search of nutrition.

Hello green smoothie! My new friend! :)

So this is my new endeavor. Even Oliver loves ‘em. We made a batch on Saturday, and then a blender-full on Sunday.

What’s in them? What makes them so special? The majority of the smoothie is made with green leafy vegetables. This is a great way to get more veggies into your diet.

If you’ve been following me for a while here at RP, you know that I am in Weight Watchers. In fact, I been a lifetime member for well over a year now — I reached my goal weight and maintained it, thus allowing me to attend meetings for free. A quick synopsis: I started the program over two years ago, weighing in at 146. I got down to 131 and chose that as my goal weight. I’ve maintained that weight until just recently, when I lost an additional 15 lbs this summer / fall, bringing me down to 115 lbs. I changed my goal weight to 121. Currently I weighed in this month at 122. In other words, I just recently gained back 7lbs. I’m still in a good weight range, but I’m steadily gaining which means I need to keep my eating habits in check.

Now you know the reason for the green smoothie.

The smoothies are great because they are at least 50% greens, 50% fruit and then a banana, avocado or coconut oil to emulsify or create a nice smoothness to the texture. With the new Weight Watchers PointsPlus program, all these veggies are zero points! So is the fruit! Basically, I am eating a zero points smoothie unless I decide to add avocado or coconut oil into it! Soooooooo cool!

And guess what? I love this stuff! It tastes so delicious; and Oliver thinks they are yummy too! He knows they will make him strrrRAWNG!

Here's what I'm talking about:



That’s kale. Isn’t it beautiful?

Here are the other ingredients:



What is not pictured is the organic spinach.

From what I know, it might be best to start out your green smoothie adventure with a healthy fat. That is why you see an avocado and coconut oil in the picture. For today’s smoothie, I chose coconut oil since my avocados were not quite ripe enough. It was also recommended that I start out easy using just spinach as my only green. I did that on Saturday and the smoothie was yummy. Today I added kale to the mix. To my beginner’s palate there was no taste difference, so go ahead and try kale for your first go... it will bump up the nutritional value of your smoothie immensely!

You'll want to include kale as one of the cruciferous vegetables you eat on a regular basis if you want to receive the fantastic health benefits provided by the cruciferous vegetable family. At a minimum, include cruciferous vegetables as part of your diet 2-3 times per week, and make the serving size at least 1-1/2 cups. Even better from a health standpoint, enjoy kale and other vegetables from the cruciferous vegetable group 4-5 times per week, and increase your serving size to 2 cups.

(OK, I did not write that last paragraph, altho I’d like to think I did! It came from here.)

Here is how kale is bunched and sold in most stores:



For an interesting taste, feel free to add some of this (but you don’t have to!):

At room temperature (76 degrees or warmer) the oil is liquid, but at lower temps, it will solidify, as you can see below.

So chop all that green goodness up and pack it into your blender.

Add either your avocado, banana or oil. I chose banana and coconut oil.

Then add water:

The water should fill just above the ingredients. I simply used an entire bottle of water.

Blend:

And blend: 

And blend some more:

Until there are no bits left in the mix....

Note: the white little particles in the smoothie are the coconut oil.

Fill up your child’s cup:

And watch him enjoy:

Just be careful because when it spills, it looks pretty gross!

You should have enough to make at least one Ball jar full (3 1/2 to 4 cups).

And don’t forget to share with others:

PS....... I want to let you all know that the smoothie keeps the entire day! So, while I drink a cup for breakfast, I then package the rest up in the Ball jar (as pictured) and pour myself a cup or two throughout the day.

If the smoothie does not taste sweet enough for you, feel free to add some Agave syrup or maybe a little organic sugar or Truvia. I did have to sweeten it for Oliver’s sake. For my first smoothie, I was a little timid, so I also sweetened mine. But the rest of the smoothies I've made have been mostly w/o any added sweeteners. You guys, this stuff is really FABULOUS! Good luck!