A Basic Green Smoothie Recipe To Build On

  Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

 If you are someone who thinks that raw food is awesome, and that you should eat at least a minimum of 8 fruits and veggies per day, then perhaps the smoothie is the route you want to take.  
   Before I started drinking smoothies, I found it very hard to eat 8 fruits and vegetables per day.  I just didn't like them that much!  I much preferred my cereal, toast, and those tempting Cadberry Chocolate Eggs (especially around this time of year).  Now that I have started drinking smoothies, it's easy to get those fruit and veggie counts up!  Not only that, but you can add other nutritious things to pump up the nutrition that much more!  
   I remember that first time I started using my friend's VitaMix blender to make my smoothies.  It was all a big adventure.  I ended up getting rather ill by the time I had finished my smoothie.  But that was the one and only time I got sick.  That was two years ago! 
   Now I've got my own BlendTec and here is what I do to make my Smoothies.
   First, the greens.  Of course there are plenty of varieties of greens and I know that.  But I am a creature of habit and I've become used to the convenience of picking up my 2 bags of spinach and spring mix at the market.  I occasionally use arugula or mustard greens, kale or even chard.  But usually it's the same combo of Spinach and Spring Mix.  I add about 1 1/2 - 2 cups.

   Next I add a minimum of 3 whole fruits.  Today it was 2 bananas, 1 cup of strawberries and 1 slice of fresh pineapple.  Many times I add frozen fruits, such as blueberries or blackberries.

    On top of all this I add about 1 1/2 cup of water, rice milk or almond milk and 3/4 cup of ice.  
    Then I add the turbo nutrition, the add-ins, and the flavor enhancers.  That can be 1 or more of any of the following:

chia seeds - 1 teaspoon or more  Good for digestion, diabetes 2 prevention, great source of fiber, manganese, protein, tryptophan.  And much more!  See this article for more details!

Coconut Oil - 1 Tablespoon - Good for skin, hair, brain supplement, prevention for dementia, Alzheimers, can prevent allergies and boosts energy.  Read up here!

Whey Protein Powder, vanilla flavor - 1 or 2 scoops - Adds some flavor while increasing the protein content and fairly low in calories!

Organic Green Tea Powder -  1/2 teaspoon - Great for energy and focus, lots of antioxidants,  I use organic Matcha Green Tea Powder! 

Powdered Fiber Supplement, peach flavor - 1 scoop = 12 g - Great for appetite control, digestion, and cancer prevention.  I order mine from a health and wellness company I've used for a long time--can I say years? 

Sweetener - I use a non-GMO Stevia  product to add sweetness if needed.  Sometimes I'll use honey. 

Other things I'd like to try:  Silken tofu, pomegranate juice, kefir,  flaxseed,

I'm sure there are so many more things that you could add to make a super nutritious smoothie, I'm still experimenting and learning.  What do you like to add to your smoothies for super nutrition?  
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

A Green Smoothie Experience

I really wish I could have taken a picture before I downed the first green smoothie concoction I ever made a few hours ago, but it was so good and I was so excited to drink it that I didn't even think about it until it was down the hatch.  I never imagined I would be a fan of green smoothies.  I thought it was some fad for the extremists, the ones who went way overboard in their quest to be healthy.  Seriously, who in their right mind would blend raw spinach, and other vegetables together with fruit and other healthy stuff in a drink?  Not me!!!  I take supplements and I drink V-8 occasionally.  But I have a great friend, Diane, who has benefited greatly from her smoothies.  I think the main reason green smoothies are good is that you get all that concentrated raw food in an easy-to-take form.  (Just plug your nose and down it quick, if nothing else!)  Fresh enzymes are so important for health and well-being.  You can only get enzymes from raw food, not processed foods, cooked foods, or food supplements.  I learned how important good nutrition was from taking some really good nutritional supplements for 20 years.  I experience first-hand how getting nutrients your body needs is the key to health, beauty, energy and disease prevention.  The problem is that even those great nutritional supplements I take aren't doing the trick like they once did.  I have become more and more lethargic and have not been able to keep the weight off despite being extra careful and taking my nutritional supplements religiously and exercising 40 minutes per day on average.  No, I haven't been sick in over 3 years, but it's my metabolic functions that are sluggish.  I feel like they just got stuck and are in need of repair.  Some might say that is what happens when you get to be "a certain age", but I'm not ready to slow down yet.  There are so many more things I would like to do.  So I borrowed my gal pal Diane's high-powered blender (on her insistence), went to the store and bought some raw stuff and just started blending.  My first improvised recipe was:  

• 2 cups water/ice
•  3 cups mixed greens including spinach
• 3 leaves red chard
• 2 apples
• frozen banana cubes to equal 1 1/2 bananas
• 3/4 cup frozen berries
• 1/3 cup Xagave sweetener
• a chunk of  melted-together Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate chips from a bag that had been left in the car on a hot day, which I had no use for until today.   

Yield: about 8 cups of smoothie
I drank it all except for 3/4 cups which I gave to my dad.
  
I felt that my first attempt was quite successful because it tasted great!  I felt
extremely full and satisfied.  I have no idea how many calories I consumed, but I know I consumed a lot of raw nutrition with maybe a tad too much sweet to get it down. 
About an hour later, though, I had to use the restroom.  I won't go into it, but let's just say I must have been clogged up, judging from the experience.  Maybe too much raw stuff in one shot?  Maybe I over-did it, I don't know. Suffice it to say, I am definitely not constipated this evening.  Oh, excuse me I'll be right back....
_____________

This experience has not deterred me.  I will forge ahead and maybe try less sweetener tomorrow.  After all, I have 3 containers full of various greens that need to be used up and only time will tell if raw food in the form of smoothies is a good option for me.  

Not the smoothie I made, but a close likeness

Update:  It has been a year and 3 months since I had my first green smoothie.  I have been quite consistent  and got my own high-powered smoothie maker.  I certainly don't follow the recipe that I first made.  Basically I try to use at least 3 fruits along with 1 - 2 cups of greens.  I flavor it with coconut oil, peach-flavored fiber, and protein.  Sometimes I add cinnamon and other flavorings, but I try to stay away from sweeteners in general.  I feel much more healthy and my skin, hair and energy have benefited.  Unfortunately, I haven't lost the weight I wanted to, but I definitely feel more healthy overall!