The Green Smoothie

Sunday, Feb. 8

I found the most wonderful website for women, The Raw Divas. It's so encouraging and enlightening. It's chock full of recipes, ideas, insights, stories and everything you need to help you get started on your journey to a new you. They have a variety of different programs you can sign up for where they send you an encouraging email everyday with links to some of their pages with more great information. Some are free, the 3-day Green Smoothie challenge is only $5.00.

I signed up for the smoothie challenge, but I actually started making and eating Green Smoothies before the challenge even started. Smoothies are a great and fun way to get a huge dose of your daily requirements for fruits and veggies. Plus you can add a bunch of different greens into your smoothie and get even more power packed nutrients. I don't really have a favorite yet, I'm still trying so many different combinations of fruit and greens. I bought some Kale and put that into a couple of my smoothies. I didn't even know what kale was, nor had I ever eaten before.

The benefits of greens:

Dark green leafy vegetables are, calorie for calorie, perhaps the most concentrated source of nutrition of any food. They are a rich source of minerals (including iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium) and vitamins, including vitamins K, C, E, and many of the B vitamins. They also provide a variety of phytonutrients including beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, which protect our cells from damage and our eyes from age-related problems, among many other effects. Dark green leaves even contain small , amounts of Omega-3 fats. (taken from About.com, author Laura Dolson).

Don't be afraid to try them. So far I've found that the fruit covers the taste of most of the greens and you don't really notice them (some are stronger than others). Also, start out with a small amount of greens and then increase them as you learn to love them more. If the green color turns you off, which for most people it does, try sipping it through a straw, or put the drink into a cup with a lid and straw.

My favorite so far is:

2 bananas
1 apple
a handful of berries (strawberry, blueberry, blackberry)
1-2 handfuls of spinach or kale (more or less to taste)
2 cups of ice

Yummy!