Green Smoothies

Between eating gluten free and being more frugal, we've been changing up our usual meal plans. This means minimal amounts of processed foods and more produce. We've been trying to incorporate more fruits and veggies into our diets, but not with the greatest success.

I've seen quite a few people blog about green smoothies, and thought it sounded interesting, though also slightly gross. Since I recently bought a bunch of kale, I thought I'd try some green smoothies. Since a key ingredient seems to be kale, why not?

The first day I made them I used some kale, some spinach, some frozen blueberries, some frozen bananas (peeled and frozen the night before), some frozen pineapple (chopped up frozen the night before), and some water.

I wasn't sure how all that would turn out, but our blender had no problem pureeing it all- even the stems on the kale. I love our blender- it's a Kitchenaid and sooo much better than the cheap blender we got when we were first married. The smoothie looked rather gross- greenish/purple, but was actually quite sweet. Ever had Odwalla's Green Super Food juice? It was similar to that.

LMS looked at it with suspicion, as did Mr S and I, but we told her it was a pineapple (her favorite!) smoothie (which it was, there was just other stuff in there too), and she dug right in. Once we tasted it, Mr S and I decided it was good and drank it all down.

The second day, I got a little over-zealous with the spinach and kale, while reducing the amount of fruit. I used a frozen banana, a few chunks of frozen pineapple, 8 or 9 fresh blueberries that were starting to get wrinkly, and half an apple (cored because I really didn't want to drink pureed apple seeds). The end result was a lot less sweet, and a lot thicker and pulpy-er than yesterday's smoothie. LMS and Mr S were not nearly as enthusiastic about drinking them today (and neither was I, truth be told, but I set a good example anyway).

The third day our smoothies consisted of kale, spinach, banana, pineapple, some strawberries that were on their way out, and some mini carrots. It was much better than day two's smoothies.

I'm having fun throwing stuff in the blender and seeing how it turns out. I think I'll try some cabbage tomorrow... I also want to try adding flax seed, hemp protein and other healthy add-ins.

Does anyone else make green smoothies? Any ingredient suggestions?