Besides eating a ton of greens throughout the day or during your meals, there's no better way to get your veggies in than juicing or making smoothies. A couple years ago I started juicing everyday. Everyday. For three months straight. While it was very good for me and my skin glowed everyday it just wasn't feasible for every day. There's a lot to juicing. There's the prep from buying ingredients, to washing and chopping, juicing, then the clean up. Not to mention it gets super expensive, especially if you choose to use organic ingredients. I've never really been into making green smoothies-- I'm not sure if it was because I didn't like the thickness of them, or maybe I was just so burnt out from the three months of juicing, or maybe I never found one I really, really enjoyed, but after recently making the above smoothie I was kind of hooked. I've been having a smoothie almost every day since and the process has been so easy I could definitely see myself doing this long-term.
It's packed with greens (and the fiber I lost when I only drank the juice), some protein (from the chia seeds and kale), and it tastes like you should be on a white sandy beach, bikini and sunblock on. I've made variations since, but this combo still wins. I've even been drinking it on the go in my insulated Klean Kanteen to keep it ice cold or enjoying it at home with my new stainless steel eco-friendly straws (yay for never using those plastic ones again!).
Tropical Green Smoothie
(Serving size is 2 large smoothies or 3 smaller ones)
- 1 1/2 cups of very packed spinach
- 1/4 or 1/2 cup of very packed baby kale (I like baby kale it seems to have less of a bitterness to it)
- 1 ripe banana (feel free to freeze the banana if you want)
- 3/4 cup of pineapple (I like the frozen pieces from Trader Joe's)
- 1/2 a ripe pear (or any other fruit you want to add really... mango is also very good)
- 1/2 cup of OJ (I like the not from concentrate)
- 1/2 cup of water
- 1-2 tablespoons of chia seeds depending on how much you want
- 2 ice cubes
Add the spinach and baby kale into the blender first and pack it down as much as you can. Pour in the OJ and water (it will seep down in between the greens and help everything to blend). Top with the banana, pineapple, chia seeds and other fruit if you have it. Blend until smooth. Add ice cubes and blend until smooth. Enjoy immediately.
Sometimes I add more greens depending on how I'm feeling, but for starters this is a great amount. I realize this is packed with a good amount of sugar (but hey at least it's natural sugar right?) so might try switching out some of the fruit and using ginger as a flavor replacement. I'll be sure to give you an update once I do. Let me know how you get along with this recipe and leave a comment of your yummy smoothie concoctions if you have any!
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