Pretty Pretty Green Smoothie
- Frozen Bananas
- Frozen Pineapple
- Maybe a fresh lime or two
- Lots and lots of strawberries
- And spinach
- Blend it through and through.
I’m obviously not a poet. I couldn’t get water in there and still make it rhyme.
I used to use a frozen fruit mix from Costco but they stopped carrying it so now we’re stuck with strawberries which taste just as good but our drinks aren’t a pretty bright green anymore.
Looks are everything.
Especially when you are so high class that you are drinking it out of a quart jar.
Edited
I guess you want more details here. I don’t use a recipe for my smoothies. I just throw things in but I will try to tell you how I make it. Adjust to your own taste.
I pack a Vita-Mix blender with 5 cups of raw spinach and add enough water to almost come to the top of the spinach. Blend for a few seconds. Add the frozen fruit and the JUICE of the lime. Blend. If it’s too think I add more water. This will make a blender full to the very top. I drink 4 cups of it and my family gets the rest, about a cup each.
The frozen bananas make it smooth. Raw bananas do not do the trick for me. We buy 8 bags of bananas every time we go to Costco. We eat half of them and when the other half turn brown we peel them and freeze. I do the same thing with pineapples. They sit on the counter till they are very ripe and then we cut and freeze in big chunks.
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November 18th, 2009 at
I have never tried a whole lime in my smoothie. Does that really work. I ran out of frozen bananas this morning so I added a half of avocado. It turned out great and add the creaminess that I like. Sam’s club does have a fruit mix you might like as well as frozen mango. Variety is nice.
Lara says: No, I juice the lime first. I tried avocado once and my children didn’t like it but I think I put too much in. I’ll have to try it again. We used to go to Sam’s too but we decided we didn’t need two memberships. I’m not very good with variety. I usually stick to one thing I like and go with that for several months. I’m boring!
November 18th, 2009 at
The awesome pic did it for me! We haven’t been drinking these in the last month but I am definitely going to have to go and get some spinach tonight. That looks so yummy!
I too was going to ask about the whole lime. Good to know you don’t eat the whole thing. I would have tried it and probably had a very strange texture drink!
November 18th, 2009 at
Okay, I think I’ve talked myself into trying one of these green smoothies. Those pictures definitely helped! Do I use fresh spinach? I know the recipe is somewhere on this blog, but I’m lazy.
November 18th, 2009 at
Thanks for the lime idea! I usually use spinach, strawberries (frozen currently) , frozen blueberries, banana, rice milk, and a veg. protein powder that containes vitamins and enzymes. Mine usually turn out purple. Which is very pretty. But has me guessing that I have been to stingy on the spinach.
November 18th, 2009 at
I love green smoothies but have never tried adding a lime. I’ll have to do that.
November 18th, 2009 at
mmm… lime sounds delicious! I’ll have to try your “recipe”. Lately I’ve been doing: spinach, carrot, berry mix (rasp, blue, marion), bananas, flax seed, water and soymilk. Not very green, either, but oh-so delicious.
–forever indebted to your for introducing me to green drinks in NW WA.
November 18th, 2009 at
Love it Lara! Great fan of juicing, so this is a wonderful recipe. Thanks! Monique DiCarlo P.S. My daughter drinks it all when I let her “make” it…
November 18th, 2009 at
Never used the lime. Nice idea. I am with you on the raw banana though. I must use frozen bananas in my smoothies, and I do the same as you – eat some and the ones that turn brown go in the freezer. Never thought about freezing pinapple though!
November 18th, 2009 at
Tami – you’re probably doing fine on the spinach. I pack mine in but the blueberries always override the green. I have a huge bag of spinach. I really should go make one of these.
November 18th, 2009 at
I used to do a yummy smoothie a friend of mine taught me how to make: 1 cup of milk (i usually did soy or rice milk, but it works with cow milk too), 1 cup of juice (orange juice is my favorite), a small box of silken tofu (box like this: http://www.yogawithamey.com/images/silkentofu.jpg but doesn’t have to be that brand. i think i did use firm though.) and then pile in whatever frozen fruits you want to fill up the rest of the blender. i was YUMMY and not too sweet. if you want it more sweet, add a squirt or 2 of honey. i’ve also added spinach to it for more nutrition. turns a funky green, but still tastes yummers since the spinach doesn’t add any flavor that i can tell.
thanks for reminding me that i really want to get back into eating these again! and my kiddos like them too.
November 19th, 2009 at
You have to be careful with so much raw spinach. It can inhibit your thyroid. Spinach does taste the best in a smoothie, but you might want to try some other greens to mix it up a bit. I have heard that orange juice helps take away the bitterness of other greens. I just wouldn’t do the spinach every day. Oh, and cooked spinach doesn’t have this problem (but that wouldn’t work in a smoothie).
Lara says: I’ve been too lazy to try new greens but I really need to. Thanks for the reminder! Also, I would like to see the study that says too much spinach is bad. Are there several of them all saying the same thing or is this just one obscure study that found a tiny correlation? It would be so much easier not to believe this claim if I didn’t have to because I feel so good when I drink spinach smoothies!
November 19th, 2009 at
Oohh! I miss fresh strawberries in my green smoothies. I was only able to get organic ones for a short time this spring but then couldn’t find them much anymore. I wish I could find a big bag of frozen organic ones in the store…
Speaking of rotating greens, I’ve been doing that a lot lately and even tried a smoothie this afternoon with green cabbage. It wasn’t as bad as you’d think.
November 19th, 2009 at
YUM! And peeling the bananas before you feeze them? DUH. Because I always cut myself trying to skin a frozen banana.
November 19th, 2009 at
I like to add kale to mine, but it never turns out as smooth as yours. I think I need to get me a VitaMix!
November 20th, 2009 at
My 3 boys (10, 8 and 5) and I have been drinking green smoothies for almost a full year now every morning. My 10 year old fixes them for us and loves altering the recipe a little and getting our in put. Our recipe is simple – fresh spinach to fill blender, 1 cup blueberries, and 1 cup water – then he can be creative with whatever we have on hand. Last few mornings he has used the cinnamon applesauce and the younger boys love the cinnamon taste in their smoothies – who would think spinach and cinnamon would taste good together – but it does. Fun to try new flavors and combos – we haven’t gotten bored with green smoothies yet.
November 21st, 2009 at
Just curious as to why you use a lime. For the taste? Nutritional properties? Also, have you tried using apples in your smoothies? The frozen fruit mix is still carried by the Costco down here (the one with peaches, berries, pineapple, etc). But I guess Lehi would be quite a drive just for that! Also, I use hemp seed in my green smoothies. It’s a perfect protein and I like the texture it gives the smoothies! You should try it!
Lara says: We use lime for the taste. We just ordered a lot of hemp seed so we’ll start using it soon. I’m happy to year that you like it. We were using flax seed but I got tired of the slimy texture.
November 22nd, 2009 at
What blender do you recommend if I don’t want to put out the big bucks for the Vita-Mix or the BlendTec? Thanks!
Lara says: When I started I made smoothies with my Bosch blender but they were very thick and difficult to drink. All I can say is to save your money for a Vita-Mix. I didn’t want to spend the money either but I finally did and it was worth every penny.
February 3rd, 2010 at
These are so good!
I got my sister hooked too I think…
I use a bosch blender and aside from the occasional leak at the bottom, it’s worked fine for me.
Thanks for sharing this treat!
Oh, and the bananas are frozen, but not brown how??