Thursday, January 21, 2010

Spinach Never Tasted So Good

I'm officially addicted to the green smoothie. I know it sounds disgusting, but it is GOOD. My friend Carri introduced me to this. I think she started drinking it as a solution to not being a breakfast person. I am definitely a breakfast person. Even if I'm not hungry, I eat breakfast because that's just what I do.

Now I am not a fan of drinking your meals, but this smoothie isn't necessarily my entire meal. I like the idea of the green smoothie because I need more vegetables in my diet.

As far as vegetables go, I really like spinach, but a full spinach salad looks a little overwhelming. It's amazing how much spinach you can eat in one glass when you blend it into a drink and slurp it up with a straw.

I know what you're thinking...you don't like vegetable drinks. But if you use a green vegetable with a mild taste like spinach, you don't even know what you're drinking as long as you add the right ingredients.

When I asked Carri what was involved with the green smoothie, I loved her answer: "So you take a green like spinach or chard and then you throw in some lemon, include the rind if you want and then basically you add fruit until it tastes good."

Fortunately Santa gave me a blender for Christmas. Next to my clock radio it has been the most useful gift this year. I've thrown in several different ingredients to make this taste good. And I'm telling you it tastes GOOD. And it's magically energizing which is good for me in the morning (just call me Popeye). I don't drink this every day -- maybe 4 times a week. I usually make enough for two servings so I can drink one and then refrigerate the rest for the next morning (you're not supposed to let it keep for more than 24 hours).

I haven't ventured beyond spinach yet, but I think I'll try that once my bag is gone. So for two smoothies, the basic ingredients are your greens, half a lemon (I cut off the ends, slice it in half and cut off maybe half the rind. I don't mind the seeds). Here are my favorite additional ingredients:

for liquid (I use one or the other):

Almond milk
Carrot Juice -- so far my favorite
Coconut milk (haven't tried it yet, but I'm excited to).

banana
apples
pineapple
frozen mango
raspberries

My secret ingredient: cinnamon

Seriously, the cinnamon is awesome, but I like cinnamon (it aids in digestion, it is an anti-inflammatory and it has been known to improve brain function -- I read a lot). I almost always use a banana because it gives it a good texture. I tried using just mango once and it wasn't very sweet. Pineapple is the best for sweetness. It makes me feel good to know I've taken care of half my fresh fruits and vegetables before 8 AM.

Next time you're at my house, ask me to make you one. You'll love it.



10 comments:

Ilene said...

Yum?

I have actually been thinking about making healthy smoothies with vegetables so perhaps this will give me that needed push.

It would work well for a St. Patrick's day beverage.

Annie said...

You're right. The sip I had yesterday was yummy and it left me wanting more. I'm going to have to convince you to let me have the other half of your morning smoothie, I could definitely use an energy boost in the morning.

carter said...

Do you think even your brother would like it?

Curious in Sandy

Laura Lee said...

Annie...I'm happy to share my smoothie with you. Just make sure it's on a day I don't use almond milk so you don't die.

Curious in Sandy...if you can drink V8 Splash and think it's good, I think you'll like this smoothie.

SRA said...

Rock on. One of the girls in my ward is big into green smoothies and I was over at her house a couple months ago and she made us a sample...let's just say I'm about 95% sure yours are better than hers. ;)

Charlotta-love said...

I actually have a spinach smoothy every day for breakfast. My favorite is milk, banana, chocolate flavored tofu (amazing), with flax seed. Some days I want sweeter so I'll use about 1/2 cup grape juice, berries of some sort, and spinach. Totally delicious.

I'll have to give cinnamon a try. I've never thought about that.

Tara said...

This is genius. I'm going to do it. I need to be better about vegatables. And I also really enjoy spinach. I can thank Katie for that. And now you have introduced me to a whole new world!

Lisa Marie Trent said...

Tried it. It was surprisingly un-spinach-like. I had a banana, almond milk, raspberries and the spinach.. (asnd some sugar cause the almond milk was unsweetened.)

It looked terrible, but felt really good to drink.

Laura Lee said...

Yeah raspberries don't help the color at all.

I threw in a kiwi today, yummy. But I also threw in some canned pears to help with the sweetness since kiwi isn't all that sweet. Pretty good.

Bonnie said...

I'll bet the coconut milk with it will be a good combination because when I steam/wilt spinach, I add a wee bit of coconut oil to it right out of the pan and it's quite a tasty combo. Would love to hear your report back.