Green Smoothies

Weirdly, the stars have aligned this summer and I’ve found a new way to drink more green stuff – green smoothies. EEEKKKK (insert cross-eyed emoji!). But, its really working and Little Man loves to eat one each day as well.

I am a terrible breakfast eater. I mean terrible. I don’t love most breakfast foods unless they are a form of cake (muffins and bread loaves). I’m freaked out by eggs. And I usually just don’t make time to get up early and prepare it. It’s just not my thing. So, with Little Man in his early stages and me needing to make sure I’m getting all my vitamins, I thought why not try some smoothie blends.

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So, I went to my 2 most trusted sources for research – Google and Pinterest. I came back with lots of good ideas and kinda like I did for my Quest Cookie Ever, I’ve been doing a little research to find my mojo. I don’t think I can say I’ve necessarily “arrived”, but I have at least developed a weekly pattern that’s working for me.

Mr. McKinney on the other hand, tried them when I had leftovers making them, but he decided to stick to his usual breakfast sandwiches and omelet breakfast muffins and forgo the green stuff. Some days I can’t blame him because some of the bits remain a little shall we say “clumpy”. There might be a need for a fancy blender in my future. But, I have found a rhythm that works and when it works, I just roll with it!

As with most of my recipes, there is a lot of mix and match here. I don’t like having the same thing every day, but I do like having an easy method to get my daily dose of fruits and veggies. Plus, this is one of those places where I feel like minimum effort and maximum results are found. I’m no nutritionist and you won’t see counts or points listed here, but I’ll try to share what I did and what I’ve finally found that works. (oh and one more thing…”about” will be an official measurement used in the recipe listings below. Handfuls are approximate and everything was shoved together in a Ziploc bag for fun!)

So, after all that “mostly veggie” stuff was gone, I decided I didn’t think the extra things really made that big of a difference. I mean, I’m sure having more veggies is always good, but they made everything taste a little “earthy” and were supposedly “detoxing” me as we went. So….I decided to just keep it simple with a few ingredients and will hang with these moving forward.

Tips I learned, and employed, along the way:

• When you get home from the grocery store, go ahead and carve out some time to sort veggies and make your combo packs.
• I prep all my smoothies for the week at once. It became too annoying to have to wash all the parts each day or every couple of days. I usually do them on Sunday afternoon or night, but if we are out of town, I’ll do them on a different day.
• I store my smoothies in the freezer in mason jars. They work perfect, stack easy, and made me feel fancy while drinking all that green stuff.
• Remember to set out your smoothie when you get home from work or before dinner. Its usually ready by the time you are ready to bed, to be placed in the fridge overnight and ready in the morning. I set mine out before we go to bed and then when I get up for the early feeding I put it in the fridge to enjoy after the morning bottle. Whatever works, but it will not thaw in the fridge overnight. Frozen liquids stay solid!
• Its always a balance. If its too thick, add more liquid. But, wait to add liquid until you see what its going to do. Frozen fruit acts like ice and a thickening agent when you blend it.
• Avocado makes things creamy but doesn’t really have a taste. Determine if its worth the cost.
• Overripe bananas are a great thickener and are SUPER SWEET…perfect way to make it sweeter without adding a sweetener.
• Mind over matter is a real trick. We eat with our eyes first. Green stuff can be good.
• Use a straw, it makes it easier to go down if you have texture issues. I LOVE the flavor of these, but I struggle sometimes with the gritty texture.
• Put all your frozen stuff in the blender and then put your liquid on top. Let it fall to the bottom before you start blending.
• This is a great way to use up mushy or over ripe fruit. I usually do an assessment of my fridge or fruit basket when I get out all my blending gear.

I’ll be honest, I was super tempted to just buy the bag of frozen green smoothie blend from the freezer section, and that is still a real option. But, this way I could use all fresh things and make my own frozen packs and control that the extra preservatives weren’t in there. Plus, the first day I bought groceries, I spent over $40 on ingredients, but they have lasted me WAY longer than a month and I’d say that’s not too bad for a fresh healthy breakfast every day.

Do you need some of these supplies to make your own smoothies?