Green Smoothies

Have you ever heard of green smoothies?  Call me behind the times, but this is something I'm just hearing of, and I'm hooked.  I've never been much of a smoothie fan (I'd rather have a milkshake or a snow cone, ha!), and Chet was quite into making smoothies for a while, but I never partook.  But recently I read a blog post that made me decide to try. 

I'll share three of my recipes and some tips I've learned.  I just use a regular blender to liquefy all of the ingredients.  Also, my recipes may not be "green" enough for people like this or this, but all I know is that SOME spinach a day is better than NO spinach a day, especially for Sydney.  :-)  (She's liked all of them so far...maybe because I refer to them as "ice cream drinks"...)

Green Smoothie Mustache

Peanut Butter-y Strawberry Banana (this was the first smoothie I made, and we did not have any spinach in the house...so it's not a "green" smoothie, but can easily be made into one by adding spinach)

1/2 cup orange juice
1 banana
1 4-oz container strawberry soy yogurt
2 tablespoons wheat germ
1 large spoonful peanut butter
1 tablespoon honey
1 packet strawberry Carnation Breakfast Essentials
2 cups ice

Berry Good Spinach
1 cup water
1 banana
1 cup frozen berries (blackberries, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries)
1 4-oz container strawberry soy yogurt
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2 handfuls spinach
1/2 avocado
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup ice

Peachy Green
1 cup water
1 banana
2 cups frozen peach slices
1 4-oz container peach soy yogurt
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2 handfuls spinach
1/2 avocado
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup ice

Tips

• Add ice last; use more ice if you want your smoothie to be more "slushy".
• If you add ANY peanut butter to the blender, your smoothie will taste like peanut butter.  Not necessarily a bad thing, just a warning.
• In my opinion, the 1/2 avocado is impossible to taste, but makes the smoothie more "smooth".
• Chet says he can taste the spinach in the smoothies, so you may want to add less spinach if you don't like the taste.  I don't mind the taste, so I add a lot.
• All ingredients can be modified.  I'm not a good "modifier" in the kitchen (I like having exact recipes to follow), but you can use any type of yogurt, or substitute milk for yogurt, or substitute juice for water, etc.