(Purple) Green Monster Smoothie

In honor of the holiday:  more green!

I’m admittedly a little late to this trend.  I’ve just never been one to drink my calories.  But I was inspired recently to give it a try, and the perfect opportunity arose this week when I had one of those mornings where I just couldn’t stomach real food so early.

You don’t need a recipe for this kind of thing.  It’s open to interpretation.  I like to pack mine with superfoods…

Dash of ground flax/chia/hemp seeds
~cup almond milk (or milk of choice)
Large handful of frozen kale (either buy it pre-frozen or lightly steam it and freeze.  Raw kale will taste leafy and the steaming will make the nutrients more readily digestible).
One banana, frozen and cut into chunks
Handful of frozen wild blueberries
Squirt of honey/maple syrup/agave/etc

Combine ingredients in a blender, or in my case, the little cup that comes with the immersion blender.  A handy tool for smoothies!

Purple…

Getting greener…

Mmmmm.  Green monster.

To the un-inaugurated who may be turned off by the thought of a kale smoothie — I promise you the only thing you can really taste in this concoction is the banana.  So if you don’t like bananas, that might be a problem.  Kale?  Not at all.

Some other thoughts —

Bananas have a lot of sugar and empty calories.  They take up half the calories of this smoothie, but they’re essential to the texture.  I might experiment with swapping out yogurt, or using a little less banana.  I sliced them up and froze it so I can just take a few slices at a time.

All kinds of berries are a great addition, high in antioxidants, as are melons, papayas and kiwi.  Kiwis are high in nutrients, but most of those are found in the skin.  Why is that always the case?  But toss the whole thing in a smoothie and you probably won’t know they’re there.

Be selective in choosing a non-dairy milk.  They’re a processed food and likewise there is a lot of variation in their quality and healthfulness.  Non-organic soy milk, for example, uses hexane as a solvent.  Always check the ingredient list and choose the brand that has the fewest.  Or, make your own.

So start your morning off with a powerful punch of superfoods.  You can do it with your eyes half open.  No excuses for not eating breakfast!

-R

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