Green Smoothies 101

What...is...that? That's the reaction I received most while sipping a green smoothie around the office or among friends who were yet to be green smoothie believers. Yes, it looks like something found in a baby's diaper (I wonder how many of you just stopped reading), but I assure you, it tastes great. I think green smoothies, and smoothies in general, are so good that I would consider them an acceptable substitute for ice cream (I know!). If you're on the fence about the green juice, I wanted to share some tips and recipes with you today that may help you realize - it's not so scary after-all! 


Tip 1 - If you're just getting into smoothie making, you may want to consider something besides a traditional upright blender. You can, of course, use your big blender, but I think they make a big mess. I'm less apt to eat healthy if it's going to be too much trouble. I prefer a smaller blender like this small immersion blender or this compact portable blender. 


Tip 2 - If you love peanut butter, but don't love the calories (about 200 per 2T), you might consider PB2 - Powdered Peanut Butter by Bell Plantation. You're going to get that same great PB taste for 45 calories instead of nearly 200. Yeah, you read that right...45...I didn't leave a 1 off or anything. It's not some lame low-cal PB either, it's just powdered. You chocoholics will be pleased to know it's available in a chocolate-pb variety, too. Side note: the recipes below contain 1T of PB even though a full-serving is 2T. I did that purely for the sake of eliminating 100 calories. If you don't care about calories or are using PB2, feel free to include 2T. It will just be that much more delicious. 


Tip 3 - Sub out the plain yogurt for vanilla. I included plain yogurt because it typically has less sugar/calories, but if you don't care about that, vanilla tastes great, too. You may also consider other flavors as your taste-buds see fit. In example, there's a recipe below that calls for banana and clementines. If you used pineapple yogurt there (I think Chobani makes some), that would be quite awesome! 


Some recipes to get you started: 

As a general rule, chop all ingredients down so your blender can take them. For fewer calories, omit the yogurt and use more ice/water.

Green Smoothies:

• + 1 banana
  + 1T peanut butter
  + 1 handful of spinach or kale leaves
  + 1/4c Ice and 1/4c water
• +1 banana
  +1T peanut butter
  +7oz plain greek yogurt
  +1 handful of spinach or kale leaves
  +1/4c Ice and 1/4c water
• +1 banana
  +1T peanut butter
  +1 scoop chocolate protein powder
  +7oz plain greek yogurt
  +1 handful of spinach or kale leaves
  +1/4c Ice and 1/4c water
• +1 banana
  +1 clementine or mandarin orange sections (buy them in the little fruit cups)
  +7oz plain greek yogurt
  +1 handful of spinach or kale leaves
  +1/4c Ice and 1/4c water
• +1 banana
  + 5 strawberries
  + 7oz plain greek yogurt
  + 1 handful of spinach or kale leaves
  + 1/4c Ice and 1/4c water

If you have a favorite green smoothie recipe, please share below! :)