Drink your veggies!

I've been making smoothies for years and years. Most of my smoothies, however have been some combination of fruit and yogurt. My sister-in-law, Shelly has been big into green smoothies though, and inspired by her, I decided to go on the hunt for green smoothie recipes to try. Green smoothies, as you might assume, have at least one green thing in them (duh, how else would they turn green?). They offer a better balance of nutrients by adding some veggies in along with the fruit. In the little bit of reading I've done I've found that most of the recipes call for some sort of leafy green.

Tonight I tried a recipe that honestly, I wasn't so sure about.


And, though it looked pretty in my blender, it didn't blend (cheap blender). So I added some water to it. But it was too warm for my liking. So then I added some ice cubes.

And it made this. A nice glass of creamy green stuff!

And honestly, we didn't love it. It wasn't bad, but it was a little too bland. The avocado made it really, really creamy. If I do this again I might use just half of the avocado.

Here's the Recipe:

1/2 Apple (peel included)
1 Orange (peeled)
1 Stalk of Celery
1 Avocado
1 Banana

I added:

1 Cup of Water
12 Ice Cubes

Dice the fruit and veggies into pieces your blender can handle. Blend, and enjoy!

Or you can throw it back into the blender upon realizing that it needs a little more zing, add a half cup or so of frozen marion berries in the mix. Any ole berries will do, I'm sure.

Pour. Enjoy!

If, by some random chance you are inspired to drink your vegetables too, keep in mind that there are endless variations of these you can make. You can throw just about any combination of fruits and veggies into a blender and come out with something new every time. Don't let the lack of any one ingredient in this recipe, or any other, stop you from blending up some yummy healthy goodness!

I'm not usually a betting woman, but I'll put money on the fact that this is healthier than the praline toffee crisps I ate this afternoon. Or the magic cookie bars. Or the creamy, cheesy, gooey potato dish I enjoyed. Or the spinach dip I indulged in today.

Or the orange cream soda I drank last night. Or the chips and onion dip. Or the chicken n' biskets, or the veggie thin crackers dipped in garlic ranch, or the praline toffee crisps and magic cookie bars (I made them for three different parties and I ate a LOT of them!).

I probably shouldn't confess to the fact that what you see above was all I ate yesterday.

So I won't.

Stinkin' New Year's Parties!

For some strange reason I feel an intense need to detox. Hence the smoothie for dinner. I have the ingredients for a few more smoothies that I'm intending to try in the near future too. Perhaps I'll keep posting them, for my future reference and to inspire you to drink your veggies. Or for you to laugh at me while I drink mine.

Whether it be drinking smoothies, cutting back on all of that processed yuckiness, hitting the gym, or going outside for a walk, I hope you find the motivation to be a healthier you in 2011. And, if by chance, you find that you have plenty of motivation to make the necessary changes to enjoy a healthful life style, feel free to pass some of that along to me. I am 100% positive that I'm going to need it!