Green Smoothies!

I recently read Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko I was intrigued by the idea of ingesting blended greens. The premise is that if you study nature, specifically chimpanzees who are genetically simiar to us humans, you would see them digesting a very large amount of greens over each day. Greens are dark leafy vegetables, such as spinach, kale, collards, parsley and many more. The book explains that greens are so different from other vegetables, that they should be their own food group as high up on the food pyramid as any other major nutrient. Well that sounded great, I mean I'll just sit and eat 2 pounds of salad everyday right? The reason people don't get enough green is because it seems so unattainable and gross. Now what Green for Life introduces is the Green Smoothie! You can read the whole book for a lot more information, but what I took from it was get all the greens you need for a day and place them in a high-tech blender, then add a bunch of fruit to overpower the taste of the greens and blend away. I was skeptic at best, these industrial blenders run about $400. Then I found Green Smoothie Girl!! I absolutely adore her site and am working on her 12 Steps right now. I'll go into that in a separate post. Through this blog I was able to read more realistic testimonials about green smoothies, and view a youtube demo of the preparation. It suddenly seemed very simple and obvious to me, and so I took the plunge and invested in a Blend Tec. When I came home from Stanford and saw it had arrived I was giddy with excitment.
The following morning I was completely prepared with spinach, apples, bananes, and a bag of frozen berries from Trader Joes. I am happy to say the smoothie tasted so good both of my kids chugged it down and asked for seconds! The Blend Tec worked like a dream, pulverizing all of the greens until all that was left was a perfectly smooth drink... you might want to call it a SMOOTHIE. HAHA yes, ok, the point is there were no chunks, and the blender succeeded at breaking up the plant cellulose making the nutrients digestible and palatable.
As the week went on I expanded my smoothies, the kids still like them but need a little bribe to finish an entire mug. I am ashamed to say I bribed my children with Luna Bars and iCarly to finish those drinks everyday!

This is my current Green Smoothie Recipe:
2 cups water
2-3 tbsp fresh pressed flax oil ($7.99 at Trader Joes)
1/3 a bag of Trader Joes Southern Greens Blend (collards, turnip, spinach and mustard greens. $2.99)
BLEND
1-2 quartered apples, including core and seeds
2 bananas
1/2 bag Trader Joes frozen mixed berries ($2.99)
1/2 bag Trader Joes pineapple tidbits ($2.99)
BLEND twice

If it's thick, add more water and blend again.
Total cost: $5 ...and it's enough to fill 2 adult and 2 childrens cups.

It's been 1 week... my stomach is a bit smaller, and my digestive system feels great! I feel more energetic and confident throughout the day. I am able to eat less at all meals because I don't feel unsatisfied, the Green Smoothie actually tastes good and makes you full! I don't recommend running right after drinking a serving, it's a heavy drink and not one you want bouncing around inside your stomach, on run days I have it for lunch post-workout instead.

If you try it let me know!