Green Smoothie - Three Ways

Juice cleanses and crash diets have bombarded me since the beginning of the new year. But, let's be real - New Year Resolutions have been a hot topic everywhere and now that it's March, things are starting to peter out. Well, friends, not for me!

Instead of making a huge goal that I could not meet or trying to go on a health kick that resembled not eating, I decided to just incorporate more healthy things into my life. If you add more and more healthy items into your daily routine, there isn't any room left for the unhealthy ones.

That leads me to green smoothies. I have seen recipes for these things EVERYWHERE. Pinterest has some great ones and so does everyone and their mother. They're not that difficult, but they are that delicious. Here is my take on three of my favorite green smoothie recipes.

Recipe 1: Strawberry Mango 

For this recipe (and all to follow) I used baby spinach and a mixture of dark greens from Trader Joe's. I was going for kale, but they were out. Any dark green will do.

You will need:
2 large handfuls of dark greens
1/2 apple of your choice
1/2 lemon, freshly squeezed
1 handful of frozen mango pieces
1 handful of frozen strawberries
1/4 cup water

Cut everything up into small pieces and start by putting all of your greens in at the bottom. I'd suggest putting just a few slices of apple near the bottom as well. It helps the blades of your blender grab onto the greens. Next, squeeze in your lemon (don't worry about the seeds - they'll get ground up) and pile on the rest of the fruit. Finish by adding the water. Blend until smooth. You may need to poke everything around a bit to get things going depending on power of your blender.

Recipe 2: Strawberry Banana 

You will need:
2 large handfuls of dark greens
1/2 apple of your choice
1/2 lemon, freshly squeezed
1 ripe banana
1 handful of frozen strawberries
1/4 cup water

The recipe works the same as above, but I replaced the mango with banana. I was a bit worried about having banana and greens in the same drink, and to be honest, it was great for the texture, but not so great for the taste. To fix, I just added a few more strawberries and voilà - delicious.

Recipe 3: Mixed Berry Avocado 

You will need:
2 large handfuls of dark greens
1/2 apple of your choice
1/2 lemon, freshly squeezed
1 handful of frozen mixed berries
1/2 ripe avocado
1/4 cup water

 This smoothie turned out to be absolutely amazing, but looked SO much less desirable. The avocado really helped blend things together and make it creamy and the berries gave it more tang than the others.  The photo of the final product wasn't so great as red + green = brownish red. However, don't let the color distract you from the flavor. It was one of my favorites.

A few tips for your smoothie making adventures: 
1. Always use an apple. The apple in this smoothie is the equivalent to the egg in pasta - it binds everything together.
2. Using frozen fruit helps to keep the smoothie cold. You could also use fresh fruit, add ice, and cut back on the water, but in winter, the frozen fruit works great.
3. Have about the same ratio of each item you're adding (aside from the lemon). It helps with your portions. Each of these smoothies made one 8oz drink for me.

These smoothies taste great and help you get a lot of nutrients into breakfast, lunch, or a snack. They're packed with fiber and fill you up. You could also add a spoonful of greek yogurt to these to help with the texture if it bothers you, but I chose to keep mine vegan.

Happy smoothie making!