Smooothies

Sometimes I think I want to go on a diet. Sometimes I think I just want to eat healthier. Sometimes I think "screw it, pass the chocolate peanut butter ice cream" :) But I always think that I need to start eating better to be a good example for my daughter as she grows. And when she was diagnosed as mildly anemic at a year old, I resolved to re-evaluate our diet choices. That's when I discovered the health benefits of spinach. In addition to being high in iron, spinach contains nutrients essential for skin, bone and vision health, contains cancer fighting flavinoids, dietary fiber to help curb overeating and vitamin K and selenium, key nutrients that are hard to find in today's highly processed foods. Plus, I like it. I'm not so much the sauteed with bacon kind of spinach prefer it fresh, in salads and on sandwiches, or torn up and added to pasta, scrambled eggs, just about anything!

So when I started to see recipes online for things called, 'Super green smoothies' and 'Green monster smoothies' I though that sounded right up my alley. And my brother and sister are all about smoothies so I decided I'd make my own.

I also know that my time is heavily devoted to keeping my daughter entertained and from breaking things, so I knew that if I had to assemble a bunch of ingredients every time I wanted a smoothie it wasn't going to happen. So I took advantage of a nap and made myself some smoothie packets in sandwich bags.

I used blueberries, strawberries, mango, kiwi, avocado, banana, a little yogurt and, of course, spinach :) I tried to get all the colors of the rainbow in there, to be super healthy. I included the avocado, banana and yogurt to get a creamy texture, but I wanted my smoothie to be primarily fruit and veggie, not lots of dairy. And avocados are super good for you too, but I don't really like them. I figured they wouldn't add much flavor but would still be just as healthy :)

 

 I mostly just eyeballed the amounts and stuck them all in a plastic sandwich baggie that I stood up in a measuring cup for ease of stuffing. Each packet contained 1/2 an avocado, 1/2 a kiwi, 1/2 a banana, about 1/4 cup each of blueberries, strawberries and mango. Then I added just a dollop of yogurt and filled the rest of the baggie with spinach. **Always make sure to wash your spinach thoroughly! Spinach is one of the vegetables most likely to be contaminated with all kinds of icky stuff, and sometimes still has dirt on it when you bring it home**

 

 



After each baggie was full, I nestled them in a large freezer bag (4 sandwich bags to a gallon freezer bag). Now they are ready whenever I am!


*Update*
I have since made and consumed one of these smoothies, and have learned from my mistakes, lol.

The first thing I learned is that the flavor of bananas is completely overpowering. All well and good if you love bananas, but it was too much for me. And the texture was plenty thick, so next time I'm going to take the banana out.

Also, they're super thick, I had to add almost 2 cups of juice to get it to a drinkable consistency. And by that time, my little food chopper was maxed out and I had enough smoothie to replace breakfast and lunch. Which would be OK if you were doing this to try and loose weight, but I just wanted to have one a day for the health benefits.  This is a large beer mug type glass, and I was full after half of it. Chloe helped eat it too :)

But overall it tasted pretty good; mostly like banana and blueberries. I'm curious to see how it tasted sans banana. The two ingredients I was concerned with, the avocado and spinach, I couldn't taste at all! So I consider the smoothies a success, they just need some tweaks. Don't we all? :)