Green Smoothies

I've been wanting to write about green smoothies for a while, but I had not actually tried them until last week. Several people have posted about green smoothies lately (see here, here, and Michelle's post here), and I was finally convinced to convince Wyatt that we should give 'er a try. We always get some sort of dark green in our produce box, and we always have to be very intentional about preparing and eating them. Otherwise, it is all too easy for us to put off using the greens until, not surprisingly, they're not good to use. Oh darn.

So, in order to use our greens, and actually get the health benefits from them rather than letting them merely decorate our crisper, here is what we've tried.

Smoothie 1: 

kefir

kale

cantaloupe and honeydew melons

banana

We did not love this smoothie, but I blame it on the melon and not on the green. Granted, it was a sort of mental challenge for me to drink the green in a smoothie, but even though the texture is a bit different it didn't taste like I was actually drinking kale.  We will try kale again with a different mix of fruit.

Smoothie 2: 

kefir

chard

parsley

strawberries

banana

We both liked this smoothie better than the first. The chard and parsley gave it a different taste from the first, so I can see that the green does influence the taste. That said, the flavor of the greens is still surprisingly mellow in my opinion. I'd heard that parsley is good in smoothies, but I was worried it would be overpowering. Not at all, in this case. It was more of a pleasant undertone. I think having a berry in the mix really helped too.

Smoothies are such a great breakfast, and we are trying to have them twice a week at this point. We make our own kefir, which means we don't have to deal with an additional grocery item. True, we go through milk a bit faster, but it's worth it, I think, because the kefir I usually see in stores has sugar added and is pricier than the cost of the milk it takes to make kefir. While I like sugar (too much), I don't need it added to my kefir. To each their own and all that.

I'm excited to try different mixes of fruits and veggies, and see how things go!

Have you tried green smoothies before? Do you have a favorite recipe?