10 May 2011
They’re green. They’re fresh. And they’re nutrient-dense.
Do they taste good? “Yes. A thousand times—yes!”
No worries, though, the color threw me off at first, too. But once you’ve tasted a well-blended and balanced green smoothie, you’ll understand why these make it to the lunch table nearly every day.
Our trusty blender is a Vitamix (Blendtec works great, too).
What’s in a green smoothie?
To make four glasses of smoothie:
The Greens:
– Lots [see above picture] of Spinach (its sweet, takes out the zing of the kale)
– 2-3 leaves of Kale
– 1 handful of Cabbage
– a dash of water
The Fruits:
– 2 chunks Pineapple Core (not eatable because of hardness, but when blended is delectable)
– 2 Pears (home-grown organic – we have plenty in our freezers)
– 2 Bananas
Other: Apples, Grapes, Berries, Coconut meat, etc. (Occasionally added.)
Blend greens and water in a sturdy blender before adding fruit to avoid the possibility of finding leaf chunks. Throw in the the fruits, blend it all together until smooth, and pour it out into glasses… which, in our family, means Ball jars.
Many of the fruits we use are frozen, making the smoothies chilled and great for a warm day. (We like to stock up and preserve fruits when they are in season or on sale.)
The finished smoothie – with the right combination – is sweet and refreshing!
P.S. Monday was the first time we’ve used fresh greens from the garden in our smoothies. The spinach and kale are being planted every-so-often so that they have a longer harvest season.
Delicious!My family and I love green smoothies, too. We just started harvest our own greens from our garden, this week, too. We have been enjoying turnip tops/greens, spinach, mustard greens, and herbs in our smoothies. Frozen fruit does make it so yummy! Blessings!
Beautiful Emily! I love spinach in mine. I’m so excited that we are planting some in our garden. :)
Mmmmm…. ;) I love green smoothies… and this looks especially good!! Must try soon!
Love~ Jen
“Yes. A thousand times-yes!” That sounds exactly like a line from one of my favorite movies! ;-)
I love green smoothies, but the shade of green in your smoothies is so much prettier than mine!
Yum!! Makes me hungry, even at this hour! I know how refreshing and satisfying a good green smoothie is. Isn’t having your own garden wonderful, exciting, and healthy!!!
Beautiful photography, as always! I’d like to see what you think of the baby mockingbirds :)
Blessings to all!
The green color does look rather intense but beautiful. What is the flavor like? Does the thickness make the smoothies hard to drink?
I am sure these are brimming with all sorts of goodness.
The smoothies I tend to make are very simple: bananas and soy milk. Not as healthy as your green smoothies but still pretty healthy :) What other types of smoothies do you make?
Thanks for sharing and enjoy lunch!
Blessings,
This Good Life
Ah, we just got a Vitamix! If it weren’t for the fact that we are on a special diet right now, I would dive right into these. As it is, I’ll remember this is here, and make it when we are able to eat some of those things again. :)
(And as always, beautiful pictures my friend!)
yum yum yum! Mum and I love green smoothies. We often drink them for breakfast.
Our favourite combination is oranges, spinach leaves and frozen mangoes (with water). We have quite a few mango trees on our farm so we freeze quite a bit of mango to use all year round.
Does this smoothie keep?
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Jessica
What a load of goodness in one jar! I have never actually made a smoothie (confession time!), but – apart from all the goodness – the thought of not having to throw out the centre of the pineapple, might make me try this. I hate throwing out what is bound to have loads of good in it!
As always, the photos are wonderful x
We have a vitamix blender too! Works GREAT (though I can’t stand the noise…dad has to do all the blending, Lol!). ;)Yum! Those looks delish and so healthy! I’m going to have to have us try them. :) We really enjoy the yogurt-berry “freezes” recipe that came with the vitamix…it’s Amazing! :D I could eat it 3 times a day. ;) HeHe!
Love and Hugs!
May you and your family have a blessed weekend!
~Rachel~
Our family loves green smoothies too – but the addition of blueberries and raspberries means ours aren’t actually green. Just as well, I don’t know if I could convince my husband to drink something green in colour. I always add plain yogurt and a tablespoon or so of flax oil to ours too. Yum.
We’re big fans of green smoothies here too! It’s a great way to start the morning and so tasty. What a blessing to be able to use homegrown ingredients!
We make green smoothies too! Our recipe is a little different so I will have to try yours. :-)
Hmmm, looks delicious! I love spinach. I might have to try this sometime when we have the ingredients…
In Christ,
Gabrielle
Yum-O, can’t wait to try this ~ thanks!
Those smoothies look especially delicious in those charming vintage canning jars, Emily Rose! I’d like to try making some ‘green smoothies’ sometime-thank you SO much for sharing the recipe and tips. Though it is green, I think they look delicious and interesting to try! Many blessings & much love! Oh, and beautiful photography as always!
With Joy in Christ Jesus,
Elizabeth
P.S. This would be a perfect way to use fresh garden greens after we’ve harvested some from our garden! But first we need to finish planting. =) Blessings!
Isn’t that like the V8 juice, sort of? I’ll have to try the recipe!
Pauline
I will definitely have to try this, we have this stuff in our house normally and my hubby is mad for fresh pineapple, the cores have been going the way of the compost bin.
Brilliant!
Yum!! This looks so good and healthy!! We love our vitamix to -we use it at least twice a day or more :)
Blessings,
Madeline
http://www.flameinthedarkness.com
Great post! We loooooove green smoothies here, too. Surprisingly, my daughters prefer them when they are green. They don’t “like” the red or purple ones, just green. LOL I’ll take it!!
I love green smoothies too!! We can’t have them right now because we are on a elimination diet. I can’t wait to have them again! My favorite fruit combination is peaches, strawberries and bananas. Yum! :)
Oooh those look lovely!! I just love making homemade smoothies. We buy lots of frozen fruit and throw together healthy and yummy frozen treats. I have not however tried making any with spinach yet…interesting idea! Thanks!
Stopping by from the Raising Homemakers Link up!
Jami @Intentionally Living
We do lots of fruit smoothies–gonna have to take the plunge and throw some of our home-grown spinach and cabbage in there too!
Sounds yummy!
Wow, that is very…. green :D I could see it tasting good, though. As long as it had enough fruit in it… :)
Hope you and your family are doing well! I’ve thought about you all a lot lately and have missed talking to you. I’m pretty sure we’ll be making a trip to Indiana sometime soon. It would be great to see you all!
Cori
Mmmmm……. I have been wanting one of those for a while! I just LOVE them! Hopefully we can get to the farmers market this weekend and get some greens! :)
Blessings,
Miss Antoinette
Those look sooo yummy! We have made similar smoothies before with a fresh kale just picked from a local farm, and it was so fresh and good! Who would think it was that healthy for you? We also enjoyed putting blueberries in our’s!
Blessings,
Kristiana
Sonds delectable! I juice practically everyday and will certainly try it. This is my first time. Sure is pretty!
Thanks, can’t wait to read more about your tasty treats :)
That sounds & looks yummy! Thanks for sharing the recipe and the water tip! I haven’t been blending the greens in water & end up with some leaf bits after blending in my ‘ol Oester.
What form(s) do you freeze the fruit in? I pureed some fruits like papaya that were on sale, then froze them in ice cube trays before saving the chunks to plastic bags. I don’t care to store things in plastic, but apart from using lots of glass Pyrex/Anchor bowls don’t know of a good way around it.
Do you have problems with drinks congealing ever? I made a blueberry one that soon gelled inside the cup. It wasn’t very appealing.
“Yes-a thousand times yes!” I love how I know where that came from. Pride and Prejudice is my most favorite movie of all time! Love the color of these smoothies. My sister would love. She adores smoothies.
YUMMM!! Can’t wait to try this out!
Emily Rose-
I’m curious if you have a super-duper blender that literally whips everything to a complete liquid…my blender is just a simple model I’ve used for green smoothies in the past, but I’m interested in trying the pineapple “core” and I’m concerned it might not blend up as well if I don’t have a fancy blender. Looks delicious! :)
I am DEFINITELY going to try this recipe out! this sounds perfect for summer.
I love the photo of the smoothie in the mason jars…..so cute!
thanks for sharing!
Megan
letterstorome.blogspot.com
My family LOVES green smoothies and have them every morning for breakfast. To help the color look more appealing to my brothers we always put berries in ours to make it more of a purple color!
ps Love your blog!
green smoothies have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love them…. :D
Another yummy green smoothie recipe is peaches and spinach! Lovely!!
You’re wonderful, Emily Rose. I’m just sayin’. :)
With Love,
Rachel H.
These look great, I’m defiantly going to try them as soon as I get a chance!
I was wondering if you or anyone could tell me how these taste as a juice. My grandma has pancreatic cancer and is suppose to stay away from foods and beverages that are too cold and too hot because its hard on her stomach. Would it taste just as good as a juice rather than a smoothie? My family and I are always trying to find things that she can have that provide a lot of nutrients since her taste buds tend to like things only a few times. She’s been doing so well for having pancreatic cancer, but it’s a constant battle trying to find new things that aren’t unsettling to her stomach, that are healthy for her, and that she will enjoy.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe, hope to hear from you soon!
Meredith
Meredith, thank you! Yes, I believe the ingredient combination would taste delicious as a juice, too! We have friends who make kale lemonade with their juicer and it is delicious. I completely understand the desire to make things nutritious as well as tasty – I hope your grandma enjoys it! God bless, Emily Rose
Lindsay, we freeze our fruits in freezer bags, laid flat so that when we get them out of the bag we can easily separate the fruit. We’ve never had any issues with our smoothies congealing.
Dawn, yes, we have a Vita-Mix and it is a super-duper blender. :-) We haven’t blended the pineapple core in a regular blender, so I’m not sure how that would turn out (I know that our regular blender didn’t entirely blend the spinach).