About a month ago, I started a green smoothie challenge from simple green smoothies. I've tried store brand smoothies before, so I knew they could be good, but this was the first time I'd made some of my own. They will start another challenge July 1, so if you've ever thought about it sign up! It's free, they will email you a shopping list for each week and recipes. Here are some tips from my experience:1. By big bags of your greens and freeze them. Then you will have the different kinds you need and will not have to worry about them going bad. I bough spinach, kale, and romaine lettuce the first week and the only one I've had to buy again is spinach (because I tend to use more of it).
2. Frozen fruit is expensive. Buy it fresh, chop it up (if necessary) and freeze it yourself. Make sure the bag isn't overly full, lay it flat for the first 24 hours in the freezer. This will keep you from getting one giant clump of fruit so you'll be able to use what you need rather than the whole bag. This works really well for grapes.
3. Try different liquids for your base. They used almond milk quite a bit. I found I don't really like almond milk unless it's really masked by a stronger flavor. However, coconut milk and coconut water are amazing. If you have a juicer, make your own juice and use that. Oranges also make a lot of their own juice and are great additions to the smoothie.
4. When you get a not so good flavor (and it will happen, trust me), add a banana. They are sweet and will almost always make the smoothie better.
5. Prep in advance. Sunday night I prep all my fruit in separate ziplock bags and write the additions I'll need on the bag. It makes getting the smoothie ready before week a breeze.
My favorite recipe to date is based off a recipe from simple green smoothies with some slight alterations:
2 c Kale
4 bananas
1 c coconut water
1 c pineapple juice
It's the picture posted here and it tastes like a pina colada. Delicious.
