The Green Smoothie

I've always been a breakfast person (and you should be, too); lately, I've also been a dedicated smoothie maker. With health and sustainability in mind, there's no time like the present to go green.

I've done green smoothies before, but I usually just added spinach; this week, I'm going all out. I chopped cucumber, celery, kale and spinach (I also saved the celery stalks and kale stems--they make great veggie broth). I'm also using orange juice, a banana, and frozen strawberries.

I know the pre-preparing seems extreme and anal, but seriously, it took me 20 minutes to chop and bag everything; plus, my smoothie making the next morning was extremely simple.

I'm perfectly aware that anyone can throw a bunch of stuff in a blender and turn it on, but I choked down some nasty green liquids before making a smoothie I could tolerate, let alone enjoy--so take my advice.

That said, be liberal with your greens; once blended, they shrink to nothingness in the bottom of your blender--so load it up! I blend the greens, whatever liquid you plan on using (juice, soy milk, green tea, whatever), and any non-frozen fruit you're using, in my case a banana.

I found when using frozen fruit, if you blend your non-frozen ingredients first, everything ends up smoother in the end--always a desirable outcome when making "smoothies"--and you avoid the never-pleasant, in-tact-spinach-leaf-in-my-smoothie fiasco.

As a side note, when using greens with strong flavors, like celery and kale, make sure you use at least one sweet fruit in your mix to cover the the green-y flavor. My go-tos are mangoes, pineapple, and bananas. What else you add is your decision entirely--my choice of strawberries tasted great, but the color wasn't exactly what I would dub appetizing.

Welp; bottoms up, I suppose. To health!