If you like smoothies all year around, take advantage of the abundance of wonderful vegetables and fruits in the winter months. There are some basic smoothie rules to follow if you don’t want to end up with something that tastes like pond scum (although when I do that I still drink it – I just swallow fast!). During the winter I love a smoothie with kale, spinach, chard or collards. The only sweetener I use is from either blueberries, strawberries, pears, apples, a small piece of fresh ginger, or an occasional banana. General rules to make smoothies quickly, effortlessly and really good for your health:
Pick your liquid base: This can be straight fresh juice, water, coconut water, or nut milk. Use however much you’d like to desired consistency.
The heart and soul of your smoothie: Vegetables and fruits at either a 2:1 or 1:1 ratio. Ideally, you want to use more vegetables, but this may take some getting use to over time. (In a pinch, organic frozen will do.)
A bit of sweetener: If you aren’t using fruits, you can use a dab of honey or agave, stevia, vanilla bean, cinnamon or nutmeg.
Add a little superfruit: If you have them on hand, add acai, goji or noni powder or dried fruit.
Add some green superfood power: There’s so many good ones on the market – pick one! Choose from chlorella, field grasses, spirulina, blue algae, or any combination. These green foods rock! :)
Add a bit of this or that: Go ahead and add some bee pollen, maca root, raw cacao, coconut or flax oil, and a tablespoon of chia seeds.
Get creative, throw all the ingredients into a blender, mix well, and enjoy! Way better than coffee……