Rarely Used Blenders and Green Smoothies

 Do any of you have a blender that you just HAD to have but is now sitting in your cupboard or garage somewhere not being used?  If you're anything like me, then you do.  I simply had to have a blender on our wedding registry a year and a half ago.  I happened to get it as a wedding present, and I was SO excited.  I love anything kitchen because I love baking, cooking and experimenting in the kitchen.  Well, I used it a couple of times before it found its way back into the cupboard as other things took over my time.

We moved a few months ago due to being a military family, and I was determined to get to use my beloved blender.  I started by experimenting with smoothies.  After I found out how easy it was to make them, the blender has hardly been off the counter since. About a week ago, I was (of course) scrolling through Pinterest when I found a blog where they are all about green smoothies.  Having never even tried a green smoothie, I read on and this is the end result....
  
Over on Jadah and Jen's blog, found HERE, they are promoting green smoothies by challenging readers to drink one every day for the month of April.  I accepted the challenge (although, I am somewhat not living up to it at the moment since I haven't had one yet today), and I have some pictures of my experiments to share with you.

Okay, so you may be thinking GROSS - GREEN smoothies?!  Yes, green smoothies do consist of foods you may not like when they are consumed all by themselves, such as fresh spinach.  The good news, however, is that smoothies are not just one ingredient blended up for you to drink.  They consist of many healthy ingredients that compliment each others' flavors.  Let's take a look at one of the smoothies I created this past week:

 Spinach was the staple in every smoothie I made.  I know what you're probably thinking.  You're probably thinking, "Oh, yuck!  Spinach in a drink?  I could never like that!"  Well, let me tell you something.  I wasn't too fond of the idea either until I tried it.  No, I didn't use the entire drainer full above.  I used about a hand full of leaves and placed them in my blender right above the ice.  I didn't use any of the great recipes found over on the Simple Green Smoothie site, but I used the general idea of their recipes and sort of gauged my own.

Next, I added a few blueberries (frozen), cut up a banana, poured in about 1/3 cup or so of vanilla yogurt and just enough water (or orange juice) so it would help it blend, put on the lid and turned it on the lowest setting.  Check out how nicely it was mixing together:

 If you find that your smoothie is grinding but nothing seems to be blending together, then put in a little more liquid.  This will help the solid ingredients get pulled downward so they will get chopped up.  I like to blend mine until the vortex has appeared in the middle and the top starts bubbling.  (This way, it will get chopped up nicely and I won't have too much stuff to chew.)

Ta-Da!  All blended together and green!

 Most of the time I somehow gauge it just right where it all fits perfectly in a tall glass.  This time, I poured it in a glass that has a couple green dots and even used a green straw so you could see just how green this smoothie is.  I didn't even try the drip that dove off the side of the blender as I was pouring it.  I waited until it was all perfectly in the glass to try the very first taste.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The banana (and whatever other fruit you happen to add) out does the flavor of the veggies you put in the smoothie, so I could mostly only taste the banana!  Fruit also has natural sugar, so you don't have to add any extra sugar or sugar substitute to make it taste sweet.  Fruit smoothies taste sweet all on their own.

Sooo..if you happen to have a blender that's been sitting around unused for a while, bring it out, dust it off and try your hand at your own green smoothie!  I would LOVE to hear about how yours turns out!