we love smoothies!

My blender has gotten a serious workout this summer.  I think we've had a smoothie almost every day.  My kids love them and succumb to my diabolical plan to get them to eat things they wouldn't touch otherwise, like spinach for instance, Muahahaha!!!  I have several types to share with you all today so you can go smoothie it up later :)

Love this pic. There are cartoons on in the family room to their left, if you couldn't tell!

First up, this is the basic fruit smoothie that I make.  Most people use juice, but I find that too sweet and also, the protein powder adds enough flavor, so I use milk.  Do whatever you want :) Oh, and all of these recipes make enough to feed myself and all three of my kids.

Basic fruit smoothie:
1 1/2 cups milk or juice or a combination of both
1 banana
a handful of spinach (this is optional, but you can't even taste it, so really, why wouldn't you put it in?)
a scoop of protein powder (if you don't have any, try a big glob of peanut butter, yum!)
1 cup of frozen fruit (we like peaches best, mmmm, but just use whatever you have, you really can't go
           wrong

There ya go! If I ever have some fruit that's going bad, I toss that in there too.  And a blender tip: always put the frozen fruit or ice in last, that way it gets nice and blended up, without chunks.  Liquid first, frozen last.

K, so I was curious about creating a vegetable smoothie and I found a pretty good one online somewhere.  I takes a little prep time, but it contains almost all the veggie servings you need for a whole day! If your kids aren't getting enough veggies, this will do the trick, my kids LOVED this yesterday.

Vegetable Smoothie:
1 cup apple juice (pure, unsweetened)
1 cup sliced apple
1/4 cup applesauce (again, pure and unsweetened!)
1/2 cup sliced carrots
1/2 of a cucumber, peeled and sliced
2 cups ice
dash cinnamon or nutmeg

Another one we've been loving lately is one I got out of my Fresh Flavor Fast cookbook (one of my favorites). We especially like this now that Fall is approaching, yay! Plus, I find this one very filling, because of the oats probably.

Banana-Oat Smoothie:
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant or quick cooking)
1 cup plain yogurt
2 ripe bananas
1 cup milk
4 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Last but not least, here's one for the ladies :)  I have struggled a little lately with tiredness and irritability during certain times of the month (ahem).  I drive myself crazy when this happens because I am not typically like that and it feels bigger than me somehow, which I really don't like. And so I got busy and found some solutions.  Apparently, PMS is caused by a lack of a few particular vitamins and nutrients and this smoothie can help.  This is out of Drink to Your Health (an amazing book, truly!)

Avocado Dream:
1 ripe avocado, peeled and sliced
1 garlic clove, peeled
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 1/4 cups rice milk
salt and freshly ground pepper
a few sprigs of fresh cilantro for garnish

Okay!! That should keep you busy, right?? :)  I hope some of these recipes are useful for you.  Sometimes I freeze smoothies into popsicles too, so there's another idea!

Until next time! Have a happy Wednesday (yay, hump day!)