Easy Family Friendly Green Smoothie Recipe

Happy New Year friends!

Pine Daisy House is so excited about what 2018 will bring. Like many of you, we are spending these first few days of the year reflecting and dreaming about what the coming months will hold for us.

One of the things we also enjoy is a nice little dietary reset. We don’t tend to endulge too much during the months of November and December. But somehow it never fails, January rolls around Mr. PDH looks at me, and we just gently nod our heads simultaneously, like we were made for eachother or something. The holiday treat making has ended and so we know it’s time to shift our focus.

The easiest way for us to ease back into eating smarter and healthier is with smoothies. If I’m going to spend the time making something in the ‘ol kitchen I make sure that it’s something everyone can enjoy. So I hunted, researched and combined some ideas to come up with this smoothie recipe. The kids drink it right along with us.

Click here for the smoothie recipe

For so long the idea of green smoothies really freaked me out. We were doing fruit smoothies all the time. I think I was afraid they wouldn’t taste good, thus began the research. What I’ve found is that with a few tips, a blender, and the right ingredients you’re all set. Before we begin, we need to address blenders. You don’t need to have anything special to make a great green smoothie. After realizing how much we liked them we did end up purchasing a nicer blender so we could have a little more power and a faster motor. The noise freaked the dog out, but it did really make a difference. Plus the blender we were using dated back to Mr. PDH’s bachelor days. So if you are just dying to know what we have ask me in the comments.

Green smoothies by definition are green. Some kind of leafy green, or avocado, is placed in the smoothie to help it acquire the color. You can use any kind of lettuce leaf you choose. For kid friendly and beginners I recommend spinach. It’s very mild in flavor and blends nicely.

The next part to green smoothie making is to load your blender correctly. Place the hardest to blend items in first then proceed by stacking ingredients so that your final ingredient is the softest. Your liquid is last. I used almond milk here. But you can use anything; water, cows milk, chocolate milk, juice, coconut water, or coconut milk. I like the added natural sweetness of almond milk. If you use water, after you get it blended try it and see if maybe a squirt of agave or honey is needed. If you notice that you’re having a hard time getting everything to blend, try doing it in batches or stopping your blender a few times and mixing it with a wooden spoon before you proceed blending.

It’s important that you balance your soluble and insoluble ingredients so you can reduce or eliminate foam on the top of your smoothies. Basically it’s all about balance. Make sure you have enough soluable ingredients so that your liquid gets absorbed just enough to make your smoothie…smooth. Fruit like bananas, mangos, peaches, pears, kiwi, or avocado, are great ingredients to include because they will help absorb just enough of the liquid you add. Your goal is to drink as much of what you make as possible, so if you have a bunch of foam you aren’t drinking the nutrition it’s all simply left in your glass.

See? No foam only a few bubbles.

Drink your smoothie right away. The longer it sits the more the ingredients will start to separate. Don’t be worried if you have some separation or froth, both are normal. Your goal is just to minimize these two things as much as possible. When I tell the kids I’m making a smoothie they don’t even let me finish my sentence before asking for a glass. So plan on 3 – 8 oz servings with this recipe. Or 2 – 8 oz and 2 kid sized servings. Have fun and play around with the ratios of your ingredients until you find the amount that’s right for your crowd.