Happy Green Smoothie Challenge - Day 1

Holy moly these things are good! I might have actually found a way to get more vegetables in me. We experimented with our first green smoothie today and I was pleasantly surprised.

Here are the raw ingredients:



I used -

1 banana
Handful of blueberries
Handful of pineapple chunks
4 mint leaves from my garden
Approx. 2.5 handfuls of lettuce mix (romaine, iceburg, red cabbage, carrots)
1 handful of fresh spinach

If you decide to try this, you can add anything you want - you just want to keep it about 60% fruit and 40% leafy greens.



Once it was in the blender, I added 4 ice cubes and about 1.5 cups of water. Out came these:



It was nice that they were actually green, I read that most "green smoothies" are really brown. It tasted just like a banana pineapple smoothie. Couldn't taste the vegetables at all. I think the greens actually sweetened the smoothie. Most fruit smoothies I make have honey in them because they are too tart for me. This was really sweet without anything added to it.

KID TEST: Ella loved it. This was no surprise coming from the girl who eats bell peppers and cucumbers for breakfast. Spencer tried it (which is a miracle in itself). He said he didn't hate it but he didn't love it either. He said he'd drink it if he had to. He loves apples so the smoothie tomorrow will probably be something with apples, kale, and celery. I think he'd enjoy that more.

DOWNSIDE: Money!! To do this for a month will be expensive! I have got to find some ways around the cost. I think I'm going to get frozen unsweetened strawberries from Costco instead of using fresh ones. I used a package mix for some of the greens today but I couldn't resist the 10/$10 deal that Safeway had going on. Iceberg isn't the best choice for lettuce but it was mixed with Romaine, carrots, and red cabbage. If you have any other money saving ideas for fruits and veggies, pass them on!