If there is one healthy thing you do for yourself and your family this year, I would suggest green smoothies. Basically, it is a fruit smoothie that you add greens to. Greens, as in spinach, kale, chard, beet greens, mustard greens, bok choy, carrot greens, the list goes on. Mostly, it's dark leafy greens that you know are good for you but you seldom or never eat. I heard about green smoothies over a year ago and decided that it just made sense to try them. And I love them! I'll be honest, the rest of my family does not "love" them, but they do drink them.

A green smoothie is by far one of the most incredibly nutritious drinks that we incorporated into our meal plan as a family. This is also one of the first things we did as a family to improve our health. It is simple and packed with proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals that your body craves. The recipes can be varied to appeal to every one's taste. I have my basic green smoothie recipe in the "recipe" section of this website. However, you can add your favorite fruits and veggies to change things up. Surprisingly, you and your kids will come to enjoy this wonderful drink and perhaps crave it!

When we started making Green Smoothies, the only greens we used were spinach because it is mild in flavor. Our fruit ratio was high also as we tested small to see what we thought. By doing this, our smoothies were sometimes more brownish or reddish in color depending on the fruit mixture we were putting in. Our smoothies now are bright green and we typically have spinach in each one but we add other greens for a variety in our diet. Your local farmer's market is a great place to pick up ingredients for your smoothie.