Breakfast of Champions: Green Smoothie

It seems like the whole (healthy eating) world has jumped on the smoothie bandwagon. Internet fisticuffs have broken out over the relative merits of blending vs. juicing. Crazy eyed evangelists for both warring factions spout suspicious claims from the rooftops. Pinterest orgy groups have formed.

So, what am I doing? Adding to the noise by posting a smoothie recipe. I can’t help it; this recipe is good. Like really good. And I can’t find any fault with the health content.

My DH and I got started on smoothies innocently enough: he’d been listening to Joe Rogan’s podcast (check it out if you haven’t – he’s not a douche like I had feared he would be; he actually has some really great guests and some interesting nutrition “experts”. Plus, he’s really kind of hilarious) and Rogan mentioned how much he really likes his morning green smoothie. And then he had nutritionists on talking about smoothies and although they might argue about how you get the juice in the glass, they couldn’t argue (much) about more vegetables being good for you. Some guests cautioned about fat soluble vs. water soluble vitamins, sugar content, and whether liquid veggies were better than veggies you chew; but the overall consensus was veggies = good and controlling where those veggies come from = even better.

Needless to say, we were intrigued (and visions of a crazy high-powered blender danced in my DH’s head). We started small – 1 blended smoothie from the health store down the road (which we split, because ack! $10!). Both of us absolutely loved it, so we did the (relatively) cost-conscious thing and started buying Naked Juice. But we felt bad about it because of the pasteurization and the sweet taste and we were pretty sure it was really bad for you. So we hemmed and we hawwed and we argued and we justified and finally we sprung for a refurbished Vitamix blender. And now that $7 a day smoothie habit costs around $5 and we are a month in to making back enough dough to break even on the monster that now sits in a place of honor in our kitchen.

My DH is the smoothie mix master in the family – he gets up first, and enjoys the mad scientist aspect of creating mixes. I don’t mind, it gets him to clean the kitchen more often. That, and he’s great at it. 🙂

Big Green Breakfast Smoothie

Serves 2

1 apple
1 banana
4 stalks kale
1/2 c. fresh spinach
2 stalks celery
Small hand full cilantro
1 tsp. spirulina
1/2 c. orange juice (the healthiest 100% juice you can find)
1 c. coconut water (100% pure – if you can’t find a brand with no additives, use regular water)
1/2 avocado
1 inch ginger

Whiz everything up until smooth. This is a thick shake-like smoothie that fills you up until lunch.

Added bonus for metric nerds: Self Magazine’s site has a really good nutrition calculator. I ran this smoothie through it, and this is what came up for nutritional value:

289 calories, 56 from fat (7g total)
213mg sodium
59g carbohydrates (11g dietary fiber)
6g protein
131% Vitamin A
152% Vitamin C
13% Calcium
13% Iron

How awesome is that?

Full metrics with goodies like nutritional targets, fullness factor, glycemic load, inflammation factor, nutrient balance, protein quality, calories, carbs, vitamins, fats, minerals, sterols & other substance breakouts here. *nerd squee*