It's Not Easy Being Green

I wanted to use that title in honor of Kermit the Frog.  But in reality, I have found it so easy to be green!  And I'm not talking about the reduce, reuse and recycle-type green, although I do believe that is also very easy to do.  This time I'm talking about green smoothies!

I bought a Vitamix at Costco a couple of weeks ago and I have been obsessed with using it ever since.  I thought I would make maybe one smoothie a day at most.  Nope.  I have been making at least three smoothies every day and if it weren't for my husband and kids wanting to eat "real food" every once in a while, I probably would be making smoothies for dinner, too!

We get a big bin delivered every Thursday filled with fresh, organic vegetables from a farm in Salem.  When it first started arriving about six weeks ago, we never seemed to eat all the veggies in the bin.  Every week I would end up composting wilted red leaf lettuce, radishes and kale to make room for the new delivery.  It wasn't that we weren't eating the vegetables but that we couldn't possibly eat them all.  Enter the Vitamix.  I will put almost anything that arrives in the bin into a smoothie.  Last week I put something called a kohlrabi in my smoothie.  No idea what a kohlrabi is but it arrived in the bin so I promptly chopped it up and threw it in the Vitamix!  Now I find myself having to buy extra vegetables every week because our weekly delivery isn't nearly enough.  And I couldn't be happier about it.  :)

The best part of my new favorite food/drink is that all the kids love the smoothies, too.  I can make a smoothie with celery, kale, cabbage and spinach along with a banana and a few frozen strawberries then sit back and watch as my toddlers guzzle it down!  I have been amazed at the things they love to drink in smoothies.

I realize I may be late to the smoothie/juicing craze but I am so glad I finally joined the party.  Here's a before pic of my banana, peach, celery and kale breakfast smoothie that I shared with the kids:

And here is the after pic:

If nothing else, this smoothie obsession has been a fun distraction from the fact that I still can't run.  And I can probably credit my smoothies with keeping me in my current size clothes while I sit around and do nothing all day.  Ha!

What about you?  Are you a green smoothie drinker?  Or a juicer?  What is your favorite recipe?  

- Kristen