The Smoothie Series

Is it a cop out for a recipe blog to do smoothie recipes? Wait, don't answer that! Let me rephrase... do you want some cool smoothie ideas/recipes? Perhaps that wasn't a rephrasing but rather a whole new question... I blame my lack of sleep for that foresight. Now that I mentioned that I'm sure you are curious as to why I am behind on the precious Zzz's, please stress not I will tell you the source of my new found insomnia. 

Did I tell you the manfriend and I found a lonely little kitten under a car? Well we did, and her uncontrollable, unbelievable, perfect little kitty face has made it next to impossible to re-home her. Thus my friends, my small quaint apartment is crammed with yet another living being that requires me to clean up its excrement - litter boxes are not my friend. Between kitten cries, and the dogs barking at the kitten cries sleep is slim to nil these days! However, this lack of sleep has inspired fantastic new smoothies as I need to stock up on energy quick, and definitely don't feel like cooking a 5 course meal. Hello silver lining?

My God in heaven, you try finding this face and then
giving her away!

Smoothies are one of my favorite edible delights out there. Once someone asked me what I snacked on since I am a vegan. I paused and said "Smoothies!!" With this little kitten throwing the status quo off in the apartment smoothies have become my life saver.

With my extra new found love for smoothies these days I thought to myself "Self, lets do a 3 part series on the joy of smoothies." And thus this post will be the first of 3 posts filled with smoothie goodness. I am also planning to get these all out over the next 3 days for optimal smoothie happiness. You can thank the kitty for this idea. And yes as it stands she doesn't have a name. Should you look at that adorable picture and think of one, pretty please message me because calling her "little one" will only work for so long....

This smoothie is known as the "Ultimate Green Machine" as I know there are hundreds of "Green Machines" out there, and I like to stand out. :)

Ultimate Green Machine
serves one hungry sleep deprived person
gluten-free

Ingredients:
1 handful of ice
1 banana
1 apple (cored and sliced)
1 cup packed greens (I do a mix of half kale and half spinach)
1 tablespoon flax
1 pinch of salt
1 cup non-dairy milk (I use almond)

Ah the absolute greatest thing about a healthy delicious smoothie is that all you have to do is take all the above mentioned ingredients put them in your blender and BAM! A happy wonderful nutrient rich meal is created, and you can pour it into a cup. 

I know that we all know spinach and kale are good for us, and that you are possibly tired of hearing about it. But, I feel like for the record, I have to give these greens an extra shout out. Spinach is so good for you I can't even put it into words (which is why I like this link): http://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/vegetable/health-benefits-of-spinach.html And kale... sweet wonderful kale, look what WebMD has to say about it: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/the-truth-about-kale. 

Doing your research on dark leafy green vegetables is really important, and I encourage you to get as many as you can into your daily diet. Enter this smoothie! I have been making one every morning this week, and my body feels amazing throughout the day (sans the lack of sleep, lol). Happy leafy green eating and I will see you back here tomorrow for smoothie numero dos.