Talking about green smoothies

Sometimes experiments don't work. I had a super exciting idea this morning to make two smoothies, a fruit smoothie and a green smoothie. I was then going to layer them, one layer of fruit, one of green, etc in the glass until I had a candy cane striped smoothie. How cool does that sound? Well, I put my first fruit layer in, and then poured my green layer in and the green just disappeared! Haha. It seems the green drink stayed in the middle and the fruit stayed on the outside.

In terms of taste I'm sad to say that the green smoothie did not taste very good. I've been reading the Green Smoothie Bible and I've been very excited to make one, but so far it hasn't gone so well. I've been adding greens besides spinach, this smoothie had some kale and a scoop of green powder from Garden of Life. I am not giving up though, I plan on finding the perfect green smoothie recipe! One of my main objectives currently is for the smoothie to be a vibrant green. In the past because I added blueberries, raspberries and spinach to my green smoothies they turned brown, but had a nice sweet taste. I need to find some new fruits that don't add color but add sweetness.

One more note, the author Kristine Miles says not to use the same greens every time you make a smoothie (and for meals) because your body needs a variety. One example is spinach because it contains oxalic acid. Oxalic acid is the plants defense mechanism against predators. While it's only a problem with high amounts of spinach it's still not a bad idea to rotate greens. This will give you a wide variety of nutrients that spinach doesn't provide. Other options include: kale, chard, mint, basil, beet greens and much more. As I mentioned I still haven't figured out how to make my smoothie taste good, but I will try some recipes in her book and report back.

Recipes from today:

Fruit smoothie (Delicious!)
Two bananas
Yogurt
Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries
Almond Milk
Hemp seed

Green smoothie (Needs more fruit!)
One banana
Two handfuls of spinach
One kale leaf
1 scoop of green powder
Almond milk