Smoothie Art

Healthy living is sometimes really hard to keep up with as you go about your life.  Even though I stay at home with my kids, I don't always have the time to get everything done that I want to every day.  One of those things on my to do list is to make sure my kids eat lots of vegetables and fruit, but sometimes that doesn't always happen the way I want.  My kids love to eat apples, but when they eat 5 or more a day that up-sets their stomach.  So one thing I do is make smoothies, like a lot of them! With homeschooling my kids, my duties with church, Cub Scouts, and my volunteer work, on top of my responsibilities as a wife and mother I do not have time to make single serve smoothies all day long.  Each of us can and usually do have 2 smoothies a day.  So what I like to do, is make enough smoothie to last us 3 days before I have to make more.  

Smoothie is something that goes rank quickly if not kept well.  I know, I've thrown smoothie cups away because what was growing in them was to gross to wash out.  Or those smoothie mixes that aren't so yummy tasting that even I will dump it into the garbage.  But I have figured out a few things, a few tips that I thought would be helpful to others.

I am going to be doing a smoothie session for the month of February and I would love to have you join me on this discovery of Smoothie Art. My Chia Seeds, Ground Flax Seeds are organic, and my Terra Greens come from doTerra.  It's a high concentrated blend of greens that when taken on a regular basis will give you a full serving of all the vegetables that you need in a day.  

 Green Smoothie Recipe            Pink Smoothie Recipe

1. Kale                                         1. Strawberries

2. Spinach                                    2. Pineapples

3. Carrots                                     3. Mango

4. Terra Greens                            4. Peaches

5. Chia Seeds                               5. Applesauce

6. Flax Seeds                               6. Water

7. Apple juice                              7. Bananas
8. Secrete Ingredient

How I make my smoothies.  I am an artist at heart, so I color mix my smoothies to make them look delicious.  This means that I always start with the Green Smoothie base first.  I pour in 3 cups of apple juice first, then put in my secrete ingredient which for this smoothie was a cup of left over California mix vegetables. (Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower) Then I put in 2 large handfuls of kale and spinach.  I freeze most of my fresh ingredients so that I don't have to add ice to my smoothies.  Then I go ahead and blend this batch.  Once that's well blended I add in 1 heaping scoop of Terra Greens, 4 scoops of Chia Seeds, 4 spoonfuls of ground flax seeds, and half a handful of kale and spinach each.  Then I blend it up again.  Now I put this mixture into a large gallon drink picture. Now its time to start my Pink Smoothie Recipe.  I pour in 3 1/2 cups of ice cold water ( I used filtered water from my fridge).  Then I added 1 cup of strawberries, 1 cup of pineapples, 1 cup of mango, 1/2 cup peaches, and 1 and 1/2 bananas. I mix this all up.  And with this if it's looking a bit too thick I will add up to 1 full cup more of water.  Now comes my favorite part.  I will pour the Pink Smoothie into the center of the picture right into the center of the Green Smoothie.  Then I get a big wooden spoon and mix it all together.  This smoothie will turn a little bit brownish green in color.  Which means it's not going to be yummy looking, which is why I serve my kids' smoothie in opaque Darth Vader Smoothie cups, and my husband and I get transparent blue and red smoothie cups.

This is a super yummy smoothie despite the color.  The best part of it is that it will last up to 5 days in the fridge as long as it is sealed from the air.  So what I do is turn the lid to keep the air out of the picture. But this gallon amount of smoothie only lasts my family 3 days.

If you like this, stay tuned for next weeks smoothie!