Saturday's Spinach Smoothie

For the last few weeks I've been enjoying spinach smoothies as a snack and sometimes as a meal replacement.  With my gastritis I wasn't eating a whole lot in general and it was becoming clear to me that I was not getting enough vegetables in my diet.  I did a bit of googling and found a few tips on making spinach smoothies.

I don't really think there is a particular science to smoothies, more of a personal preference.  So I thought I would give you an idea of what I have been doing to make my spinach smoothies, and maybe you can try too.

We have an immersion blender that I love, it makes smoothie making quick and easy with very little clean up.

To start, Ryan and I keep frozen fruits in the freezer pretty much all the time for the purpose of smoothie making.  We always have frozen bananas, as well as what's on sale in the grocery or we are often given berries when they are in season.  What Ryan does is cut them up (if they are larger fruits) and sets them on a try in the freezer to freeze.  Once they are hard, he pours them into a zipper bag and they are individually frozen pieces of fruit.  You can also buy pre-frozen fruit at the grocery.

What I put into today's smoothie:

• One large handful of spinach
• Between 1/2 and 1 cup of cold water
• I then blended up the spinach and water to make sure it is evenly blended
• 2 tablespoons of unsweetened apple sauce, I find this gives it a little bit of sweetness, a small amount of juice would work as well
• About a half of a frozen banana
• A few chunks of frozen pineapple

Then I blended it until it was a smooth consistency and poured it into my glass.  I've gotten to the point where I can eye ball the ingredients in the mixing cup to know just how much I need for one glass, but if you have leftovers I think they may last ok in the fridge for a little while.  Also I like to use a straw, I always feel like I have a smoothie mustache other wise.

If you are worried about not liking spinach, I can tell you that for the most part this smoothie tastes like the fruit that you put in it.  I suppose that if you have a serious aversion to spinach it may be a turn off, but I don't think spinach has that much flavor when it's uncooked.  Don't knock it until you've tried it.

So I'll hope you'll give it a chance.

For those who are already in the know, what are your favorite smoothie ingredients?