I often make a smoothie for breakfast and I like to experiment with green smoothies: smoothies with green vegetables blended in, mostly leafy greens such as spinach, lettuce or endive. Sometimes the result tastes awfully bad and I have no other options then to wash it down the drain or to keep my nose closely tight and to drink the smoothie as fast I can and hope for better luck next time.

Today was one of those days I had better luck! I’ll be happy to share this winning-smoothie-recipe with you!

Why green smoothies?
Vegetables are healthy, we all know that. But despite that knowledge there are many people who don’t reach the advised daily amount of vegetables. I have to confess that I used to be one of those persons too!
I had yoghurt or bread for breakfast, bread again for lunch and it was not until dinner before the veggies made their appearance in my daily diet. And of course far from enough! So when I changed my eating habits, I started with eating MORE veggies! Some raw veggies on the sandwich for lunch or replacing the bread for a salad or a soup all together! Why wait with eating veggies for dinner when you can also have then for lunch, or even for breakfast!

A super easy way to start your day with some veggies is having yourself a Green Smoothie! It doesn’t take forever to make and if you like you can take the smoothie with you and drink it on your way to work or school! Perfect!

Juicing or blending?
The veggies not only provide you uberhealthy vitamins and minerals, but also a bunch of fibers, which is great for the digestion. When juicing the veggies you loose most of the fibers, that’s why I prefer blending. It also makes the smoothie more ‘solid’ so you’ll feel more saturated (and it saves you the time cleaning the juicer, a horrible task if you ask me…).
If you want to use cabbage or beets in your smoothie, you’d better juice them, but leafy greens and avocado’s for example, are perfect for blending!

Tropical Green Smoothie

• 100 Grams of spinach
• 1 Banana
• 150 Grams of pineapple (preferably fresh and in chunks)
• 1 Lime (juiced)
• 200 ML of almondmilk (or use any other kind of milk, try ricemilk for example!)
• About 10 leaves of fresh mint
• Optional: Tsp of shredded coconut for garnishing

First add the almondmilk and spinach to the blender and turn it on! Blend until it has the desired consistency. I like my smoothies not too chunky but silky, so I let the blender do it’s job for quite a while. Add all the other ingredients and turn on the blender again. Blend until smooth. Poor into a nice glass or a jar, Sip&Enjoy!

It was only until I finished the smoothie that I realized some shredded coconut on top would have been an awesome extra…!