Fruit and Veggie Smoothie

My oldest daughter is just getting over strep throat and my husband and I have been doing the best we can to stay healthy.  I mentioned the other day that we really try to boost our fruit and vegetable intake when we are fighting off a bug.  I've also been reading Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, and it has really been making me think that I need to do even more to increase my leafy green vegetable intake.  Fuhrman ranks foods using a scoring system he devised called ANDI (aggregate nutritional density index), running from a low of 1 to a perfect score of 1000.  He looks at both the amount of nutrients a food has as well as the amount of calories in that food.  Guess which food scores a perfect 1000?  Kale.  Spinach has a high score of 707, while foods like cola and fries score only 1 and 12 respectively.  A fact that has been in my head as I plan meals this week:  Fuhrman suggests that every person should be eating about one pound of raw vegetables and one pound of cooked vegetables each day.  As I increase my veggie intake (nowhere near two pounds daily), I notice that I don't have room for other stuff that is less nutrient dense.

We juice fruits and vegetables occasionally, but I really like to make this fruit and veggie smoothie to boost my intake.  I prefer it over the juice because it retains all of the fibre from the produce and fills me up.  When I have a smoothie, I usually have it for breakfast.  My husband prefers a smoothie as an evening snack. The key to this smoothie is the banana.  You MUST use a banana or you will taste the spinach or kale. The spinach offers a smoother consistency and you will really not taste it at all.  It is a good place to start with a veggie smoothie.  Once you have tried the spinach, I really suggest you try the kale!  It requires more blending and makes for a slightly rougher texture.  You will taste a bit of "green" flavour, but my daughter has been drinking these smoothies since she was a toddler and has never turned her nose up at it.  I have an old, cheap blender and it does a fine job on this smoothie.  I'm sure if you had a Blendtec or Vitamix it would be even better!

Fruit and Veggie Smoothie

• one very ripe banana, fresh or frozen
• a giant handful (about 2 cups loosely packed) of baby spinach, OR 1 cup of loosely packed kale leaves, stems and any tough bits removed
• 1 to 2 cups of other fruit - fresh or frozen.  If using frozen, I prefer to thaw the fruit partially first to allow more flavour to shine through.  Good choices are any berries, mango, peaches, and kiwi.
• at least 1/2 cup milk or non-dairy milk
• other add-ins of your choice.  I always use 2 tablespoons of ground flax, but have also used matcha powder, probiotic powder, and protein powder.  You can also add up to 1 cup of yogurt if you eat dairy.

Place banana in the blender, followed by the spinach and fruit.  Top with your add-ins and pour milk over top.  Blend for ten seconds.  Then you will need to push down on the contents with a spoon and blend again. Add more milk if needed to get things really going.  Once the contents are blending well, blend for another minute or so, especially if you are using kale.  Serves 2 (or one for a huge breakfast if you're me....)

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