The trick to green smoothies

I haven't been cooking much for the fam lately, as you've probably noticed by my lack of posts. We've been all over the place. Thursday night I went back to Dorio, my new favorite Greek place, and checked out their happy hour with my friend Kim. I got the hummus again, I can't get enough of that stuff. They don't have a whole lot of happy hour drink specials, but I tried this Greek white wine that is made from like the leftover wine on the walls of the barrel...I can't remember what its called but it was to die for. Kim got an "Aphrodite Sunrise", their happy hour cocktail, and that was pretty amazing as well. I just love that place.

Anyways, getting back on track here, I've been eating out a lot because my parents have been super busy and we haven't seemed to coordinate on dinner times so naturally, I'm not feeling as well as I could be. I keep reading about cleansing with green smoothies for breakfast on other blogs so I decided to give that a try; give myself a fresh start for the new month. So I put together a mix of watercress, celery, apple and flax; a recipe I'd seen on another blog. Um, no offense to that blogger, but it was absolutely terrible. I had to choke the thing down, all the while chewing on those nasty celery strings that didn't blend into the smoothie at all. It was a nightmare. BUT, I felt great! I made it through my intense morning workout with energy to spare and had such clarity of mind. So I know the green smoothies are a good thing, I just couldn't handle drinking them.

This morning I was making myself a normal fruit smoothie and noticed we had some kale that was starting to dry out a little. Oh yeah, I bought it for the green smoothies I was supposed to be making every day this week. Oops... Not knowing what else I was going to use the kale for (I hate letting fresh veggies go bad), I threw a few leaves into my smoothie, hoping it wouldn't totally ruin it. And guess what, not only did it not ruin it, it was actually really good! I totally tricked my taste buds into drinking a quasi-green smoothie!

Here's my recipe, I highly recommend trying it. Its a great way to get some greens in the morning without having to feel like you are eating veggies.

Green-ish Smoothie

1/2 c. frozen blueberries
1/2 c. frozen peaches
1/2 banana
1 tbsp. flax seed
3 kale leaves
2 tbsp. coconut milk
1 c. water
6 almonds

Mix ingredients together in a blender and enjoy! I like to sprinkle a little granola on the top of mine, gives it a little something to munch on while you are sipping away.