The Very Best Green Smoothie

With Grae back to school, I feel like I basically have two main goals at the moment…  1) Getting us all ready, out the door, and to school on time, and 2) keeping everyone {especially my preemie babe Sam} healthy with all of the gross school germs currently being reintroduced into our lives.  So far so good, but we’re only two weeks in, so fingers crossed for a fairly healthy winter. Being a NICU mama I feel like I have lots of little tricks for avoiding sicknesses as much as we can, and one of those things is definitely daily green smoothies.  This particular one is the very best green smoothie I’ve ever had (truly!) and everyone seems to like it – even the green smoothie critics I’ve encountered.  While it’s got lots of great greens and nutrition in it, I think the key is that it’s nice and sweet and has a little punch of tartness from the pineapple and orange…  Basically it tastes good vs. TOO healthy like some green smoothies do. That being said, it is healthy…  It includes lots of leafy greens and fruits, plus it’s got vitamins, healthy fats, protein, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, iron, fibre, and more.  A definite win-win in my books.

Here’s the full list of required ingredients: kale, spinach, banana, frozen pineapple, frozen mango, avocado, oranges, hemp hearts, chia seeds, and pure apple juice (which is optional but does make a difference in the finished flavour of the smoothie).  We use the stuff from our local apple orchard that is absolutely to die for and freeze it into easy to use ice cubes since juice is not something we keep on hand usually.

Now you can just use this recipe to make your smoothie each morning as usual, but what I like to do is prepare smoothie bags in advance.  Basically that means I haul all of the ingredients out, fill multiple bags / jars / containers with all of the ingredients save the liquid, and I have pre-made smoothies ready to go for the week {or more}.

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Now I will say that last winter I made up a ton of smoothie jars, strategically placing everything {well except that coconut yogurt that was a mistake – hah!} in order to ensure I’d be able to get everything out come smoothie making time, and let me tell you, it was an epic fail.  Even the jars that you’d think would be easy to dump out were a huge pain in the butt and I think I wasted more time scraping ingredients out of jars than it would have just taken me to make the smoothies from scratch in the mornings.  Lesson learned.  I would maybe try the jar method again in the future, but certainly not with these jars…  They’d have to be something with a wide enough mouth that I could stick my whole hand in them to retrieve ingredients if needed.

While I’m not happy about it, I’ve resorted to using 6 of my very precious use-only-for-gifting-play-dough-kits-zip-close-bags this time around as they were my only option (I haven’t bought plastic bags for regular use in several years now and I don’t have enough glass containers to spare), but I’d really like to invest in a set of large Stasher bags or something similar to use as dedicated smoothie bags. (I just found these on amazon and they seem to have good reviews and are super affordable.)  Anyways, until then, rest assured that these 6 bags will be used again and again until they can’t be used anymore….  (We’re the people who wash out  bags from bread and tortillas to reuse multiple times before sending them off for recycling.)

Alright, now onto the very best green smoothie smoothie bags!

First up, a big kale leaf.  We often use lacinato kale {because it makes amazing kale chips and is what we have on hand}, but you can use any type you like.  One leaf per smoothie bag.  We have a Vitamix so I don’t even bother removing them stem bit, but if you don’t have a high-powered blender, you may want to.

Next up, a handful of spinach per bag…  Literally just however much you naturally grab.  Smoothie recipes are just one of those things that always turns out, so no need to be finicky or exact.

Add a ripe banana to each…  The key here is ripe.  A green banana won’t do you much good as you’re really counting on the banana for some sweetness here.

Now, 1 cup of frozen pineapple.  Pineapple is what makes this smoothie in my opinion, so if you have to choose, be more generous with it than less generous.

Next up, frozen mango…  I cup of that per bag too.

Add half an orange…

And half an avocado… (You can skip this if needed, but healthy fats are important – especially for kids and avocado does add a creaminess to smoothies too.)

Okay, almost there… Next up, about a teaspoon and a half of chia seeds and a teaspoon and a half of hemp hearts.  You can add any other nutritional add-ins you love here too.

Lastly, two ice cubes worth of frozen apple juice.  We don’t keep juice in the house usually, so this ice cube method works really well for us, but you can also just add in a splash before blending.

And that’s it!  Seal these up and store them in your freezer for super quick and easy smoothies on busy mornings {or afternoons, or whenever!}

When you’re ready, simply dump the contents of your smoothie bag into your blender, add about 2 cups of water {or a little more or less depending on your blender’s abilities and the consistency you’re going for}, and blend!  I use the smoothie setting on our Vitamix A2500 Ascent Series, which is 50 seconds long.

This recipe makes a good amount of smoothie…  We get four smoothies from each smoothie bag…  A small / medium one for Sam, Grae, and I and a big one for Brad.   That being said, if you’re an adult who enjoys smoothies as breakfast, I’d say this makes two BIG adult size smoothies that would fill you up.

The Very Best Green Smoothie Smoothie Bags

• 1 leaf of lacinato kale
• 1 handful of spinach
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 cup of frozen pineapple
• 1 cup of frozen mango
• 1/2 of an orange
• 1/2 of an avocado
• 1.5 teaspoons of chia seeds
• 1.5 teaspoons of hemp hearts
• 2 ice cubes of frozen pure apple juice

• 2 cups of cold water

Fill bags or containers with the ingredients above, seal well, and freeze.  When ready, dump the contents of one smoothie bag into the blender, add approximately 2 cups of cold water (or a little more or less depending on your desired consistency and your blender’s abilities), and blend until smooth.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Serves 4.

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