Good morning everyone! It was a little disappointing this morning after yesterday’s beautiful “hamster sized snowflakes” fell from the sky.
But, this smoothie will make up for that!
This smoothie was created to use up my favorite super foods in the refrigerator and to keep us all healthy this month. It seemed many were falling down with the flu or stomach bug, so we threw in our super foods, blueberries and spinach, and made it taste great with my biggest smoothie secret — the rind.
My kids love orange juice. Most do. And this smoothie tastes like orange juice! Why? Because I throw in half the rind of one orange (cut up into 1″ pieces). The Vitamix blends that all together into one smooth smoothie.
I serve these often when we make “brinner”. It’s difficult to find veggies to go with some power protein waffles… but the smoothie has vegetables, fruit and tastes great with the menu. Plus it is fast and easy with little clean up!
**Smoothie Tips**
After many, many days of smoothies I have discovered a few things:
- The blender does better if the frozen fruit thaws for 5 minutes or so. Or if you are impatient like me, put in the microwave on high for 1 minute.
- The banana can make or break your smoothie! Yeah a banana. If there aren’t enough sweet components, a banana can make your smoothie awesome. But if your banana has a lot of brown spots, the banana taste can really overpower everything. I like my banana yellow with no brown in smoothies. That way some of the starches have converted to sugars, but the super sweet banana flavor doesn’t overpower the entire smoothie.
- If the smoothie is not cold enough – add a cup of ice! Smoothies taste better cold to me anyway.
- If the smoothie doesn’t taste great, add a quarter of a lemon or half of an orange – the rind and all. This gives the smoothie a clean, fresh taste.
- ¾ cup water
- 1 banana, cut in half (optional)
- ½ cup blueberries
- 2 cups mango, 1" chunks
- 2 handfuls baby spinach
- 1 orange, remove rind and cut orange into fourths
- 1 half of the orange rind, cut into 1" chunks (you should have about 3 or 4)
- 1 cup ice (optional)
- Add the ingredients as listed or recommended on your blender.
- I put my machine on "Smoothie" and hit start. For non-smoothie blenders, start slow. After about 30 seconds, turn the machine up slowly to high. Stop the machine and use a spoon to push items down towards the blades if needed. The smoothie should form a tornado for 30-60 seconds and you will know then it is ready.
- Add ice to make it colder. I always add ice especially if my ingredients are not frozen.
If you are purchasing just a few lemons or oranges for smoothies, consider buying organic ones. I am not a huge organic fanatic by any means, but it does make sense to try if you are buying them just for smoothies since the skin is being consumed.
