Green Fruit Smoothie

Smoothies have become my go-to breakfast and snack food. I can eat (drink) them while getting ready for school in the morning and I can put them in a cup and take them on the road. They are just filling enough to keep me going for a few hours until lunch, and I can make them as nutritious as I want them to be, with all sorts of flavors and endless ingredients.

Lately, I have begun adding a green super food powder to my smoothies. This instantly increases how filling they are, without altering the taste too much. I'm using Amazing Grass brand Berry Green Superfood - it's mostly organic, vegan, and contains not only nutrients but antioxidants, probiotics and enzymes.  Here's the nutritional breakdown (from the website):

And since the nutrients are all from whole food ingredients, and the enzymes are living, your body will absorb them better. It's better than a multivitamin in this respect.

One scoop in my smoothie, and I don't really notice a taste or texture difference, only that the color of the smoothie is always a dark green. Here's one I've been eating (drinking) a bit lately. No picture because I couldn't get the dark green color to look pretty :)

Green Fruit Smoothie

• 1 banana, sliced
• 10 frozen blueberries
• 2 frozen raspberries
• 2 frozen blackberries
• 1 cup loosely packed baby spinach
• 1 tablespoon walnuts
• 1 scoop superfood powder (optional)
• 1 cup vanilla soymilk

Place ingredients into a blender in the following order: frozen fruit, banana, walnuts, spinach, superfood powder, soymilk. Pulse a couple of times, then blend, slowly picking up speed, until very smooth - for about one minute. Be sure to blend for the full amount of time, or else the smoothie may not have a smooth-y consistency :)
 
Possible Substitutions

• Use any sort of frozen fruit in place of the berries. Using frozen fruit ensures you don't have to add any ice or thickeners like yogurt.
• Use kale in place of the spinach.
• Use almonds or cashews instead of the walnuts.
• Try a fruit juice instead of the soymilk.
• Do not replace the banana - it makes the greens, powder and nuts blend smoothly so you don't get a powdery end result.