My First Green Smoothie

Nearly a year ago I started working out with a personal trainer. It was also about a year ago I began trying to talk myself into drinking "green" smoothies. And no, I'm not talking about juicing, which is even more disgusting to me than blending a bunch of vegetables together and drinking them, but I get that a lot of you people (especially in LA) are really into that, so uhh, good job.

I've lost weight, gained muscle, taken up tennis again, quit drinking coffee, and the list goes on, but one the things I had not yet tackled was ingesting vegetables in liquid form.

With the introduction of Champ's Coconut Yogurt, I discovered a great recipe for a healthy fruit smoothie that I love to drink after a hard workout. I though this would help ease me into the green thing, but it really didn't I liked the look and taste of what was basically a virgin pina colada (without the simple syrup).

Maria's Post-Workout Smoothie:
1 cup Champ's Coconut Yogurt
4 large strawberries
1 banana
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1 teaspoon hemp seed
Ice

But today my life has changed forever. I finally talked myself into the GREEN SMOOTHIE.

It was amazing.

After months of buying spinach, kale, and cucumber and just watching them go bad in the fridge, I finally put some of it to use. Although I am taking it one vegetable at a time, I was more than pleased with the outcome and taste of my first green concoction.

Here's the recipe: 
Handful of Baby spinach
Handful of sliced Cucumber
Teaspoon of Hemp Seed
2 Strawberries
1 Banana
1 Sambazon Acai frozen package
2 large spoonful's of Champ's Coconut Yogurt
And a dash of fresh apple juice
(I also usually add a couple ice cubes because I like things cold, but it's up to you)

My first green smoothie! It looks like
dirt but tastes like health!

Each week I am going to try and add a veggie, and alter the recipe just a bit so I can get adjusted to the taste, but so far I enjoyed it!

Most of the time, I would rather eat the actual vegetable than put it in a blender, but recently my body has been pretty tired from the tough workouts I've been doing so I wanted to create a way to give myself more energy and faster recovery. That combined with a great hot tub session today has me feeling like a million bucks!

So forget the juicing, try something that will really make you feel good. I encourage everyone to try a veggie smoothie at least once, so at least you can say you did it!