Our day starts with a green smoothie

In fact, smoothies are often my only meal until lunch. Interestingly enough, we didn't have a clue that one can blend leaf vegetables with fruit and water and create something so healthy and delicious - until we tasted a sample at the Simply Raw festival in September 2007. That smoothie was the simplest possible combination, spinach with banana; tasted great and we were immediately hooked.

Green smoothies are easy to make and have fantastic health benefits even for people on a regular diet. There is only one psychological barrier to overcome: taste is much better than look (suspiciously green, thick liquid). The ultimate source of inspiration and recipes is "Green for Life", a great book by Victoria Boutenko. We bought several copies and started to hand it out as a gift to our friends...

In the beginning, our old blender was not powerful enough for harder vegetables. Some people prefer smoothies with a texture, but we were quite relieved after we switched to a mighty Vitamix. So, this is a list of ingredients we use regularly these days (not all of them at once, of course :-):

• spinach (neutral taste), salad, arugula (spicy)
  
• kale, chard (slightly bitter), carrot green, dandelions (yes, we can buy organic dandelions at Rainbow Foods)
  
• bok choy (Chinese cabbage), choy sum, nappa (Pekinensis cabbage)
• homegrown sprouts (alfa-alfa, clover, brocolli, daikon radish)
• celery (salty), green onion, garlic, avocado (I blend this zesty combination without fruit, but it is too zesty for Zora)
• banana, apples, pears, orange, mango, papaya (smooths bitterness of kale/chard), pineapple
• chia seeds (1 tablespoon), spirulina powder (1 teaspoon)
• water or rejuvelac (usually with sprouted/germinated quinoa)
  

Typical batch would be perhaps 2 cups of spinach, 2 cups of chard, 2-3 leaves of bok choy, 1 banana, 2 apples, 2 cups of water - yielding almost 2 liters (2 quarts) of smoothie (we like it more thick and less sweet than most recipes suggest).