The Best Green Smoothie Recipe Ever

The amazing green smoothie recipe keeps getting better.

It's a perfect "kitchen sink" recipe because you throw whatever you have on hand in the blender for a fabulous breakfast, snack or quick lunch when paired with a few nuts or some string cheese.

The double bonus: your kids will love it.  My daughter, Jordan, has a spinach smoothie almost every day at breakfast.

My original green smoothie recipe  featured berries, bananas and Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk.  Easy, delicious and only about 220 calories.

Add two handfuls of spinach to make the smoothie a nutritional game changer.  It packs a powerful antioxidant punch with few additional calories.  The crazy thing is you can't even taste the spinach.

I've started added frozen kale to the mix, too.  It offers the amazing nutritional green boost while thickening the consistency.  The kale does add more of a "green" flavor, though but it's not overwhelming.

Here's the basic base recipe:

• Eight ounces almond milk (again, I love Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla)
• One big handful of berries
• One banana
• Two handfuls of spinach
• Optional: chia seed or flax seeds

Another view

The finished product

You can use any fruit combination with a few greens.  Pictured below is another version with the Almond Breeze, half a mango, half a banana, a few strawberries and two handfuls of frozen kale.  Delicious!

Mango Kale Smoothie

These are so good that they can be served as a frozen dessert treat.  Just use less milk and add more frozen ingredients for a thicker, soft-serve consistency.

*Almond milk is not safe for those with nut allergies and should not be used as a substitute for infant formula or breast milk.

So Too Much Soda Can Make You Fat...Shocking!

Shocker.  Consuming too much of anything can add extra heft to your body.  The New York Board of Health is expected to approve Mayor Michael Bloomberg's ban on the sale of large sugary drinks in restaurants, stadiums and movie theaters tomorrow.  In theory, it is supposed to help fight the obesity epidemic spreading like warm butter on toast across the country.  People will still be able to get their sugary soda fix.  The plan has flaws.

I think this is ridiculous not so much because it infringes on residents' civil liberties, which you could argue it does, but because it takes away the personal responsibility factor in controlling your health.

I was 50 pounds overweight at one point because I drank Mountain Dew and consumed M&M's like they were going out of style.  No one forced me to eat copious amounts of that junk.  I wasn't fat because it was sold or advertised on television.  I was fat because I chose to eat too much of it.  I promise that when you take personal responsibility for your choices and health, your life will change for the better. 

I digress.

Green Tea + Pepper = Weight Loss Boost?

This is interesting.

You've probably read about consuming certain foods together to boost that food's health-providing properties.  Think broccoli with broccoli sprouts to up the anti-cancer effects or spinach eaten with eggs  combines protein and iron and, in turn, increases your metabolism.

According to a recent Rutgers University study cited in Whole Living magazine (LOVE that mag!) green tea and pepper is the new power combo to help you lose weight.  Sipping the green stuff, along with the spice improves the absorption of the tea's EGCG by as much as 130 percent.  EGCG which is the catechin found in tea that has a laundry list of good stuff that can rock your body.

So how do you get green tea and pepper together?  You're not going to sprinkle it in your tea.  Trust me, it's not so hot.

How about eating a salad with a liberal helping of pepper with some iced green tea (add mint to the tea for a delicious treat).  Try any dish whether it be chicken, fish, even meat followed by a cup of green tea after you finish the meal.  The tea acts as a nice digestif.  If you're in the cooking mode, you could ladle a cup of steeped tea over a mixture of brown rice and root vegetables.  Ok, maybe that's a stretch.

The point is, you can get creative with the green tea/pepper combo.  It's not that hard to work it in your diet if you do the salad with pepper or sprinkle liberal amounts of pepper on your food while consuming green tea.  This is an easy tip that might just do you a weight loss favor without trying too hard at all.