best smoothie recipe ever. and healthiest.

I'm a smoothie whore. I love them. I have about 20 different recipes I've fine-tuned over the years, and I will pit my smoothies against anyone's. Because they are awesome.

They're awesome because they're ridiculously healthy, and they taste delish. See, I hate vegetables. My kids? They all nosh on any green veggie I put in front of them. They're total weirdos. I, on the other hand, won't touch a cooked veggie, or anything raw other than cucumbers or carrots. Ew.

So I make smoothies for myself, usually twice a day, to fill all the gaps in my own nutrition. Cause on top of hating veggies, I'm an insanely picky eater.

I shared what I drink on Twitter earlier today, and had so many emails about it that I figured I'd share here. I don't have fancy photos. I'm no food blogger.

There's a couple of steps to smoothie awesomeness. The first thing is that I make my veggie cubes. I keep these in the freezer, and pop a couple into every smoothie. It takes me about an hour to make up all the veggie cubes, not counting freezing time, but it's SO worth it. They actually make the smoothie taste BETTER.

1. I buy a package/pound of pre-cut butternut squash, a small bag of baby carrots, a regular sized bag of baby spinach, three beets, and a large sweet potato.

2. Steam the squash, carrots, and sweet potato, and then blend them together with enough water to just make a smooth paste. Scoop it into ice cube trays, and freeze. Once the orange veg cubes are frozen, pop them out into large baggies, and keep frozen,

3. Next I peel the beets, dice them up, and steam them. Then I puree them in the blender with some water. Once they're nice and mushed up, I slowly add handfuls of spinach, sometimes adding a little more water as needed, until the ENTIRE bag of spinach is blended in. Freeze these the same way you did the orange cubes.

So you have all these veggie cubes. Sort of like baby food, right? Basically the same concept. HOWEVER. Don't just throw any old veggie in there. Stick with the ones that tend to be on the sweeter side. I personally have tried a LOT of combos, and this particular combination is absolutely perfect.

Now you want to make an actual smoothie.

In a blender, put a blob of greek yogurt, one of each veggie cube, a handful of frozen cherries/strawberries/blueberries (or all three if you'd like). Cover with milk of your choice (I use vanilla almond milk OR strawberry Kefir) (if you've never tried Kefir it's amazing...a fab addition to your diet).

Blend until smooth. If you like things a tad sweeter, you can add a splash of vanilla extract, or a piece of a banana.

My kids, my husband, and I are all OBSESSED with these. To the point where I actually make a huge batch of smoothies, and then freeze them into popsicle molds. My son calls them "Smoothicles".

If you'd like, you can also add a little ground flaxseed meal, or if you have a skinny kid (like me), who needs extra calories, a couple scoops of Carnation Instant Breakfast tastes fantastic.

Questions?

Now I'm hungry. Dammit.