I’ve never really been a big smoothie fan. It just seemed like a quick way to drink a whole bunch of calories, and i’m not really into sweet drinks. But I’m doing a Fall fitness challenge this month at FitWit, and I’m trying to eat healthy and get all my fruits and veggies in. So I figured why not come up with a good smoothie that gets your veggies in, with minimal fruit and extra sugar, and tastes rich and creamy and delicious.  And looks so PRETTY!  The lovely avocado green is so much prettier than most Green Smoothies.  And contains no animal products, so it’s vegan (if you want to up the protein and go non-vegan, you could toss in an egg)… And it’s also Paleo.

I’ve been doing variations on this for the past few days (I’ll try to take a better picture next time, this one was on my phone) so I’ve got it down to a pretty good science, and I figured I’d share it with you guys. Let me know how it goes, and what variations you come up with!

The basic process:
You’re using avocado and banana as your base for creaminess, things like celery and cucumber for extra liquid and veggies, and kale or spinach for extra nutritional punch.

Today’s Paleo Avocado-Spinach Smoothie (made a little less than 32 oz.)

Ingredients:

• 1 medium Haas Avocado
• 1 medium Banana
• 3-4 oz by weight of each of the following:  Celery, cucumber
• a few handfuls of ice (depends on how icy you want to go)
• 4oz frozen in a bag loose spinach
• 1.5 oz (8?) fresh grapes for a little more liquid and sweetness.
• juice of 1/2 lime
• dash salt

Variations:

• Sub fresh kale, several handfuls, for the spinach (I prefer the kale actually)
• Sub splash of orange juice for the grapes (whatever you have on had to give a touch of sweetness and a little more liquid to the mix)

Instructions:

Combine in your blender and mix until smooth.  Taste it and modify as necessary.  If it’s not sweet enough for your taste, add a bit of juice.  If it needs more liquid, cucumber is nice.

Even better after it’s frozen!

Keep out what you want to drink for today, but here is the key… freeze the rest in ice cube trays (or flat in a ziptop bag), because it is even better frozen the next day!  Just add your cubes, with some liquid like juice or coconut milk, and blend thoroughly for an icecream like treat.  And since it was asked… yes you could add alcohol to it… probably rum would be a lovely pairing.

I used a 10z disher to scoop a bunch into ice trays for tomorrow.  Freeze, then remove from trays and place in a ziplock or airtight container.