Smooth Move

"spinach smoothie!" by Flickr user indigotimbre.

Lately, I’ve adopted a new habit. Every morning, I make a smoothie. It’s easy: I just pile handfuls of fruits and vegetables into my food processor (Don’t ask what happened to my blender; it’s a violent tale of unchecked ambition that ends in smoky disaster), and ta-da: breakfast fantastic-ness!

Part of the motivation for this new breakfast tradition is to incorporate more raw fruits and veggies into my diet. One of the main ingredients to the smoothies is spinach. Don’t cringe! I can barely taste those tiny green leaves once they’re pulverized and blended with other ingredients like fresh or frozen blueberries, mango and strawberries. If it weren’t for the distinctive green hue they add, I might not even know they were there.

Smoothies are a favorite recommendation of lots of vegetarian and raw foods cookbooks, but the library also owns cookbooks specifically dedicated to smoothie making. In fact, we even have a book about green smoothies in particular. So far, I’ve experimented with adding ingredients like fresh ginger, coconut milk, yogurt and carrots. I’m planning to try avocado and probably peanut butter at some point. The situation is becoming a lot like that saying “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Pretty much everything in my refrigerator looks like eligible smoothie material to me.

Give the morning smoothie a try. Drinking a glass of vitamin-rich, colorful vegetables and fruits is  a nice way to start your day. If, like me, you’re less than a morning person, the promise of a sweet healthy drink might be enough to bribe you out of bed. The drink adds a bright bit of cheer to blue winter mornings. One caution, though: the morning smoothie habit is a contagious one. I’m the third person in my department to join in.

Be healthy and enjoy!

–Renée

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