Blackberry Sunshine Smoothie

Mmm. Blackberry+orange is one of the best flavor combinations in the world. I had already slurped up half of this not-green-colored green goodness before I realized I should take a picture of it. I may or may not be currently wishing my tongue was longer so I could lick the bottom of my glass.

I should preface this post by admitting that I have fallen down on the blog!

But it was a busy fall semester back at school, and then a busy winter break flying/roadtripping between Texas, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Ohio, and now spring semester (my last semester of college, can you believe it?!) has started and it's about time for me to start blogging again so I can tell you all about my marathon training because I know you're so interested... right?

I kid. But today after my Sunday long run in the sudden 45-degree heat wave, I came in craving a smoothie.

The thing about smoothies is... actually no. The thing about smoothies is that I absolutely love them, and it hasn't been warm enough to want one for a few months now, so thank you bipolar Ohio weather!

But the OTHER thing about smoothies is that almost all the smoothies I make have bananas in them. Bananas just seem to do something that perfects the flavor of smoothies and makes them wonderful. But the thing about bananas is that I love them. I love love love them. I love them in the morning before my run, I love them in the morning after my run with peanut butter or yogurt or in my cereal, I love them as a mid-morning snack, I love them on peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch, I love them as a mid-afternoon snack, I love them as an after-dinner snack, and I love them as a midnight snack. I wish I could eat 650,740 bananas a day. But that would get expensive, not to mention the interesting side effects of potassium overdose.

So I get really sad when I have to use bananas in recipes, because I love them so much in their natural state. I used 3 in banana muffins last night, and I had one with my cereal this morning, and I just couldn't bring myself to put one in my smoothie. So this smoothie might be even better with a banana, but in my opinion, the berries and orange juice were perfect without it, and thus my giant banana bunch that I just bought MIGHT make it till Wednesday. And that's good news.

Berry Sunshine Smoothie

Ingredients:
2 c fresh spinach
1/4 c frozen orange juice concentrate
1/2 c fresh or frozen blackberries
1/2 c strawberry nonfat Greek yogurt
2-3 tsp flaxseed meal (optional, but yummy and oh-so-healthy!)
4 large ice cubes
Milk, as needed for texture (I used about a Tbsp)


By the way, does anyone have a magical formula for what order to put things into blenders to make them blend faster? Or maybe it's just that I need more of that thing called patience...