I love smoothies.  They’re wonderful for jam packing in a ton of nutrients without having to consume a whole garden of vegetables and fruit.  They quick and easy to make and very portable.  I love experimenting with different vegetables and even enjoy adding ones that I wouldn’t normally eat in large amounts, like kale.  I’ve fine tuned my smoothie making process and I can be up and running with a smoothie in a matter of minutes.

I used to buy bulk bags of frozen fruit at Costco, but now with having more time, I try to buy fruit that is in season, cut it up into bite-sized chunks and freeze it in Ziploc bags.  In August I bought 50 pounds of pears for $12, cut them up and am working through those now.  I add spinach and kale to the mix, along with protein powder and flax-seed oil.  If I happen to have chia seeds, I add those also.

Today’s recipe caught my eye because (you guessed it) of the pumpkin.  I had pumpkin puree left over from the Pumpkin No Bake Energy Bites and thought it sounded super tasty.  Along with a dose of Vitamin A, potassium and fiber, this smoothie really hit the spot today.

The recipe called for coconut milk, but I didn’t have any so I just used almond milk.  Also I had a frozen banana, so I used that and just omitted the ice cubes.  It didn’t call for protein powder, but I could have very easily added that to turn this into a ‘balanced’ meal.  I highly recommend this combination of flavors.

What vegetables and fruit do you like in your smoothies? 

Ellie:  “Hey Woody, first mom makes a pumpkin pie scrub.  Then she knits and stitches a pumpkin and now it’s a pumpkin pie smoothie.  Do you think she’ll ever get around to making an actual pumpkin pie?”

Woody:  “One only knows.”