Green Smoothies = Energy, Vitality, Radiance

I must admit, I am a smoothie snob. Somewhat equivalent to royalty thinking in that I think the smoothies I make are better than most others I've tried. In fact I have yet to try someone else's and think, 'wow, why don't I do that?' I've been making Superfood smoothies loaded with special ingredients (medicinal herbal teas, potent extracts, raw cacao, goji berries, acai, MSM, vitamin E tocotrienols and virtually all of HealthForce's superfood powders), for breakfast for several years (and not really recognizing this as a staple of the living foods community) and gladly share my tasty recipes. My weakness is creating excellent Green Smoothies. I've always felt I have enough of a variety and enough green in my repertoire already - but I'm so wrong! There can always be more. Although there is some 'green' in ALL my smoothies (typically 2 T Vitamineral Green and 1 T Spirulina - all by HealthForce), I rarely, until recently have gotten into the making of green vegetable smoothies. Although, I do occasionally add parsley, romaine and spinach, it's usually a green powder, more often than not. I have been inspired by the Green Smoothie Blog (see favorites to your right) and dashed out today to get everything I'd need to whip one up when I returned. Here's what I made, and enjoy yourself!

2 small mangos
2 bananas
7 fresh strawberries
2 handfuls of fresh spinach
1 pitted medjool date
1 T Azteca Spirulina (HealthForce)
splash of water to blend easily

This is a beginner's version. I got excited about spinach today but I do make these wonderful green concoctions with rainbow chard and kale a lot of the time. I still like to add the green powders because they are a staple to my way of living. All of this has gotten me so revved up that I am starting to plan a Green Smoothie Cleanse. My main reason is that I really haven't been as hungry as I usually am (how could that be? I'm Italian always ready to munch on something - aahhh, but that's all changing these days!) and I can tell my body is ready for a break. I've also been eating way too many nuts and reach for these when prepared living dishes seem too complex to make and I have 'nothing' handy, even though there's plenty of food in the fridge (comfort in a time of stress anyone?). With this change of season and a green partner in prevention (of all things 'bad'), there's no better time. I'm shooting for a 5 day break from anything unless it's GREEN, from Nov 1 - 5. My birthday is on the 6th (I'll be 31), and I'm looking forward to making an apple crisp with crumble topping and vanilla creme and cacao maca ice cream on top, so the cleanse must end before this indulgence. Birthdays are for celebrating - and it will be my first raw birthday! I was going to say, first living birthday' - because I like that term somewhat better - but that sounds really funny!

Note: I have never done an all-green smoothie cleanse, and will be blogging daily about my experience and what I'm eating!