Day 1 of the 30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge

Okay, so I guess you could say I stuck to this challenge because I had a green smoothie today but I didn't really "follow" the challenge quite accurately because I made my own green smoothie based on what I felt like having!

I had intended to take a picture of it but it was so darn good that I drank it all up before I was even able to open my iPhone's camera.  Tomorrow I will make more of an effort to photograph my green smoothie, which should be easy to do because today the effort I made to photograph my smoothie was basically zero.

As I mentioned, I've been referring A LOT to Joy McCarthy's "Joyous Health" blog and I just LOVE it.  I made a smoothie from her blog yesterday and today I made another one!  Her "Dreamy Banana Cream Smoothie."  Holy wow was it good.  I halved the two-serving recipe since it was just me and swapped out the mesquite powder (because I had none) for a heaping 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon and a tsp. of cacao nibs.  I read that the flavor of mesquite, which apparently goes great in barbecue sauces, has undertones of cinnamon, coffee and chocolate, hence my substitutions.  I also added spinach (which is darn near indiscernable in smoothies) to make it "green."

While I am VERY tempted to have this EXACT same smoothie tomorrow, I have some pineapple and kiwi in my fridge that are just BEGGING to be eaten up so I think I'm going to make this Kiwi-Pineapple-Mint smoothie instead, from Kathy Patalsky's Healthy Happy Life blog.

Lastly, because I will never do a post without pictures, here is my lunch and dessert from tonight!  Dinner was just leftovers ;)

Soup or salad?  How 'bout a "supersalad"!!!!  I'm punny.  Okay, seriously though.  If ever there was a super salad, this is it.  I literally think everything in my fridge and pantry went into this.  It turned out AWESOME though.  Perfect flavor, texture and nutritional balance with (get ready for it): romaine lettuce, spinach, cucumber, celery, artichoke hearts, avocado, sun-dried tomatoes, edamame, hemp hearts, freshly cracked black pepper, sea salt, a drizzling of oil and a squirt of lemon juice (phew!).  

Made this beauty in my new Vitamix.  It's strawberry sorbet made with frozen organic strawberries, filtered water, a little bit of organic cane sugar and unsweetened cacao nibs for added crunch ;)