PIÑA COLADA GREEN SMOOTHIE

Occasionally we get questions and comments from readers saying, “You must not eat all that you cook or else you would weigh a couple hundred pounds.”
Ha ha! Well, what people need to know is that there are actually 7 of us that post on this website- the six sisters and our mom. We each take one day of the week, which means that we really each only make 1-2 recipes a week . . . which is only 4-8 recipes a month. Maybe 1 or 2 of those recipes are desserts, which means that we really don’t have a lot of desserts around our house- it’s definitely a special occasion to have a delicious dessert.

We have become pretty popular with our neighbors because when we do make a dessert recipe for the blog because we usually pass it on to everyone who lives around us. If I keep a chocolate cake or jar of cookies in my house, then yes- I will eat it. All of it. I don’t have any control when there is a pan of Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars in my home, so I have to get it out as soon as possible!

The other thing that I try and do to keep myself from eating too much dessert is eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible each day. I struggle eating raw vegetables, so I try to sneak them into my diet in other ways. For the first 30 years of my life, I was a hard-core cereal eater for breakfast. I don’t like pancakes, I don’t like sausage . . . I just loved cold cereal. Then I went to Fitness Ridge and spent a week there with my husband and had many “Ah-ha!” moments . . . one of them being green smoothies for breakfast. I never realized what a huge sugar crash I would have around 10 am from my sugar-loaded cereal, so I made a goal to start my day with something healthier. I started blending my own green smoothies and now I am hooked- I love that I kickstart my day with the right kind of “fuel” in my body. No more 10 am crash and I already have a couple servings of fruits and veggies under my belt before my kids wake up.

I know that the idea of a green smoothie really turns some people off, but I promise you- you can’t taste the spinach at all! It does have a bright green color, but the flavor of the fruit really overpowers everything else.

If you haven’t tried a green smoothie, this is a good one to start with! Also, if you have a favorite green smoothie combo, I would love to hear what it is in the comments below!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup pineapple, fresh or frozen, cut into chunks
• 3 tablespoons coconut flakes, unsweetened OR 1 tablespoon coconut flakes, sweetened
• 1 cup skim milk (or coconut milk or water is awesome in this!)
• dash of coconut extract
• 1 cup fresh baby spinach or kale
• 1 large banana, sliced and frozen

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place all the ingredients inside blender. Cover and blend until smooth, stopping frequently to push down anything stuck to the sides (especially those with a lower-power blender). Pour into glass and enjoy. Makes one serving.
2. (One thing that I do to make sure that I don't have any spinach chunks is to blend the milk/water with the spinach before adding the other ingredients.)

Recipe MORE @ www.sixsistersstuff.com

High-powered blender OR
Lower-powered blender

(Let’s talk blenders for a minute . . . before I purchased my first high-powered blender, I was burning through the motor every couple of months. I felt like my smoothies were never as smooth as they could be, but I just couldn’t justify spending that much money on a blender. However, after taking the plunge and just buying one, I am amazed at the difference. I blend my personal serving smoothies (which means the only piece that I have to wash is the little cup I blended it in and I can just throw it in my dishwasher!) every single morning in a matter of seconds. To me, it’s worth it to have the higher-power blender, but you can use a lower-powered one to get the job done. Do what’s best for you! And this is not sponsored in any way, it’s just my personal opinion)