Kitchen Sink Smoothie

I was going to take a picture of my smoothie, but they aren't that pretty (red berries + kale = brown smoothie) and my camera batteries were dead.

I really like smoothies in the morning. I got out of the habit because I was trying to use up some detox protein powder and couldn't stand the taste of it anymore, but I made another one today. I am calling it a "kitchen sink" smoothie, because sometimes I put everything but in them. I really do not enjoy swallowing pills, even though I'm a supplement junkie, so I put them in my smoothie. I always notice my skin is extra nice when I do smoothies regularly so I try to keep them in the rotation.

The base is always:

1-1.5 cups non-dairy milk (often Almond or hemp, today I used watered down coconut milk)
1-1.5 cups frozen fruit (bananas help with sweetness, then I always use berries or cherries)
1 big handful of dark leafy greens-- we have kale and collard greens taking over the garden so that's what I used (this practice gets expensive in the winter when greens are $3 a bunch!)
Rice protein-- a couple tablespoons is 20 grams
1 packet of stevia-- it has to be the Sweet Leaf brand-- it's the only one without a weird aftertaste. (I will sometimes use 2 packets if there's no banana and a lot of kale).
1 teaspoon-1 tablespoon of fish oil (i really hate swallowing oil and this almost completely hides it).

Occasionally I'll use a little cocoa or carob in it and I always drink it through a straw-- I don't know why exactly but I suddenly am not in the mood for a smoothie anymore when I realize I'm out of straws.

Then I throw in whatever supplements I'm in the mood for
prebiotics, adaptogens, multi-vitamin, vitamin D, calcium etc. Whenever possible I buy powdered or capsule supplements so they can go in the smoothie more easily-- the down side is I almost never take them when I'm not doing smoothies!

Sometimes this tastes amazing, other times not so delicious, but it always makes me feel good. It also is variable how long it lasts me-- sometimes I don't get hungry again for 5 hours afterward-- other times I'm ravenous in an hour. I'm sure it has to do with the ratio of fat and protein to everything else.

A note about putting greens in a smoothie: I own a vitamix, the best blender in the world. (Acquiring this expensive appliance was not without hardship-- i used to play flute and piccolo and I sold my piccolo two years ago to buy the vitamix-- it was totally worth it). My blender can make greens (and almost anything else) smooth as butter-- when you use greens in a regular blenderv(even a nicer one) there are consequences:

First, always blend in segments-- put the liquid and greens in first and get the greens as blended as possible before adding the other ingredients. Second, if you have a cheap blender, avoid frozen strawberries-- they are much harder than other frozen fruits-- I burned out two kitchen aid blenders before I got my vitamix! Third, there will always be some level of grittiness to a green smoothie made in a regular blender-- there's no getting around it. If you have a vitamix, just throw everything in and blend. I'm sure some of the past tenants we've had in our basement apartment HATED me and my smoothies because sometimes I'd be up blending at 6am (last summer I left for work at 6:30am even on weekends!) and the vitamix is LOUD-- so loud that I wear earplugs when I use it because I read somewhere that it is loud enough to damage your hearing and I use it nearly every day!