In my quest for eating healthier and avoiding highly processed foods I've discovered the Smoothie. One of my co-workers emailed a few recipes that she got from her dear mom and I decided to give it a whirl. I was very pleasantly surprised! I've tried a few that I found online and created a few of my own with whatever was in my vegetable crisper. Tonight I decided to make one using a bit of cucumber that another one of coworkers shared with me fresh from her garden. Yummy! Here it is if you'd like to give it a whirl:

1/2 cup cucumbers

1/2 cup blueberries

1 banana, peeled

4 frozen coconut milk ice cubes*

1 tsp. ground flaxseed

3 ice cubes

*or about 1/4 cup coconut milk

The very first one I made reminded me of a green version of a V8 but not as salty. Definitely something I'm going to keep in mind for the future. A few months ago we had several tornado's pass through our area and they stirred up so much gunk in the air that caused our allergies to go nuts. One day on my way to work I was feeling horrible and it wasn't a day I could miss, due to deadlines that I had to meet. So I decided to stop at the CVS on the way to work to pick up a couple of V8's (in my attempt to avoid canned chicken soup). And it really seemed to help. Sooo... the next time I'm under the weather hopefully I'll have enough energy to whip up one of those green smoothies, or worse case scenario have hubby pick up a couple cans of V8 for my arsenal.

Here is the recipe for my very first green smoothie:

1 banana, peeled

1 cup whole strawberries

2 cups fresh baby spinach or kale or other leafy green

1 tbsp. whole flax seeds, ground up (I used my coffee grinder)

2 or 3 cherry tomatoes

1/2 - 1 cup water