I make a lot of smoothies.  A ton.  There are definitely a few reasons for this – one HUGE reason is that a few years ago, when I was job hunting, I took a job in the bakery at Whole Foods (hence, why I’m such a Whole Foods fan).  The job was actually incredibly hard work, and very physically demanding, but the coolest thing for me was that I started to take a liking to working in the coffee bar, which allowed me to play around and make loads of smoothies for people.  I moved on from working at the store, but never really lost my love for smoothies, and I’ve continued to make them at least a few mornings a week.

Point of Smoothies?

So, just because something comes in smoothie form doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthy, and a lot of times, at smoothie places, you can really get yourself in trouble with the sugar/portions.  And the smoothies at fast food places?  Seriously, don’t bother.  You’re doing yourself no favors.

For me, the point of a smoothie is that I can get a few servings of fruits/veggies in there (something that can get a little hard if you’re go-go-go), and it’s convenient – I can make them really quickly and slurp them down on the way to work/in a meeting if I need to.

So the last few I’ve made, I’ve snapped and stuck on Snapchat or Facebook, and some folks have asked about recipes, and they probably think I’m weird about my recipes, but the truth is that I never got around to posting them my bad.

Avocolada Smoothie

Full disclosure, this recipe is a copycat of a smoothie I got from a smoothie place, however, I looked up the nutrition of this smoothie, and the sugar was way, way too high for anyone to be drinking will-nilly, so I set off to make my own.  I DO believe that you can ask for theirs without the added sugar, so if you’re really in a pinch, that’s always an option, so make sure to comment if you want me to tell you where you can get this.

You will need…

A better blender than I have.  I really need to go ahead and bite it and get a Vitamix, but I just haven’t droppped the $500 yet.  I will.  If you have a crappy one, just make it work.

Some kale.  For today, you’re making two servings (one for you, and one for a friend), so grab like 4-5 stalks of that sucker.  De-spine it so you just have the kale part, and rinse, since kale can get a little gritty.

A squirt of lime juice.

Frozen tropical fruit.  I like mango/pineapple/peach/bananas, and I measure it out literally by taking a red solo cup, filling it with fruit, and that’s enough for one person.  Do it twice since you and your friend are going to be drinking this.

An avocado.  You can chill it if you want, but the frozen fruit should keep it from being like hot green pudding.  De-seed, obviously, and you can get it into your blender without screwing up your mani just by squeezing the guts out of the skin.

So stick all of that in your blender.  Then you’ll need.

Trop 50.  Not really more than a cup necessary.

Coconut milk.  Do some unsweetened if you went with sweeter tropical fruits, or sweetened if you’re feeling like you went with some fruit that may not have been super-ripe when you froze it/when it was frozen.

Blend.  For you Vitamix folks, it really shouldn’t be a long blend job, but if you have a cheap thing like I do, blend it for a good while, until you see that that kale has calmed down.  It comes out super green, but don’t let that run you off because it tastes super refreshing.  And between the kale, avocado AND the fruit, you’re knocking out a really good bit of your fruit/veggie intake for the day.  Which I feel like we all could use some help on!