Green Smoothies {recipe}

Since today is St. Patrick's Day, I figured I would share my favorite recipe for Green Smoothies.  I make enough for the week and freeze them in 4 cup serving sizes.I've been really trying to change the eating habits in our house lately. Ever since my health scare, I started researching and everything that I seemed to find, pointed to unhealthy diets.Juicing has become quite the trend lately, but since I don't have a juicer, I decided to at least start with smoothies. It's not as beneficial as juicing, but it's better than nothing.The boys love smoothies and they're an easy way to add important vitamins and nutrients into their diets, even for picky eaters like Lucky. We're definitely not consuming as many greens as we should be, so this one helps us with that and the whole family loves them.I got the idea to freeze them from the blog All Things G & D. She froze her smoothies for the whole month! I really didn't want to freeze that many bags, so I just do them for the week. The recipe is originally from wholeliving.com but I added a few things that weren't in their version of the recipe and I doubled it.This recipe will make 4 smoothies per bag. This is perfect for us. I pop them in the Ninja when I wake up and DH and Ace take them with them before leaving for school and work, and Lucky, Sprout and I enjoy ours after everyone has left.Ingredients:

• 2 c. Kale (stems removed, coarsely chopped, firmly packed)
• 1 c. Parsley (loosely packed)
• 2 Granny Smith Apple
• 2 Bananas
• 1 Tbsp. spirulina powder
• 2 scoops chia seeds
• 5 c. water

Directions:

1. Chop up kale, parsley, apples, and bananas.
2. Measure and add them to a different freezer bag for each day.
3. When ready to make, empty bag's contents into your blender.  Add water, spirulina powder and chia seeds.
4. Blend until smooth.
5. Enjoy!!

For a list of more green smoothie recipes, click here.

*I'll be posting a lot more about the benefits of juicing, and the differences between juices and smoothies, in a new campaign I'm organizing called From Seed to Self. Stay tuned! I have some incredible companies sponsoring it and there will be a ton of helpful information and great giveaways!

And while we're at it, why not read about who St. Patrick really was!  He is known as the Enlightener of Ireland and used the three-leaf clover as a tool to teach the Irish people about the Holy Trinity!  This is a great book for both kids and adults!