30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge: Week 4 & Final Thoughts

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This is the final week, that technically represents a week and a half.  I enjoyed this experiment. I don’t know if I’d do this daily in the future, but I might consider it, especially the recipes with cherries and berries. I got breakfast everyday for the first time in a long time.

RAINBOW LOVE

2 cups spinach

2 cups water

1 orange

1 cup strawberries

½ cup blueberries

1 banana

I liked this one a lot too. It was a very tasty combo. I used kale instead of spinach, and extra strawberries and blueberries to replace the banana. I also added chia seeds and Greek yogurt, though I thought it tasted fine without the Greek yogurt too.

SIMPLY CHERRY

2 cups spinach

2 cups water

2 cups cherries

1 banana

Used kale and a cherry berry mix and it was another delicious combination. Definitely add this one to my favorites list.

MANGO ORANGE MADNESS

2 cups spinach

2 cups coconut water

1 orange

1 cup mango

1 banana

I didn’t have quite enough mango so I used two oranges and subbed pineapple for banana, kale instead of spinach and 1 cup coconut milk and 1 cup water instead of coconut water chia seeds and greek yogurt for protein. It worked. I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate it. But it was drinkable (which is more than I can say for a few other recipes that I tried.

ALMOND BUTTER CUP

2 cups spinach

2 cups almond milk

2 bananas

3 tablespoons cacao

2 tablespoons almond butter

I used some very crunchy homemade almond butter, strawberries instead of bananas and baking coco instead of cacao. So it was practically it’s own recipe. It was interesting. I would drink it again, but I might try a different combination. I think cherries or blueberries might be good too. Maybe with milk and a little Greek yogurt instead of almond milk. But the concept was tasty.

CHERRY TART

2 cups spinach

2 cups water

1 cup pineapple

1 cup cherries

1 banana

So this was really more of a berry tart, since I used a cherry berry mix, but I tried to make it heavy on the cherries. I also used a little more of both the berry mix and the pineapple, since I don’t use banana. I mixed Greek yogurt into my portion. It was a little more bitter but not bad.

I haven’t decided whether I’ll be continuing with the Greek smoothies. I’m just trying to get a feel of whether this is really healthy for me. I like that it’s an easy breakfast and that it gets me a veggies at breakfast, a time when I normally wouldn’t get any kind of vegetables. I don’t even eat fruit in the morning anymore, after getting used to cutting it out on my diabetes diet. While I’ve read plenty of studies that say that green smoothies are helpful in balancing blood sugar, but part of me just quite can’t believe it. I suppose I could test my current blood sugar before and after, but I don’t relish sticking myself again unnecessarily. (It was quite a miserable few months when I did it four or five times a day).

So I think I’ll keep the smoothies in, using my favorite recipes, and maybe just a few times a weeks. So how did the smoothie challenge work out for you?

Join the 30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge: Week 1 Recap

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge: Week 2 Recap

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge: Week 3 Recap

Disclaimer: All recipes are the creations of the ladies at Simple Green Smoothies. I am reproducing them here only for the sake of reviewing them and noting my own variations. I am in no way taking credit for their hard work. I provide links back to their site whenever possible.