Smoothie Saturday: Kiwi Strawberry

Happy Monday!

Now that I'm preparing my body for a baby, I've got an extra incentive to make better choices in the way I eat and exercise. I've been making some changes the past two weeks in the what I eat, specifically avoiding things with white sugar and gluten. I'm not cutting things out altogether, just trying to slowly cut back.

For example, I'm trying to only eat grains (outside of oatmeal for breakfast some mornings) to one meal a day. And even for that one meal, I'm trying to choose a gluten free grain. I've eaten some brown rice pasta and some quinoa for example. My lunches have been heavy on fruits and vegetables with some nuts, Greek yogurt, and cheese here and there.

I'm not a big fan of greens, but I'm trying to add more to my diet in little ways, specifically spinach because of how high in folic acid it is. One of the ways I'm doing that is by drinking green-ish smoothies for breakfast, not every morning (, but a couple times a week. This is great because it's filling and tasty and a sneaky way to eat things that are good for me.

I thought I'd share some of the recipes I've been using, and the new one I tried this week is a kiwi strawberry smoothie.

INGREDIENTS

• about a cup of organic frozen strawberries 
• 2 fresh organic kiwi
• about 2 tbsp. of  Greek yogurt (you could also use dairy free almond yogurt)
• a handful of spinach
• organic coconut water (I used Coco Libre brand)
• 1/2 tsp. sucanat or your preferred sweetener

DIRECTIONS

• Remove strawberries from freezer and let them defrost slightly for a few minutes. I find frozen fruit blends better and gives that coolness we like in smoothies, but if you use it fresh out of the freezer, especially strawberries, it's too hard.
• I use a stick blender (I have a turquoise Cuisinart and I love it because it's useful and pretty The other great thing about using the stick blender is that it's so easy to clean up. You just rinse the blades and stick the cup in the dishwasher.), so I put all of the dry ingredients and the yogurt in the mixing cup then add the coconut water. The amount of coconut water changes depending on how thick or thin you like your smoothies. Regular water would work fine,  but I like the added nutrients of the coconut water.
• Blend with blender until it reaches the desired consistency adding water or more sweetener as desired. I found I needed to add more sucanat to this one than the other flavors I make because it was so tart.
• Pour into glasses and add a big thick straw. This made about 10 oz. I think, and I shared with my sister rather than drink the whole thing.

Do you have any smoothie recommendations? I'd love to hear about them!