And Now the Fun Begins

I don't know about you, but my holidays were filled with a lot of this:

washed down with this:

So I've decided it's time to detox and get my poor body back to normal.

For the next two days I'll be doing a liquid-detox-fast-sort-of-thing, and will share the joys and the recipes here with you. Aren't you happy to be one of my two readers?

I will only be consuming four things each day: Green Smoothies, Vegetable Potage, tea, and water. I'm not restrictive as to how much of these things I eat. I'm no Gandhi, people. I just want to flush all of the sugar and other junk out of my body.

First up, the Green Smoothies. These things are part of our weekly lives. The kids LOVE them, and we try to make them as often as we can because they're packed with green veggies and fruits and they taste great. Really. Would I lie to you?

Here's what you do:

Pull out your trusty old blender and fill it with about 2 cups of water.

Add a good fistful or two of fresh spinach leaves. Lots of them.


Then add a good fistful of kale. Kale is a vegetable that is loaded with great vitamins, but is so tough and waxy that it's not very enjoyable in its raw state. You, however, will never even know it's in this smoothie once we get done with it.


This is what it looks like:








Blend the water and the greens until they're smooth. Don't worry, we're not done.






Now we add the stuff that makes it yummy: two apples and one or two bananas, and a bag of frozen blackberries or raspberries. Peel the bananas and slice the apples (leave the skins on) and throw them into the blender. But save the berries for later.


During this step, I add a secret ingredient I like to call "flax oil" because it's real name is "flax oil." Pour a little in the blender...maybe 2 tablespoons.



Here's what we've got:

And, with a little help from our friend electricity, here's what we get when we push the buttons:

Now, I can hear you all out there saying, "WHAT? Your kids drink something that is green and lumpy and contains no sugar??" And I say, "yes" because here, my friends, is where the magic happens:

Add the frozen berries. I don't care how many you use, just use them. 1 cup? 1/2 cup? The more the better.

Once you do this, something magical transpires. The whole smoothie turns a beautiful pinky purple color, and the crowds go wild!

Et voila...a smoothie made of nothing but water, fruit, veggies and a little flax oil for good measure. Health in a glass!

I know, I know, your mouths are watering and you're making big plans to go out and buy all of these healthy, wonderful ingredients. But should you still be looking at that picture of blended greens and doubting my claims that this tastes great, I have this story for you.

Ben, who is the world's foremost sweet tooth, who cannot imagine why cookies, candy and ice cream are not a complete meal, came upstairs just now and asked me to make him one of these smoothies. I told him that I was busy on the computer, but that there was a whole plate of Christmas goodies sitting on the table and he could have some of those.

He turned around and stomped away, right past the goodies, and told me he would wait until I was done on the computer.

Now THAT is proof.