A perfect smoothie to start the day

Are you trying to "eat clean" for the New Year? Try my green smoothie recipe, which will fill you up for breakfast or lunch. And most importantly? It's not gross.

The only thing that's easier to break than a cheap wine glass is a New Year's resolution. Every year we sit around waiting for the ball to drop so that we can declare new lives for ourselves. Friends always spew things like, “No more drinking in the new year, no more wasting money in the new year, I'm only eating clean food in the new year!” and my favorite, “I am cutting all of the toxic people out of my life, beginning January 1st!”

We all know that you don't have to wait until the beginning of January to cut off a toxic person, as a matter of fact it would be easier to sever ties right before Thanksgiving dinner or one of those family holiday celebrations where everyone unites. Maybe the easiest way is to wait until their birthday . . . and then purposely not call.

There's something about waiting until the new year to tackle a goal that kind of almost guarantees failure. So, while I would never wait until the new year to start a brand new goal, I still would like to take the opportunity to introduce you to a clean eating hack I learned in 2023. A simple trick that I would like to call, “Make your vegetables taste like ice cream!”

I always loved the great smoothie. Even during the days when I used to frequent some of the major franchise spots where they don't really use fresh fruit at all, just a combination of powders mixed with water. There are few good local spots in my hometown, but being a small business is tough and sometimes they are forced to step away from the fresh fruit I love, as their budgets only allow the frozen stuff.

I started toying around with different smoothie recipes after I decided that taking control of the ingredients is the healthiest option. The biggest problem I ran into was watching the blades on my cheap blenders cracking as soon as I add nuts and too much ice. Eventually, I bought a Vitamix.

Now I must admit that the Vitamix will make you kind of a snob, because it blends everything — even if you had a taste for broken off screws and crushed up nails, a Vitamix can transform that junk metal into a liquid. Knowing this, I decided to focus on the right mix of ingredients needed to blend up filling fruits and vegetables.

My green smoothie is not only healthy, but it leaves me full enough to skip one meal.