Strawberries and Smoothies

We were able to kick off our summer with a trip to a local berry farm! I haven't been strawberry picking since I was a kid living in Florida. I remember driving home from the fields with my friends in their red and white VW van, eating strawberries and throwing the tops out the window. Good times.....

But back to 2010....here's some pics of the girls. Of course, when Michaela sees the camera pointed at her, she has to make a weird face. She is one of a kind! And, my life would be a lot harder if I didn't have Alex to help me corral my independent minded 2-year old!
Here's some pics of the boys...we went with some great friends from church which is always fun.
We got home around lunch time with 22+pounds of strawberries. So, I whipped up some waffles which tasted great with the fresh strawberries.


For most of the strawberries, I cut the tops off and am freezing them whole. I have been using them in a new thing I am trying....GREEN SMOOTHIES!

I heard about green smoothies on a blog. Just do a google search on them and you will have more information on them than you ever wanted. The basic idea--as I understand it, is that you use leafy greens like spinach or kale,and add different fruits which help mask the "green" taste and make it yummy.

It is super-healthy and my kids are even drinking it! After looking up various recipes online, I started experimenting. First, I put 2 cups water and a handful of the greens in the blender and liquify, then I add whatever fruit I want and blend some more. That is it! So far we have used strawberries, frozen blueberries, peeled oranges, cored apples (skin and all), and pineapple.

The kids like it better if I can make it sweeter. So, I have tried using sugar, honey, and fruit juice. I want to stay away from using granulated sugar, so I will keep trying different things.

I have also found that the flavor is more full if I use some sort of natural fruit juice instead of water when I first mix the greens--like the pineapple juice left in the can or the strawberry juice in the bottom of the container. I don't use a recipe--I just add whatever until it tastes good, but I know you can find lots of recipes online if you want to try it out!