Going green

So I read this post by this amazing girl. In it, she gives the recipe and a weird compelling argument for making a smoothie with spinach in it. Waitwaitwait, don't leave. I know, spinach. I'm not really in to it either. But here goes nothing:

Honest Fare Green Smoothie
Original recipe here.

2 big handfuls of fresh, raw spinach
½ pink lady apple, chopped
1 tbsp fresh parsley
1 coin fresh ginger root, minced
1 c vanilla soy milk
4 strawberries, frozen
½ banana, frozen
½ peach, frozen
¼ c plain low-fat yogurt (optional)

Blend all ingredients. Serve chilled.

But see, there's nothing like a seemingly simple recipe to freak me the fuck out. There are 4 items on that list I've never bought, and the idea of putting parsley in the blender was seriously wigging me out. But hey, I love a challenge:

Challenge 1: Find all the items in my grocery store. This wasn't too complex, except for the parsley and the ginger root. The produce dude pointed me in the general direction of a bunch of green leafy items, and when he noticed that I was still staring at everything 5 minutes later, he came up and handed me the parsley. Also, I couldn't find any pink lady apples, so I got the most pinkish apples I could find, I think they were Galas. I also opted for vanilla yogurt, because I've never had a tasty experience with plain yogurt, and I can only be SO experimental in one day.

Can you really trust a vegetable that looks like a weapon? Or wait, is it a fruit?

Challenge #2/3: What the fuck is a coin of ginger? And how do you mince? Okay, so I used my common sense with a coin, although the fact that some of the circles were dime shaped and some were half dollar shaped kinda threw me. And then I realized I was supposed to have taken the skin off before I started cutting. I trudged on.

I almost stopped here. This kinda gives me the creeps to look at even now. I mean, hairy? REALLY? Plus, the smell of it reminds me of the first trimester of my last pregnancy when everyone tried to shove ginger-flavored shit down my throat to ease my nausea. I trudged forward.

I'm not sure if this is a good mince or not, but my knives suck, so this was the best I was gonna do.

I took all the stems off the parsley before I chopped it. Nope, I don't eat the stalks of broccoli, either.

Then, at the genius suggestion of Laurie, I portioned the servings of ginger and parsley in an ice cube tray.

Added a little water, then stuck it in the freezer. After it froze, I popped out one cube for each serving of smoothie.

Cut up and froze all the bananas and peaches.

I chopped up the apples tiny too, because my blender suckkkkkkks and I wanted to make it as painless as possible.

I really went for it with the handfuls of spinach - go green or go home, right?

I threw everything in, making sure to add the soy milk and yogurt in first so it was closest to the blades for my finicky blender.

I doubled the recipe, and it made a HUGE amount - not pictured: another HUGE cup of this stuff

The verdict: A serious and surprising success. In the words of Laurie, "This recipe isn't 'good for a green smoothie'. It isn't 'ok except for the spinach'. It is delightful, addictive, ohmygod delicious. It tastes like heaven." I couldn't have said it better myself. It's gritty, yet perfectly smooth. Sweet, but perfectly flavored. Earthy, but insanely delicious. My husband LICKED THE GLASS. My 3 year old begged for more.

Make it. Now.

p.s....for those who are conscious of price, all the ingredients cost me about $15, and I was able to make around 7 (BIG) servings before I ran out of some of the ingredients. I still have more than half the parsley/ginger cubes and half a carton of the soy milk. At around $2 a serving, that's pretty awesome.

p.p.s....seriously, make it now.