I have just finished reading the book Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko. Great and inspiring book. I have of course heard about the green smoothies through many posts here - reading her book brought home the major health benefits of them. I had thought that juicing greens was the way to go but realize that I am getting lots of nutrients but no fiber at all - something I need to keep healthy.

My questions - is a Vitamix the only way to make green smoothies? Is a regular blender not going to cut it?

As well, in her book she refers to having "two bunches of greens" a day - a quart of green smoothie - but her recipes actually contain little greens - I guess I am confused. Is there a great green smoothie recipe out there that encompasses maximum health and tastes great?

Thanks for any and all input!

I have the book and refer to it often as well. I always put in way more greens than it calls for - for instance the chia seed shake - whatever she calls it. I add more greens and I always cut back on the fruit. If it cals for 4 apples, I usally add 1.

I use a high power blender for my green smoothies (a Waring Xtreme, not a Vitamix), but I know that some people do very happily use regular blenders for the job. The standard kitchen blenders will not be able to pulverize greens as thoroughly as the high power ones, so there'll be tiny flakes of green leaves in your smoothie. Whether that bothers you is personal taste, but if you try to think of it as you would pulp in orange juice that might help. If you gravitate toward softer greens (lettuce, sprouts, baby greens) rather than full grown tough ones you might get a smoother smoothie. Also, the lower powered blenders are not as strong as the high powered ones and you'll need to be much kinder to them. Start with lots of liquid, add your fruits and greens slowly and pre-chop them smaller. If you do burn out your blender's engine eventually, you can remember that you didn't invest $3-500 in it! My sister recently started making smoothies with her blender (she describes the blender as "really cheap", and she says she's enjoying it. I know she's been keeping it up, so it must not be bad.

I've always found the amount of greens in the Greens for Life recipes to be really vague. How much is a bunch, anyway? Generally I use lots of greens, have to reduce the fruit and still end up with 1.5 or 2 quarts of smoothie when I'm done. I agree that a lot of her recipes have really small amounts of green leaves. I think I remember one calling for four leaves of romaine lettuce.

I made a "green smoothie" today. I don't have this book you are referring to, but my smoothie was definitely green. I put a couple raspberries, 1 apple, 1/2 mango and a huge handful of spinach and 1 medium leaves of lacinato kale.

It was GREAT! What an awesome way to eat more leafy greens. No chewing involved. :-)

But by chewing food, the saliva is created to help digest the food, right?

And by the way, I don't use any "fancy blender." I use the blender my mom bought me for christmas 2 years ago. I think it was about $10-15 from wal-mart.