I was cleaning out my produce drawer

and came up with a surprisingly tasty smoothie.  So I decided to share it with my happy, healthy and hot friends!

I had a five pound bag of organic carrots that I had barely made a dent in.  There were some oddball apples rolling around, and a big piece of ginger.  And of course I had lemons…you can always find lemons in my fridge.  I thought those flavors might work well together, and they did!

Here’s what I did…I peeled the lemon, removing the yellow outside but leaving as much of the white part as I could, which is rich in healthy flavonoids, and actually contains more vitamin C than the rest of the lemon!  I only used half of the lemon.

I chopped each carrot into a few pieces.  I didn’t bother to peel them…seriously, who has time for that?!  The carrots and lemon went into my Vitamix along with half of an apple (unpeeled also, it was organic) and a peeled hunk of ginger (maybe an inch long).  Ginger is some pretty amazing stuff.  I’ve always used it because I love the kick it gives, but it is also a powerful anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory.  Next, a generous splash of water…I don’t like my smoothies too thick.  Also, these are all pretty hard ingredients, and the water helped with blending.  You definitely need a powerful blender when you are using ingredients like these.  I’ve had my Vitamix for years now and don’t know what I’d do without it!

Now remember, you need some fat to absorb the nutrients from the veggies.  In fact, without fat your body will have a tough time converting the beta carotene in the carrots to the vitamin A that you need for healthy skin. I threw in about a tablespoon full of chia seeds.  Flax or hemp seeds would have worked just as well.

You may have noticed that there are no leafy greens in this smoothie.  Why?  Because it wouldn’t have been as pretty, that’s why!  Green and orange turn into an unappealing brown color when you blend them together, so for once I decided to skip the leafy greens.

I blended till smooth and poured a tiny bit in a glass to take a sip.  I like things tart, but this was maybe a little too tart.  I added a tiny bit of liquid stevia (my favorite brand is NuNaturals), blended some more, and it was perfect!  The ginger gave it a nice kick, and worked nicely with the other flavors.

So I cleaned out my produce drawer and enjoyed a delicious and very healthy smoothie…it was a win-win!  Oh, and that cute moto jacket I’m wearing?  It’s pleather, of course!