Going Green Smoothie Bowl

It's a really rainy, dark, dreary day. Not that that's surprising weather for England, though.

I woke up this morning with a case of the sniffles, and decided to bust out the Nutribullet and make something really vitamin-packed for my breakfast so that I could nip these sniffles in the bud. I keep seeing all of the hype surrounding smoothie bowls; I'll admit, I didn't really understand the concept of eating a smoothie out of a bowl until now. It makes perfect sense now, though - it's all about the toppings. Sort of like eating soup with croutons, I suppose. You get the contrast of textures and flavours, instead of just blitzing everything together into the smoothie. I didn't buy anthing especially for this smoothie, just looked around the kitchen for things I always tend to have on hand (organic baby spinach, fruit of some sort, cucumber, etc) and voila! Smoothie bowl.

Spinach: High in niacin and zinc, as well as protein, fiber, vitamins A, C, E and K, thiamin, vitamin B6, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, and manganese.

Bananas: High in dietary fiber and potassium.

Pecans: Contain more than 19 vitamins and minerals including vitamins A, B, and E, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus,potassium, and zinc. Just one ounce of pecans provides 10 percent of the daily recommended intake of fiber. Pecans are also rich in age defying antioxidants.4

Chia seeds: Protein

Cucumber: A good source of copper, potassium, manganese, vitamin C, phosphorus, magnesium, biotin, and vitamin B1. They also contain the important nail health-promoting mineral silica.

Kiwi: An excellent source of vitamin C and vitamin K as well as a very good source of copper and dietary fiber.

If you have some on hand, try using orange juice instead of water (or fresh pressed apple juice, which is what I used because it's what I happened to have in the fridge) in your smoothie. The vitamin C in orange juice is great when you're under the weather.

All in all, I'm pretty satisfied (and really full!) from my smoothie bowl. I can see what all of the hype is about, and I'm excited to make it again. Have any favourite smoothie bowl recipes? I'm looking to try some more, so let me know!