About Robyn
Robyn Openshaw is the author or editor of 10 titles, including the bestselling book
The Green Smoothies Diet, the children's book,
The Adventures of Junk Food Dude, and the course
12 Steps to Whole Foods. She’s passionate about overthrowing the Standard American Diet by teaching people to eat more whole foods easily, inexpensively, and deliciously. She’s the mom of 4 competitive athletes as well as a runner, cyclist, skier, and competitive tennis player. She travels all over the world speaking to sold-out audiences and studying non-toxic cancer treatment for her next project.
Put less of them in your smoothie.
i do that with mixed greens. they are too bitter for my kids and they won’t drink as much. so i just add a handful of mixed greens and fill the rest of the blender with kale, or spinach, or collards. whatever i want. sometimes i’ll use all four greens… just depends on the day.
I find banana is really good for mellowing out some of the more intense flavors. And it doesn’t take much. I never put in more than a third of a banana in a single serving smoothie. Also, I have discovered a wonderful Mandarin Orange infused olive oil that makes just about any smoothie taste like an orange creamsicle. It’s allowing me to put all kinds of hardcore greens in and not taste them. Only takes half a tsp – plus 2 tbsp coconut oil. Soooo delicious. I don’t know if they have a website or not, but it’s the Ojai Olive Oil Co. They make olive oils flavored with pomegranate, rosemary, all kinds of things. And I believe most if not all of their products are made from local organic things they grow themselves. Not positive on that – need to do more research. Cinnamon and ginger are also really good at hiding not so great tasting greens.
mgm…..I’m wondering how we get the edible Mandarin Orange ESSENTIAL oil for the same effect without a bunch of olive oil. Maybe the DoTerra or Young Living people will pipe up here?
Great tips here–banana covers a host of less-than-optimal tastes!
Yeah, I’m definitely still experimenting – was excited about the taste, because it really let me expand the variety of my greens, but not the oil so much. I am using way less olive oil than I used to, though. It’s hard to let go of some old ideas – so many ‘experts’ are still just pushing olive oil and soy like crazy.
As far as the coconut oil, what that stuff is doing for my skin is just unbelieveable. Lots of ‘sun spots’ and the spots from getting sun spots burned off! are just going away. Age spots on my hands that used to be so obvious are barely there. It takes some time, but it eventually happens. I’ve been doing coconut oil for about six months and it seemed like nothing was changing, than very suddenly everything just started to fade. And it makes your skin so soft, I use very little make up now. Just don’t need it.
TRUessence by ForeverGreen has several Essential Oils that are GRAS (“Generally Regarded as Safe” for internal use) by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration:
Mandarin Red
Mandarin Green
Orange Sweet
Tangerine
Lemon
Grapefruit Pink
Bergamot
These are just the citrus type oils. You can get free information on using Essential Oils here: Visit http://EverydayAromatics.com/jorja
My advice is don’t try to change the flavor, or cover it up. Enhance it. Make a savory green smoothie instead of a sweet one. Use tomatoes instead of banana; and a little avocado, some cilantro or your favorite herb, a little garlic, a little ginger, some celery and carrots and your “bitter” greens. Lemme know how that works for ya!
Mmm, Trish, that sounds like the start of an amazing soup!
I haven’t tried it in a smoothie but I love Be Young’s Orange oil in my Orange Veggie stir fry a few drops is all you need for a awesome orange flavor! Can’t wait to try it in my smoothie! I love Be Young Oils! http://www.beyoungeo.com/4050
Has anybody noticed a strong spicy flavor to kale in a smoothie? It kind of goes right to my head. I like it, but my two year old, who normally loves green smoothies, hands it back to me…. “too spicy”