I'm excited to have my first guest blog from Kristine Miles, Author of the best selling 'The Green Smoothie Bible',  (as well as fellow Physiotherapist and dear friend)
Here are Kristine's Hot Tips on making Green Smoothies (and if you haven't tired them... they are delicious as well as highly nutritious!): 

Kristine Miles is a health professional with over 17 years’ experience. She is passionate about life-long learning, plant based nutrition and living a low toxic lifestyle. Her mission is ‘to promote health and wellbeing, through empowering others to lead lives free of chemicals and full of real, delicious food’. Kristine works as a physiotherapist in private practice, is a part time cooking demonstrator, blog and magazine contributor, and her personal blog. Kristine’s best-selling book ‘The Green Smoothie Bible’ was released in February 2012, her second ‘Green Smoothies For Every Season’ has just been released and she is currently writing a mother and baby smoothie book.  She is happily married and lives by the stunning surf coast of Phillip Island, Australia with her husband and daughter.

Given the variation of produce around the world and the huge number of green smoothie recipes available, in my book 'The Green Smoothie Bible', I have arranged all of the recipes into categories. For those passionate about eating with the seasons, there are chapters for spring, summer, autumn, and winter. There are recipes for green smoothies for children, recipes for superfood fans, for those with specific concerns like weight loss or cardiovascular health, and many more. Here are a few guidelines for my green smoothie recipes (in my books) and these will help with your own creation.

• Recipes make enough for about 1 litre of green smoothie unless otherwise stated. This is enough for two large 2 servings or 3-4 small servings

• Specific types and amounts of greens are not given unless a particular flavour or nutritional benefit is desired

• If just ‘greens’ is stated, use whatever raw, leafy greens you like, and as much or as little as you like

• If you’re new to green smoothies, start with a small handful of mild greens such as baby spinach, and with time you will naturally increase the amount and variety you use

• Use good quality ripe fruit - unripe fruit will make your smoothie taste unpleasant

• Try to buy organic produce and, if possible, from farmer’s markets where the produce will be fresher

• I also recommend using the best source of water possible and at a minimum, filtered tap water.

• Slice or break fruit into appropriate sized pieces for your blender. The larger and more powerful the blender, the larger pieces it will handle, such as quartered apples. Less expensive or small blenders will require smaller pieces of fruit

• It’s assumed that fruit such as bananas, mangoes, melons, and papaya are peeled, and that stone fruit and cherries have stones removed

• Apples and pears don’t have to cored to go in a high speed blender

• Specific blending times are not given, as this will vary among blenders. You will get to know your own blender well and will learn to know when your smoothie is ready

• If your blender tends to make your smoothie warm, use ice cubes in place of some of the liquid in a recipe, or use some frozen fruit in place of fresh fruit. Ice blended through a smoothie can also aid the breakdown of particularly fibrous ingredients like whole lemons and celery, to help create a smoother smoothie

• Be careful not to regularly consume green smoothies that are very cold to avoid potential digestive strain

• Be sure to check the smoothie’s flavour and consistency before serving since ingredients will vary in size, texture, and sweetness.

• If it’s too thick, add more water or other liquid

• If it’s too thin, add more fruit or 1–2 Tbsp. of chia seeds

• If it’s too tart, add sweetener, like stevia, xylitol, agave, honey, dates, or maple syrup

• If it’s too bitter, add lemon juice, sweetener, and/or vanilla extract

As you experiment with making green smoothies, you will realize that some ingredients just don’t go well together in smoothies, like pineapple and cacao, or coconut and tomatoes, but there are seemingly limitless green smoothie possibilities, so you’re certain to come upon winning combinations. All of my green smoothie recipes have been designed with flavour and texture pairing in mind. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! 

Kristine Miles
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