I have an on-going love affair with my Vitamix (for most of these recipes you'll have a lot more success if you have a high-powered blender to really liquify everything) and with the benefits of green smoothies, as was looking for more versions of them. Which, I guess, this book offers. But it's probably a better book for complete beginners. Though there are hundreds of recipes, they have a certain sameness. Basically, mix a cup of greens with a banana and some other fruit. Anyone who's mixed up a few green smoothies already could tell you that. Also, and this is a matter of personal taste, a number of them use almond, rice, or soy milk as the liquid, and I find that kind of icky with vegetable smoothies.
While there's nutritional infomation included (the basics--calories, fat, fiber, sodium, etc), some of it strikes me as a little off as well. There are some recipes that produce very, very low calorie smoothies. We all know that of course fruits and vegetables are lower in calories, but still--if you multiply the stated number of calories per serving by the number of servings, some of the recipes still appear to contain way fewer calories than are in the ingredients. Additionally, there are a couple of recipes where the calorie count per 1 cup serving is over 1,000 (obviously, this can happen based on ingredients, but still--be careful if you're watching calories or, in some cases, fat).
I would suggest instead looking at The Truth About Beauty: Transform Your Looks And Your Life From The Inside Out by Kat James, as she gives a good basic recipe and then a smoothie template of sorts (in addition to a lot of great info), Kimberly Snyder's The Beauty Detox Solution: Eat Your Way to Radiant Skin, Renewed Energy and the Body You've Always Wanted--although it isn't strictly a "green smoothie recipe book", and any of Victoria Boutenko's books, especially "The Green Smoothie Revolution" and "Green for Life". These last two books focus exclusively on green smoothies, with many recipes and fantastic info. The Everything Green Smoothies Book: Includes The Green Go-Getter, Cleansing Cranberry, Pomegranate Preventer, Green Tea Metabolism booster, Cantaloupe Quencherand hundreds more! (Everything Series)
Very helpful with a wide variety of green smoothies that will work for children on up to hard core greens enthusiasts. I have made several recipes from this book and like the ability to look in the index in the back to find a smoothie that works for the ingredients I have.
I'm a huge green smoothie fan since 2006 and I've been ordering green smoothie resources for preparation for green smoothie workshops I'm planning. The general greens and green smoothie info in this book was great and all the side bar info was useful. Loved the design of the book, large format and layout and great idea having separate sections for athletes etc but a Vegan section? Since when were green smoothies not plant based? I was really surprised to see dairy and other milks being used in some of the recipes. This goes completely against the simplicity of green smoothies-water/greens/fruit using easily obtainable ingredients.
One other thing was the overuse of iceberg lettuce, romaine and watercress in the recipes. Iceberg is probably the worse green ever (if there is such a concept!) because it's the one insipid lettuce you'll find in every supermarket, salad bar, takeaway sandwich etc because it's basically tasteless and mostly water... and not very green!
Iceberg is good for crisp and crunch in a wrap but the whole idea of green smoothies is to be able to consume large amounts of dark leafy greens for maximum benefits- in an easy fast tasty simple way with a minimum of ingredients that are easily accessible.
Do not want to be critical but I see this book as appealing to the mainstream and therefore may be a bit misleading eg with the choice of ingredients. But on the upside the more people who blend and mend it the better!
I'm starting to get into the juicing and blending scene, and I thought I should get a book with some green recipes for my blender. It seems there are two types of smoothies no matter the section - ones that have 1-2 servings of veggies (usually 1 cup of a leafy green like romaine, watercress, spinach, etc.) with the rest of many fruits, or ones that are completely vegetables. The first type I guess is the way to disguise those greens in something sweet, which is good for those just starting out or want something healthy with a little veggie too. The other type with all veggies seems to be for those hardcore veggie smoothie eaters or if you like V8. Those ones are a bit too much for me, so it's like the smoothies are mostly on either end of the spectrum with a some in between. There are many recipes. You can mix and match. They even have ingredients like kefir, greek yogurt, almond milk, soy milk, etc. and there are smoothies for pregnant people, athletes, breakfast, dessert, different ailments, and pets (I don't think I'll be putting raw chicken into my blender for my cat!).
So to me, this is a good book to start out with or reference to to see what good combinations there are with what produce you have. However, it surprised me they had harder veggies like cucumber or carrots in some recipes. They ask that you peel them, and so I tried this. You can blend these veggies that way, but there's a ton of fiber that makes it more like a thick grainy soup. It also takes quite a while to peel your veggies, so the quickness of a smoothie turns into making a big meal. So I'd stick with a juicer for those harder foods, mostly veggies, and use a blender for leafy veggies and soft foods. I think the 'everything' series tried to make everything possible with smoothies, but sometimes a juicer is better-suited.'
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