get your smoothie on: review of 40 Days of Green Smoothies by Becky Striepe (and a GIVEAWAY!)

If you are ready to start a wholesome green smoothie habit, then Becky Striepe‘s e-book, 40 Days of Green Smoothies, is THE ONLY place to start. And why might you want to begin a smoothie habit? Well, not only does a daily smoothie encourage you to eat your greens (well, drink your greens), but it will fill your body with fiber, protein, and vitamins which gets your days off to a good start. Becky’s book of smoothie making will give you grocery shopping lists, tips on stocking your kitchen with awesome, healthful foods, and provide recipes that will keep you blending happily for the whole forty days (and beyond!).

Becky decided that instead of giving up some nasty habit for Lent, she would instead create a healthful habit of smoothies for forty days! Clever, right? She says in the introduction that this shift allowed her to feel lighter, healthier, and more energetic than ever! Becky is the blog superstar behind our sister site, Eat Drink Better and the mega-popular green craft sites Glue and Glitter and Crafting a Green World. 40 Days of Green Smoothies is her first book.

The book is divided into six weeks of green awesomeness. In the first week, the recipe rotation relies on nutrition rockstar kale, along with almond milk, frozen bananas, avocado, and some delicious fats and fiber from flax seeds and chia seeds. I really like that the recipes focus on just a few ingredients each week, in order to keep the cost down and to allow your palate to adjust to the delicate flavor of greens smoothies. Also, there is not a lot frozen fruit in Becky’s smoothies- not only does help keep the cost down, it lowers the total amount of sugar in the smoothies to focus more on the vegetables!

Each week new greens and flavors are added: Week two adds fun greens like parsley and spinach, while the recipes in week three rely on the warming, healing zing of ginger; awesome collard greens make an appearance in week four, and beet greens and lettuce in week five. My favorite smoothie is #10 featuring the unlikely combination of strawberries and parsley, which has long been a favorite herb. Other yummies are #21 which features vanilla and cinnamon alongside the bananas and kale for a green-inspired horchata.

You can head over to Glue and Glitter and pick up an iPad version or a PDF download of 40 Days of Green Smoothies for just $4.99. But, dear readers, Becky has generously donated a copy of her e-book to Vibrant Wellness Journal to share with one lucky reader! Just tell us in the comments what is your favorite non-traditional smoothie ingredient for a chance to win. And guess what? You can get a second entry by sharing this post on your own Facebook page. Don’t forget to comment and let us know that you sent out the share to your friends, and please remember to share your email so that we can let you know if you are winner! Get all your entries in before midnight on December 9, 2012 (we’re on Hawaii time- you get a bonus few hours!) and we’ll let the random number generator tell us the winner the following week. Good luck!