I'm in love with an appliance

Last year I got this wonderful Blendtec at work as a gift.  It grinds up stuff like no other.  It's an amazing blender and we love it!  We've been going strong with it all year long and most days I make a green smoothie for breakfast before I head out the door.  It gives me a lot of good energy and it is chock full of nutrition and not a lot of calories.  My good friend Patsy gave me a zip-lock bag with the ingredients for a green smoothy in it the morning of my birthday.  It had six ingredients in it and was delicious.  I've made it may times since.  Here is the recipe for Patsy's green smoothy:
1 cup baby kale
1 cup fresh spinach
1 banana
1 pear
1 cup purple grapes
1 orange or four little "cutie" oranges
1/2 cup water
1 cup ice
If I'm missing a certain fruit, then I just put in another one that I have on hand.

My brother-in-law Brian is a long time guru of making healthy breakfast drinks.  He shared his list of ingredients with me and I've incorporated some of his ideas.  He uses a combination of fruits and vegetables with nuts and spices that give it more flavor and texture.  Here is his list:

Pomegranate juice (available at Costco) about 1/3 cup since it's very concentrated
tart cherry juice or dark cherry juice (great anti-oxidant juice) about 1 cup
any combination of fresh fruits including:  apple, orange, banana, pineapple, strawberries, etc.
any combination of vegetables including: beets (fresh or from the can), carrots, spinach, kale, etc.
handful of mixed nuts
handful of flax seeds
handful of whole wheat germ
handful of dried cherries, cranberries and or blueberries
big handfuls of frozen berries (cherries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc.)
heaping tablespoon of cinnamon
tablespoon of nutmeg
teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice
chunk of crystallized ginger or a tablespoon of powdered ginger)
tablespoons of any sort of protein powder or super green food
teaspoon of pure vanilla

Also, I "liked"  Blendtec on my Facebook page and they give out great recipes to make with a Blendtec.  This week the link was to a variety of green smoothies and I'm going to give some of them a try.  Hooray for green smoothies and for Blendtec.  I LOVE that appliance!