Here at Crest Cottage we loooooove smoothies.  98% of the time they have a leafy green base, so they don't always LOOK as appetizing as they taste.  This particular smoothie concoction was developed after I was reminiscing on the black forest milkshakes I used to drink in high school.  There was a Carvel next door to my school (the my best friend worked at for a while, bonus!).  Some days we would walk over and pick out something sweet to enjoy.  I ALWAYS got a black forest milkshake without whipped cream.  This smoothie has similar flavors, and is delish!

All of our smoothies start with leafy greens.  Lately I've been favoring spinach, especially if the finished product has no banana.  I mix the leafy greens with the liquid first.  I've found that helps them break into the smallest pieces.  Maybe someday we'll have a Vitamix, but until then, doing it this way works.  Once the spinach is broken up, we added in frozen cherries and cocoa powder.  The cherries were sweet enough, so we didn't need to add any maple syrup or honey.  Then, we blended it up and enjoyed!

Jemma helps by:

• Filling the  blender with spinach
• Turning all the buttons on and off (she's three, buttons are super fun!)
• Adding the cherries and cocoa powder (she needs extra supervision here... unless we want it to be alllllll cocoa powder)
• Pouring into the cups

Adding Spinach

Blending spinach and water

The spinach/water base is ready!

Adding frozen cherries...

... and cocoa powder!