Grape, Banana & Berry Smoothie

Some of my smoothies were getting sort of boring... I guess when I'm always using the vanilla Arbonne, that will always tend to have a certain taste, and then always mixing with fruit... well, you get the idea. I've tried some varieties with apples and cinnamon, and they're ok, but so far nothing to write home (or blog) about.

Today's was pretty simple and spectacular though.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup water
2 scoops vanilla Arbonne protein powder
1/2 scoop Arbonne fiber boost
1 cup of spinach leaves (that's a guess... I take a few fistfuls and shove it in there).
1/2 cup Simply Orange fortified orange juice
1 tsp bee pollen (not necessary but it's good for you)
1/2 medium banana
1/2 cup frozen green seedless grapes
1/3 cup frozen blackberries

Directions:
Add water, arbonne powders, bee pollen (if desired), orange juice, and spinach to your smoothie cup or blender, an blend until smooth. Then add the banana and grapes and blend again. Add the black berries and blend until smooth, then another minute or two for good measure.

I don't usually add fruit juice to smoothies because I feel like it's sort of a waste of calories. Isn't it better to just add the real fruit? More nutritious and whatnot? With the case of oranges, though, I honestly found that as far as taste is concerned, the juice- to me- is better. I haven't compared different ones, but my husband bought Simply Orange to make mimosas recently, so it's just what we had around. 1 cup of it is 110 calories, which can be a lot depending on what else is in your smoothie. Cutting back to 1/2 cup gives you only 55 cals and still a good dose of the flavor. Considering my orange and banana smoothie was a total miss, and two oranges equaled a LOT of calories (I added an extra when I tasted it with just one and it had hardly any orange flavor at all!), I like the idea of getting more intense orange flavor with fewer calories with the OJ. I also recently bought orange extract, but I haven't tried any yet. If you don't want the calories from OJ, that is probably another good option.