The Perfect Smoothie?

When my friend Miranda and I used to carpool to work every day, I was often horrified when I would look over and see her drinking some green or brown concoction that she had blended up for breakfast.  She and her husband had a morning ritual of making a green smoothie that I am pretty sure she had down to a silence.  This inspired me to start making smoothies of my own, but mine were pink with specs of green, as I would make a berry smoothie and just throw some spinach or kale in there (I was scared of the brownish green drinks).  It was tasty, but didn't exactly tie me over, and was a lot of sugar. Plus, I was using nonfat organic yogurt to thicken it, and at that time my stomach hated dairy. So out went the smoothies..

I have recently started introducing smoothies into my diet as it was a way for me to get in a protein shake occasionally, or an easy option for breakfast that I could make the night before and stick in a mason jar in the fridge.  I found what has been called the Perfect Smoothie (http://www.nomeatathlete.com/the-perfect-smoothie-formula/):

• 1 soft fruit (i.e. banana or an avocado)
• 2 small handfuls frozen fruit (berries, mango, pineapple)
• 2-4T protein powder (hemp, pea, brown rice... although I have whey)
• 2T binder (ground flax, nut butter, rolled oats)
• 1.5T oil (flaxseed, hemp coconut, nut oil)
• 1.5c liquid (water, almond milk, brewed tea for caffeine)
• 1T sweetener (honey, agave nectar, stevia)
• Optional superfoods (cacao or carob chips, cinnamon, spinach, maca powder, cayenne pepper, lemon or lime juice)
• 6 ice cubes

I decided to give this recipe a shot and just made a blender full, which made 2 smoothies.  Working with what I had, my smoothie is:

• 1 banana
• some frozen pineapple and strawberries
• vanilla protein powder (1 rounded scoop)
• 2T round flax meal (because I love to sneak it into everything!)
• 1.5c water
• 1T honey
• some cinnamon and kale
• ice cubes

I didn't have any of the listed oils, so those didn't get included this time. I am absolutely intrigued to find out how cinnamon or cayenne pepper change the overall taste of the smoothie! Cinnamon first because I'm a little afraid of the cayenne.

The perfect smoothie? We'll find out.