Today I am introducing a new series with you, titled the Foodie Trio Challenge… what is it you ask? It is a challenge where I will pick a recipe, such as a type of smoothie, snack or meal, and find three different bloggers/authors who have made their version of it. I will compare and contrast all three versions and pick the one I like the best! This month, I have decided to find my favorite green smoothie! I hunted through my recipe books and scoured Instagram and also asked you, the readers, your favorite recipes.
There were LOTS to choose from but I narrowed it down to three: One that I have tried many times and loved, one that is new to me but one I’ve wanted to try, and a fan favorite from Instagram. They are as follows:
The Green Monster Smoothie from the Oh She Glows Cookbook
The Green Chia Smoothie from the 365 Vegan Smoothies Cookbook
The Fan Favorite Green Smoothie by Ash McDonough
I recommend you check out all three of these wonderful chefs as their work is out of this world! They aren’t sponsored by me or anything, I just can’t sing their praises enough as I have made some of their other recipes and they are a treat.
This smoothie challenge was super fun to test. I posted my thoughts on Snapchat if you would like to follow along (however they expire within 24 hours) but I plan to film my future testing challenges and post on Youtube perhaps, we will see how much work it entails! In the meantime, I will give you a play-by-play in writing 🙂
I used my recipe review guidelines to give an accurate overall critique of the recipes. I will give a comparison as follows:
I really enjoyed all three recipes and it was super hard to decide which one was my favorites but there were a few deciding factors.
As far as ingredients go, both the Oh She Glows and 365 Vegan smoothie had less ingredients and they were easy to find. The recipe by Ash had ten ingredients, and it was more difficult to find the maca powder and the collagen. The added ingredients also added quite a bit to the cost. However, the added ingredients in Ash’s could definitely enhance the nutritional powers and added to its satiety.
The preparation and time it took to prepare all three recipes was relatively the same, and it helped that they were smoothies, which makes clean up and total time to make minimal to begin with. They also all had a similar bright green appearance.
Other differentiations were in the taste. All three tasted so different. The Oh She Glows smoothie was quite nutty and hearty, with the addition of peanut butter and chia seeds. The 365 smoothie was very hydrating with the coconut water, and had a citrus undertone with orange segments added. It was the runniest in texture of the three. Ash’s smoothie was the milkiest and creamiest and had a great coconut taste. However, I think I liked the texture of this one the least, the bits of coconut in the smoothie were hard to sip.
I kept my leftovers in the fridge overnight for work the next day, and they all kept their colour and texture the next day. So as for longevity, these smoothies all get five stars.
So in the end, the Oh She Glows smoothie wins! However, I would say it was a close tie and I would be curious to see what you think. Do you agree with me? Please leave a comment below and let me know what other Foodie Trio Challenges you would like to see.
