Cocoa-Cherry Breakfast Smoothie

My friend Nana inspired me to make a smoothie for breakfast this morning. We were chatting last night & she mentioned that she made a smoothie yesterday morning- YUM! My husband and I have been experimenting with cocoa-cherry smoothies lately. He loves his with a scoop of peanut butter, but I like mine with greens.

One serving size-

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups almond milk
1   o. banana
7-10 frozen cherries
1/2 TBSP ground flaxseed
3 ice cubes
1/2 heaping TBSP cocoa (I use Penzeys Dutch Process High Fat Cocoa)
1/2 cup o. spinach
1 leaf of o. kale (de-stemmed & ripped up into a few pieces)

Blend well, pour in a glass & enjoy!

Athan & I shared the smoothie this morning.

We try to buy organic food as much as possible, but some items I don't buy organic (avocados, onions, grapefruit).  We use EWG's Dirty Dozen List to choose which conventional items to stay away from (apples, celery, red bell pepper, peaches, strawberries, etc). For items not on the dirty dozen list, if it is only a matter of cents, I choose organic.
Also, we buy a lot of produce from the local farmer's market.  None of the farms there are certified organic (because it is expensive to get USDA certified for a small farmer).  I purchase from farmers who 1. grow their own food. 2. do not spray chemicals (herbicides, pesticides, fungicides) on their plants/veggies .  I will buy from a farmer who uses an all-natural spray of castile soap, olive oil & cayenne pepper on their plants to keep bugs away. At first I felt bad asking the farmers questions to see if they spray ickies on their plants & grow their own food, but now I don't.  We vote with our dollars & I want to give my family the best food possible.

The whole reason I wrote this last little bit is because I am going to start using the abbreviation that I use on my shopping list for organic food.  I write an "o." to indicate organic.