Happy Easter Smoothie.

Happy Easter Weekend everyone! I hope you get some well deserved sunshine, fresh air and delicious vegan eats this holiday. And a little fun too. This Happy Easter Smoothie in perky shades of pink, green and gold is the festive way to kick off your holiday. Energize your body and spirit swirling and twirling these colors. You'll be sipping on some healthy, spirit-lifting fruit and veggie nutrients too.

Get my three-tier recipe and why I think Easter smoothie making is a fantastically fun alternative to traditional egg dying...

Think back. Way back. To those Easter days when your eyes perked up at the sound of one activity: dying Easter eggs. Now really, if you really think about why you loved that activity so much, I think you'll find it has pretty much nothing to do with the eggs themselves.

It was all about the colors.

Color play. Playing with colors, half-dipped eggs, tie-dye eggs and long-soaked bold eggs - that was the fun part. (OK, and maybe those fun stickers and egg holder characters that came in the kit too. Ah memories...)

The kit's real secret weapon to the fun? Those tiny, pill-ish looking tabs. Those tiny "came-in-the-egg-dying-kit" tabs of purple, orange, green and red that sizzled and hummed as they dissolved in the vinegar mixture. Then those deep dye colors, looking all sinister sitting in their now-stained bowls, turned rich and bright when given the chance to cling to a submerged, warm, just-boiled egg. Color play.

But that egg. And those oh-so-not-natural dyes are thankfully a thing of the past for me. I mean really, I don't think I ever ate more than one bite of the dyed hard-boiled eggs anyways - and those weird soaked-through-the-egg-shell colors on the slick white egg flesh kinda irked me the wrong way, even as a kid. Pink and blue eggs for lunch? Hmm. No thanks!

So for anyone who feels left out around Easter with all the egg dying going on. DON'T! (Especially vegan kids!) You can join in all the color play fun and actually enjoy the fruits (literally) of your color play efforts. So kids big and small break out the blender (instead of the boiling water) and swirl up your very own Happy Easter Smoothie. Nothing artificial here.

And the layers even taste delish on their own. Strawberry Beet...

Spring. Fruity. Flavors. Wow these smoothie flavors really complimented one another. At first sip, you start off with a thin and frothy sweet green smoothie. Light so that is doesn't sink to the bottom of the glass. Then you get a sweeter hint of that pink layer - those tangy sweet strawberries mixing with the clean green taste. Then lastly, the ultra-creamy, mango-peach-banana-citrus layer. A soothing end to a flavor fun fest.

So pull up your favorite sunbeam and grab a straw. Put on a Zen mood. Pretend this is you...

Or this..

Happy Easter Smoothie
makes 2-3 smoothies

note: juice substitution info available below

Green:
½ cup kale
¾ cup apple juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ cup ice cubes
optional: a pinch of freshly grated ginger

Pink:
½ cup fresh beet juice
¼ cup coconut water
2-3 fresh strawberries, stem removed
¼ cup frozen strawberries
½ banana

Gold:
½ cup fresh mango cubes
½ cup frozen peaches
¾ cup orange juice
½ banana

Notes:

* Juice: You can sub pretty much any of the juices with coconut water - especially the beet and fresh-pressed apple juice which I made using my juicer. orange is also a nice neutral juice to sub with.

*Ice: add ice to the pink and gold layers to make a bit frostier if you'd like. I prefer to use coconut water ice cubes for the flavor and added electrolytes.

* Apple: my apple juice is fresh pressed - use apple cider from the store - the fresher the better. Apple juice sub: if you have a Vitamix you may add in ½ cup chopped apple + ⅓ cup water in place of the apple juice. Another sub would be ½ cup green grapes + ¼ cup water. Pear would work too.

Add in a more layers too! (not shown)..

Blue:
⅓ cup wild blueberries
½ cup orange juice
1 kiwi
½ banana
ice to taste

Purple:
½ cup frozen blackberries
½ cup soy yogurt
¼ cup soy milk

Happy smoothie season!