Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Green Smoothie

Amy at New Nostalgia has posted several times about The Green Smoothie. Everytime I read about it, my mind said, "Um, that looks kinda weird" while my body said, "I want to eat that!!!" I'm not a spinach fan, or a banana fan, and I typically think of freakishly huge body builders when protein powder is introduced. Besides, I'm healthy, but I'm not THAT healthy.

However, I figured I should probably listen to my body on this one, so I decided to give it a shot.

The recipe-

2 large handfuls of baby spinach (about 2 cups)
1 cup soy milk (or milk of choice-coconut, almond, dairy, I saw oat milk?)
1 banana
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 cup ice

2 tbls chia seeds (optional, I haven't added any yet since I find seeds to be slightly scary for some reason.)
 
Pulvarize everything in a blender except the ice, then add the ice & blend a bit more.

First stop- the grocery store. What do you know? Organic baby spinach was on sale cheaper than the other stuff. Win! I had to pause a bit in front of the protein powder, but eventually found a non-intimidating, no-naked-people-on-the-front soy protein that has a TON of calcium in it too. Osteoporosis runs in the family, so calcium is always good. I picked up the rest of the ingredients plus some probiotic yogurt for my morning snacks, felt like a ridiculous health-nut then slipped some pepperoni into my basket (turkey pepperoni at least!) just to make sure I was still a (somewhat) normal person.

And then I got to pull out my RED blender. I got it for my 21st birthday from one set of grandparents (Accompanied by margarita mix. The other set of grandparents took me to a casino. Reason #4,578 I have the best grandparents ever!).

The recipe makes more than I thought it would. I had to pull out my 32 oz big gulp cup from Kwik Shop to fit it all. And it is pretty dang tasty! I'm happy knowing I'm getting the nutrients of raw spinach without having to actually eat it.

It's been easy to drink on my way to work the past two days, and I'm hoping I get the "glow" that Amy talked about. What's not fun about "glowing" especially when a red blender & a big gulp cup are involved?

4 comments:

  1. A good alternative with less work and a TON of good-for-you stuff is called Green Vibrance.

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  2. I haven't put the protein powder in it yet, but maybe I should try! I've been following Amy ever since you mentioned her earlier this year (can't remember when). She's a big reason I'm trying out the vegan diet! :)

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  3. Chia seeds aren't scary. In a smoothie they'd have the same texture as strawberry seeds, really small.
    I'm not a huge fan of plain raw spinach, but I now have glow envy, so I might give it a shot. And Hannah loves smoothies, so I could share.

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  4. Just tried this (but didn't have protein powder). Really surprised that you truly couldn't taste the spinach. And Hannah loved it!

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