My First Green Smoothie

Recipes, Smoothies

2 Comments

18 Jan 2010

If you’ve ever shared a meal with me, you know that I tend to shun most vegetables. Some I avoid due to what I call my “texture issues” – I love tomato products, but can’t stand how tomatoes feel in my mouth, for example. (Wait… is tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Botanically, it’s a fruit, but for culinary purposes, it’s a vegetable – so I’m going with vegetable!) I’m working on these “issues,” and quite honestly, food therapy seems to me one of the better forms of therapy out there!

With my 2010 resolution to try 10 new foods, an unspoken subtitle to that quest is to eat more vegetables. To help my cause, I’m seeking ways to sneak in vegetables where I won’t notice them. Enter: the Green smoothie.

I’m not new to the smoothie world; I described my typical morning smoothie earlier this year (though, personally, I do prefer to call them shakes). I am, however, completely new to putting vegetables in my blender. After reading many reports that it is in fact possible to add spinach to a smoothie and not be able to taste it, I thought that would make an excellent experiment for my “eat 10 new foods” resolution.

This Green smoothie isn’t much different from my typical morning smoothie, aside from the obvious addition of baby spinach. I added the flax seed meal and yogurt for some added health benefits (in the form of omega-3′s, antioxidants, and live cultures/probiotics). The blueberries were added mostly because that’s all I had left of them. (Blueberries also add a nice dose of Vitamin C – you can’t have enough weapons in your arsenal to fight off cold and flu season).

This smoothie tastes like vanilla and bananas. It looks green, but I certainly can’t tell that there’s spinach in it (and I’m a fairly picky customer!). It was delicious, and I’ll be adding baby spinach to my future smoothies!

Use this smoothie as a quick breakfast or a great post-workout nutritional shake.

Green Vanilla Banana Smoothie

Posted January 18, 2010 by Shelly in Posted In: Smoothies

This smoothie tastes like vanilla and bananas - you can't taste the greens! Sneak in a serving of fresh veggies. Flax seed adds Omega-3's and lignans (for antioxidant properties), and yogurt adds some active cultures & probiotics. You'll need a decently powerful blender to liquify the greens; my old beehive 500 watt Osterizer does the trick with no problems! Organic ingredients taste best and have the most nutrients.

Details

• Prep Time:
  5 min
• Ready In:
  5 min

Ingredients

• 1 bunch baby spinach (handful)
• 2 cups vanilla soy milk
• 2 scoops vanilla protein powder (soy or whey)
• 2 whole bananas
• 1/4 cup blueberries
• 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
• 2 tablespoons flax seed meal or ground flax seed

Directions

Add soy milk, protein powder, and a handful of baby spinach to the blender. Blend for 30 seconds or until the greens are liquified. Add the remaining ingredients and blend for another 30 seconds or until smoothie reaches your desired consistency. Makes 2 large (16 oz) servings or 4 small (8 oz) servings. Store for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

Posted: January 18, 2010 at 2:13 pm
{Tags: Recipes, Smoothies}
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