Skinny Green Monster Smoothie

 

Sure it's easy to consume fruit for breakfast, but vegetables rarely make an appearance before noon, unless you count potatoes and onions. That's why I love the concept of deceptively hiding a ton of spinach in a rich and sweet tasting smoothie.

Enter the Skinny Green Monster. I've been making these for the past four years now on and off and originally got the recipe from Skinnytaste.com when she posted it here. She adapted the original recipe from Oh She Glows - just to lighten it up a bit. I haven't really changed much along the way, and wanted to share this with you, not because it's an original recipe that I created, but as more of a public service announcement for consuming large amounts of spinach for breakfast.

I was so skeptical when I first made this but now I crave one at least once a week. I don't know if it's just placebo effect - but when I start my day with a few cups of spinach, I feel more energetic. The key to making the spinach undetectable is blending it long enough so that there are no visible specks.  A really ripe banana will help with sweetness. There's no ice to crush so I like that I don't need an expensive blender to get it right.


Skinny Green Monster Smoothie
Serves One

3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or milk of your choice)
1 small frozen banana
1 tablespoon peanut butter
2 large handfuls spinach (about 2 cups)
1/4 cup vanilla greek yogurt

Remove banana from freezer and run under hot water. Remove peel and cut into chunks. Place milk in blender or bullet or whatever you have, add banana, peanut butter and spinach. Blend on high, stopping to push down spinach if necessary, until you can't see any individual bits of spinach (about 30-60 seconds). Add yogurt and quickly blend again to incorporate. 

Pour into cup and enjoy with a straw. The straw is crucial - sipping gulps of a green smoothie is super off putting. Now you can go about your day feeling super glowy and preachy knowing you've already had two servings of vegetables (which for me usually translates into eating whatever the heck I want for the rest of the day - stay tuned for my Imperial Cookie Recipe).