The Green Monster

Okay, let me say up front that what I'm about to rave about sounded crazy to me a few weeks ago too.  Spinach is one of my favorite vegetables-- but in salad and omelets and stuffed in pasta shells, not blended up into drinks!  However, we've become such fans and daily consumers of this Green Monster smoothie that I wanted to share it with you too!

For our wedding anniversaries, Dave and I have always followed the traditional gift giving guidelines.  Yes, we've had to get creative some years, but this was the first year that we looked at the prescribed "lace" and decided it was time to ditch the guidelines.  They mostly turn to jewelry and kind of stop after 15 years anyway.  The new plan is to use anniversary gifts to buy something new for the house that we can enjoy together.  This year we were needing a new blender and we absolutely love the one we, after tons of research and waiting for sales, picked out!

So...back to the green smoothie.  Plus a frozen banana, these (above) are the ingredients.  And yup, this is the first time the inside of my fridge has ever seen almond milk!  Don't be offended dairy farming friends, we only use it for these smoothies and continue to drink plenty of the real stuff! Almond farming friends, you're welcome for the new business! :)

To make 2 good-sized smoothies, in a blender liquefy the following (or cut in half for just one):

1 frozen banana (I take the peel off and freeze my bananas in pieces in a zip-lock freezer bag-- great way to save super ripe bananas that are otherwise headed to the garbage.)

1 Tbs. peanut butter

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt.  Dave likes the protein-packed Greek yogurt, but I prefer the sweeter stuff.

1 cup vanilla almond (or regular) milk

6-8 ice cubes

As much fresh spinach as you can stuff into the rest of the space (about 4 cups)

Here is what is amazing about this smoothie:

1.  If it's your breakfast, it fills you up until lunch time

2.  It's loaded with the gazillion great health benefits of spinach

3.  YOU CAN'T TASTE THE SPINACH AT ALL!! Mostly it tastes like vanilla, banana and peanut butter.  If my eyes were closed, I might even think I was drinking a peanut butter ice cream milkshake!

So, are you brave enough to try it?  I'll be straight up and admit that our kids aren't yet.  They freak when we even get near them with the Green Monster, but Dave and I have become believers!