Healthy Green Smoothie

Ahhh Summer!  Time for trips to the beach, lounging by the pool, and....

A view of Hammocks Beach, NC from the end of Emerald Isles, NC.  Oh summer, I hate to see you go!

*drum roll please*......green smoothies!


I do love to have a healthy and refreshing green smoothie on a hot summer day!  Or on a fall, winter, or spring day...

My green smoothie is full of nutritional foods, but doesn't have as many calories as some others I have tried.  That being said, you can add ingredients like ground flax seed, celery, apples, kale, etc. to up the calorie count or nutritional value if you would like!

I always keep 3 or 4 bananas chopped and in baggies in the freezer so that if I get a craving for a smoothie they are ready to go.  The bananas chops much easier in my blender if they are already chopped.  I start by putting 1 frozen chopped banana in the blender, then I add 1/2 cup of light soy milk, and sprinkle in some cinnamon.  If you need to measure the cinnamon, I would say about a teaspoon should do it!  Once those ingredients are all added to the blender, I blend them until they are smooth and creamy.  Next, I add the spinach.  I CANNOT even taste the spinach in this smoothie.  Once all of the spinach is blended in to the banana mixture, I add a few ice cubes for volume.  YUMMY!!  One variation that I often use is to substitute Just Great Stuff Peanut Butter Powder for the cinnamon, which gives this smoothie a peanut butter banana taste.  I find the peanut butter powder at our local Fresh Market or Vitamin Shoppe.

The ingredients:  Up front you can see the bagged frozen bananas!

This picture makes me think of the word "groovy"!  This is a view of the inside of the blender before blending your banana, milk, and cinnamon.



You can see that this shake takes a lot of spinach-This is a post-banana blending, pre-spinach blending picture:)

Yummy Green Smoothie!

Recipe for Healthy Green Smoothie:

1 frozen chopped banana
1/2 cup light soy milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2-3 cups of spinach leaves
5-6 ice cubes

1.  Blend banana, soy milk, and cinnamon in a blender until smooth,
2.  Add spinach to the blender, and blend until completely mixed in with the banana smoothie mixture.
3.  Add ice cubes and blend to increase volume of the smoothie.
4.  Enjoy!!

Total Calories:  165