The Great Veggie Experiment: Spinach!
Been a while since I did a GVE! I finally decided to try the spinach smoothie that I have seen on any number of blogs lately in various incarnations! * I searched for recipes online, and made the mistake of putting in ‘green monster’ in the search engine. I got all kinds of alcoholic drinks, which is fine – but none included spinach LOL!
I was a bit nervous, but then I read a lot that they just mostly tasted fruity (if that was the majority of your base). So – here is my blender:
The mix:
- 2 cups of spinach leaves (or so – the blender was about 3/4 full, but the rest of the ingredients mushed the leaves down)
- 1 cup strawberries
- 1 very, very ripe banana (80 grams)
- 15 grams of PB2
- 15 grams of strawberry protein powder
- 1 cup of water.
Buzzed it up and got not quite a green drink, a little weird looking
Tasty, though – I have to say. It tasted like a strawberry banana smoothie. Plus I got lots of the wonderful qualities of spinach like iron, folate, vitamin A, vitamin K, and magnesium!
The whole smoothie was around 250 calories, which is good. My only problem is that I like to have a solid, chewable lunch – so this drink got sucked down pretty quick! I wonder how this would be as a preworkout/postworkout recovery?
Lots of further options to explore with this, like yogurt, different fruits, different add ins.
So, I encourage you all to give this a try and get in 3-4 servings of fruit and veggies in one drink!
That looks great! I am so going to have to give something like this a whirl – thanks for being the guinea pig!
Looks and sounds totally delicious!
Where do you get PB2?!? I’ve been seeing it more and more in blogs and am wondering….
The smoothie looks GREAT. I only wish I had my blender to make them!
What is PB2.I have never heard of it. Funny but I had bought some kale at the store yesterday and didn’t know what to do with it and decided to give the ‘green monster’ a try. Found a recipe using kale and spinach plus fruit so that is going to be my experimental breakfast tomorrow.
You should check out the VitaMix website for recipes for green smooties. There is also a yahoo group dedicated to VitaMix users that has a lot of recipes. I think you would find the VitaMix philosophy and ideas mesh well with the goals you are trying to reach.
http://www.vitamix.com
We had to purchase a VitaMix to make my daughter’s food for g-tube feedings and it came with a great recipe book. I’m sure most of the recipes could be made in a regular blender.
I tried one of these too for the first time today! I could get used to it.