Spinach In A Glass

If you start following me on instagram or twitter, you may quickly notice that I love green foods - kale, Brussels sprouts, green beans, peas, snap peas, granny smith apples, avocados and spinach!  With an abundance of spinach and some understanding of "green monsters" flooding the internet, I decided to try my hand at a version of my own.  And, what a better way to get your greens in than to drink them...drink them?! Please don't push me off as a nutrition freak on a juice cleanse right away - this recipe is gold!

This past summer I got a vitamix blender which, just as expected, changed my life.  It is so good!  You can do anything in that machine.  Okay, maybe not anything, but pretty close to it: smoothies, soups, salad dressings, sauces - really, all foods that start with "s"...just kidding! - dips and nut butters, too.  As an added bonus, my favorite store Bed Bath and Beyond sells these blenders and they are 20% coupon eligible.  If you are a BBB coupon hoarder like I am, you surely have at least 15 coupons in a drawer somewhere...and this will bring the price down from a reasonable $499 to an even more reasonable $399.  Now you have a comeback when a certain somebody tells you spending $500 on a blender is crazy.  You can thank me later.

In the mix - in this order:
1/2 a bag of spinach (about 4c) - I use Trader Joe's pre-washed bags
1c unsweetened vanilla almond milk
2 scoops vanilla protein powder - I use Aria protein powder for women (the best tasting low calorie/low sugar option I have found)
1+ tablespoons ground cinnamon (this is to your taste...if I could use 10 tablespoons, I would - it's that good in here!)

Turn it on and blend it up!  I like to blend mine for at least 1 minute - this gets it good and liquidy.  That sounds awfully gross, but it's not.  Promise.

The vitamix makes most smoothies frothy and delicious - this is no exception.  Here's the final product from the other day:

Nutrition information per serving:
159 calories, 13 g carbohydrates, 5 g fat, 18g protein, 7g fiber

Variations to try:
1/2c blueberries or frozen (see, I told you - obsessed) no sugar added raspberries or 1/2 a banana.

Optional:
Some people like to sweeten their smoothies with honey or splenda.  Try out the base recipe and see what works for you.

One more picture - isn't it pretty?  The flowers don't hurt either...those were a gift.  Hope you like my Spinach In A Glass - please let me know what you think if you test it out!

xx,

The Future Mrs. Wolf