Most days I’m up at the crack of dawn helping people get in the best shape of their lives. Do I love my job? Absolutely!
Do I want to sleep for the longest possible amount of time before getting up? Absolutely!
So I needed a healthy meal filled with all the good stuff to kick start my morning, prepared as quickly as possible, to maximize the amount of time my head is resting on my pillows.
Enter weeks of tinkering in the lab (kitchen) until I settled on the recipe below for my delicious green smoothie.
Ingredients:
- 1 handful spinach or kale
- 1 banana or 3 large strawberries
- 6 baby carrots or 1 whole “adult” sized carrot
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
- ice (optional)
Directions:
Throw everything above into a blender, add some water, blend until you have a delicious green smoothie!
DONE.
That’s really all there is, but if you’d like some additional, tips keep reading.
I use a full size blender for my smoothie every morning and I’ve found that putting the fruit in first makes everything mix a lot easier. After I have everything added, I normally add enough water to cover about half the components. Depending on the size of your blender and how thick/thin you like your smoothie, you’ll need to experiment a bit. Adding ice can cool the entire smoothie off a bit (personal preference if you like it cold) as well as make the consistency more like a milkshake.
As far as taste, this can be a strong smoothie for people not accustomed to veggies. If you are looking for ways to help get your taste buds used to it, I’d start with spinach first as it has a milder taste than kale. You can also do both a banana AND some strawberries to better mask the taste of veg. Keep in mind that even though it’s good sugar, the more fruit you use the more calories you are taking in, so be mindful of that. You can also try adding almond milk (unsweetened is a good place to start) if it’s still not sweet enough.
In my experience doing spinach with a banana AND a few frozen strawberries will bring around even the most devout vegetable hater.