Health

Healthy Recipe: Tropical Green Monster Smoothie

By  | 

By Rachel F. Johnson
    I’m very excited about the wonderful fall weather we’ve been having, but it also occurs to me that many of my favorite “summer foods” won’t be back for another 9 months! Because of this, I’m spending these last few weeks of medium-cool weather to enjoy some of those summer meals that I probably won’t be craving around Thanksgiving or Christmas – like smoothies!   
• 2 cups loose spinach
• ½ scoop vanilla whey protein   
  powder
• ½ – ¾ cup frozen sliced peaches
• ½ frozen banana
• ½ cup milk
• ¼ cup orange juice
• ¼ cup coconut or regular water  
    Place all ingredients in a blender, in the order listed above, and blend on high speed. To make sure that the spinach is completely blended, you may need to pulse the mixture, pause and then push the mixture down the sides to pulse again.
    Also, while most experts agree that small amounts of protein powder are safe for kids and adolescents, many times it is unneeded unless they are training for elite sports or have special nutritional needs. So, to make this smoothie child, and even toddler-friendly, you can replace the protein powder with ¼ cup cottage cheese and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. 
    P.S. I promise you can’t taste the spinach! If you don’t believe me, try it out yourself! 🙂