Green Shakes: Don't fear the Swamp Monster
Good morning, happy Tuesday, y'all! I hope you've all gotten back into the swing of life that's not on Christmas Break. I'm trying my best, and I'm really really trying to stay on top of my resolutions. So far I've exercised pretty regularly, and tried to keep eating healthy. Last year and the year before my mom has really gotten into the green shake thing, and most of the time I watch her blend things that look like speckled dirt and think: "I will never get into that kind of thing." But actually, I've found it kind of difficult to go the healthy road without the dreaded swamp monster. (In the past, my only experience with smoothies has been a strawberry-banana smoothie with a lot of strawberry and less banana.) So of course, I have to try some. And if y'all are having trouble seeing yourself swallowing a "swamp monster," here are 4 shakes to try to ease you into the green zone. đ
Strawberry
Who doesn't like strawberry? It's my favorite fruit, and so of course I used it in the first day of shake drinking. Having frozen berries is a must, unless you are willing to get fresh fruit from the store. We constantly have a giant bag of strawberries in our basement freezer, so I just threw a (large) handful into a single serve blender. Add a handful of lettuce, spinach, assorted greens, or any leafy green thing of your choice. Not a ton, but strawberry alone won't make for the best of shakes. If you really want to make it the sweetest of the healthy stuff, add a packet of Stevia in the raw 0 calorie sweetener. Healthy sweet. Could life get better? Fill up half the thingy with water (so descriptive đ), just enough to fill in the cracks. Then all you have to do is blend! If it's too thick, add more water. Pour into a glass or leave in the single serve blender and enjoy!
(More specific recipe here [if you don't have a single serve blender])
Chocolate/Peanut Butter Banana
Full disclaimer, I had a bit of trouble with this one. I put in the ingredients and blended it all up, but in the end there were a bit too many flavors for my taste. You may love having your mouth jam packed with flavors, but for me I would probably tweak it a bit next time. I put in a scoop (2-ish tablespoons) of chocolate protein powder, and then about the same amount of peanut butter powder (you can use a spoonful of peanut butter if you don't have the powder) in. I threw in a handful of greens, half a frozen banana, some vanilla almond milk (or water), and voila! There was my shake. If you don't want that many flavors, maybe put in just the peanut butter powder or just the chocolate protein powder. Whatever you're feeling like, go for it!
Strawberry Peach
This one is probably my favorite one so far. It has a more fruity taste, the perfect blend of peach and strawberry and just a hint of greens. I put in a few frozen strawberries, a few frozen peach slices, a handful of greens, and a bunch of almond milk. At first when I started blending this, it wouldn't blend all the way, and I realized that I hadn't put in enough almond milk. Definitely make sure you put in enough! We don't want the shake to be thin and gross, but we also don't want it to be super thick, so find the perfect balance - don't be afraid to tweak it!
Strawberry Kiwi
I was so excited when I opened up the fridge yesterday to find a container of kiwis! I haven't had a ton of experience with them, but I think they would be perfect for smoothies. And who hasn't heard of the strawberry-kiwi combination? I was eager to see if the taste of plain strawberries and plain kiwis blended together with a bit of almond milk (and some greensđ) matched the taste of juice boxes and things like that that claim to be strawberry kiwi. So I got blending: a handful of strawberries, one (skinned and cut up) kiwi, a handful of green leafy stuff, and some almond milk. In the end it tasted very nice, although there was a bit acidity due to the kiwi, so if that would bother you, try using another fruit. It doesn't actually taste a lot like products that claim to be "strawberry kiwi," but it does taste very good! I would recommend using way more strawberries than kiwis just to make it a bit more sweet. All in all, it was a very good smoothie, but warning - do not drink it after chewing minty gum! đ
{UPDATE: Regarding the acidic situation, my mom told me that putting a packet of stevia 0 calorie sweetener can help a lot!}
Y'all, thanks so much for joining me on my smoothie mission! I had fun finding things that tasted good but were healthy. Would you guys like to see more posts like this? Please, comment! I love to hear from you guys!
