Green Monster

Not that kind of green monster :)


I'm a little late to the Green Monster trend, but srsly, how did I wait this long???

You may or may not have ever heard of this crazy food before, but here's the gist of it:  green monsters are smoothies made with milk (or soy/almond/rice milk, whatev), fruit, and spinach.  Spinach???  Yep, that's what makes it a green monster!

Sounds disgusting, looks no better.  But really, they taste freaking awesome.

I gave it a try a couple of weeks ago because spinach went on crazy big sale at No Frills (98 cents per giant bunch!).  I'm trying to increase my veggie intake, especially the dark leafies, so I thought that this would be a good opportunity.  Turns out that there are TONS of recipes available online, and lots of variations to the basic green monster recipe in which people add chia seeds, flax seeds, wheat grass, nut butters, different fruits, using kale instead of spinach, frozen vs. unfrozen spinach or fruit, etc.  The possibilities are endless!

Here's what I did:

Basic Green Monster
Add ingredients to your blender in this order:

handful of spinach (about 1 - 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup other fruits (I used raspberries and blueberries)
ice cubes (use lots if you want a chunky super cold smoothie, less if you want it smoother)
1 banana
1 cup milk, or soy, almond, rice, whatever you like.  You can also use sweetened milks (e.g. vanilla soy milk).

Place ingredients in blender.  Blend until fully incorporated - spinach is pulverized, ice cubes are all broken up, deliciousness appears.  Taste -- add sweetner if needed (e.g. honey, agave nectar).  If you are using sweetened/flavoured milk, you will probably be able to skip this step.

WHOA!

This is my new go-to post-workout snack.  I'm getting a serving of milk, at least one serving of veggies, at least one serving of fruit, AND it's delicious!

For more recipes, check out http://greenmonstermovement.com/