green for my smoothies

Well, green smoothies to be precise. That's what this post is about. Why drink a green smoothie? Well, there are a ton of health benefits to adding a handful of fresh spinach to your diet. And what easier way to do it than in a smoothie? Just in case you ever wondered, spinach is a significant source of fiber which aids in digestion, prevents constipation (tmi i know!), maintains low blood sugar and helps curb overeating! (probably because noone really wants to eat too much spinach ;)

I've been adding spinach to smoothies for a couple of years now and have constantly run into the problem of keeping the spinach fresh. It stays for about a week before looking kinda wilted, but when I'm really the only person eating it, well, that's a lot of spinach to eat in 1 week ;)

I've gotten different kinds over time, but the Wegmans organic club pack is the best as far as I'm concerned. Lasts the longest and is the best value. Plus, it's organic!



So what made me think to do this is making Eliza's baby food. I add spinach to her meals daily and I did it by blending fresh spinach in the food processor with breastmilk and froze it in ice cube trays but only filled them a little bit. Because once the spinach is broken down it is so dense, you don't need much.

Once I realized I could do the same thing for my own food it was like DUH! Why haven't you done this sooner??? :) I did 2 things differently than her food. I used rice milk and I made bigger cubes (because I'm bigger, ya know ;)



I keep the vanilla kind on hand for smoothies as well as the original coconut milk. I threw a bunch of spinach in the food processor and added the milk and blended away.



I fit almost the entire 11oz container of spinach in the smaller bowl part of my food processor. I could have added it all, but i saved some out for a quesadilla ;) nomnomnom

Then I spooned it into the ice cube trays and froze it to save for later!



The rest of the smoothie situation is as follows (aka what I put in my smoothies!)
1C vanilla rice milk

1/4-1/2C original coconut milk

about 1/2-3/4C frozen desired fruit
1/4-1/2 frozen banana
1 cube spinach (or a big handful fresh)

Blend in a blender and then enjoy :) I find these refreshing and energy boosting. I will get into a rut where I have one for breakfast every day, but then I switch out and go to cereal for awhile. Depends on the mood really. But if I am having a day where all I want to do is eat chocolate chips, well, this is what I *should* do instead ;)