It’s almost bikini season which means time to start cranking up the workouts and incorporating extra greens into my diet! As I’m sure you can tell I love my sweets and trying new restaurants downtown, but I also enjoy being healthy. I live by an 80/20 rule, if I eat healthy 80% of the time I can splurge on sweets and new foods the other 20% of the time. Sometimes I tend to have a little extra indulgence, what can I say I’m only human…with a major sweet tooth.
Back to the healthy stuff though! I’ve always been intrigued by people who do juice cleanses and detoxes, but haven’t gotten myself to do it for a long time span quite yet. I received a juicer for Christmas this year and made this delicious green juice from Lauren’s Latest. I made one batch and drank it every morning for a week. I loved that I was sneaking fruits and vegetables into my diet before I even had my morning coffee. At this time I was juggling many jobs and was unable to workout every day during the week, so I was ok just drinking this for breakfast. However, now that I am back into my regular gym routine, I find myself needing more complex carbs and protein for that boost of energy after my morning workouts.
After trying countless variations of smoothies and a few different juices, I finally concocted my all time favorite green drink! If you are normally grossed out by green drinks, don’t be alarmed this one tastes more like a milkshake, it’s that good.
I make two variations of this smoothies depending upon what my day looks like. If I have time to make this right before or after a workout, I’ll add protein powder to help refuel. If I’m just looking for a snack throughout the day, I’ll use the recipe below.
My Favorite Green Smoothie
Adapted from Skinnytaste.com
Serving Size: 1 smoothie Total time: 5 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 frozen banana
- 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or any milk of your choice)
- 6 oz nonfat vanilla greek yogurt (or any yogurt will work here)
- 1 Tbs all-natural creamy peanut butter
- Big handful of fresh spinach
Instructions
- Add banana to blender and blend on highest speed until whipped
- Add remaining ingredients in order and blend until spinach is completely blended
- Pour in glass and enjoy!
This was my first official recipe I tried off Sparkles and Sprinkles! I followed the recipe to a T and the smoothie was fantastic to it's very last drop!