Green Monster {SRC}

It's the last Monday of the month which means it time for The Secret Recipe Club!  This month I was assigned Life on Food written by Emily.  Emily is a young foodie who has lived in several different cities across the US (unlike me who has lived all my life in Toronto...I now live in the suburbs which I don't think really counts as another city....it is still GTA).  Emily has some great recipes on her blog like this Grilled Chicken Marinade or this Shrimp Thai Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce.

As I was looking through Emily's blog I noticed she had a few smoothie recipes.  As I was exploring them I saw one for Berry Green Monster.  I have been reading on several blogs people posting about The Green Monster and how it was amazing.  I have always thought it was interesting...it didn't look yummy but everyone was claiming it to be.  My main change to Emily's recipe was to add more spinach.  I wanted it to look really green.  Hasan's favorite colour is green so I thought it would entice him to drink it (I was wrong).  Bilal loved it and it's so cute to hear a 2 year old ask for a green monster.  I have actually made this several times already.  We just completed Ramadan and this was the perfect drink to have after breaking our fast.  Unfortunately during Ramadan I don't always eat as healthy as I should.  In our Indian/Pakistani culture we eat lots of deep fried snacks to break our fast and I personally barely eat any fruits and vegetables.  This was the perfect way to make sure we got some fruits and vegetables and it helped to fill us up so we didn't end up snacking on all the traditional deep fried goodies.

I've tried this with plain yogurt and Greek yogurt (we preferred plain yogurt).  I also tried it with chia seeds and flaxseeds.  We found the chia seeds made it more thick and we preferred the flaxseeds.

Thanks Emily for a great recipe!  This has become a regular in our home now and next I look forward to trying your Strawberry Banana Smoothie.

Green Monster
Adapted from Life on Food

3 cups organic baby spinach, packed
1 banana, sliced
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used 2%)
1/2 cup orange juice (I used the one with lots of pulp)
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp chia seeds or ground flaxseeds

In a blender combine all the above ingredients until pureed.  I used my immersion blender and a jug since I don't have a blender.



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