beliceps

I bought a blender for three reasons:

1. I don’t have enough veggies in my diet and have to trick myself into eating them.
2. Smoothies are tasty and filling.
3. I’m too lazy to cook actual meals like a grown-up.

I get inspiration from recipes I find online, but I can barely even follow simple instructions with basic measurements. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. So my smoothie-making process looks something like this: scour Pintrest for recipes, buy those ingredients, throw them all together in the blender, and hope for the best. This is why I’m terrible at cooking and baking.

Here is the first of what I hope will be a series of hilarious blender trial-and-errors.

GREEN BANANA

INGREDIENTS

1 cup spinach (raw)
1 cup kale (raw)
1 banana
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 cup almond milk
1 cup Greek yogurt
Pinch of cinnamon

PREPARATION

1. Peel banana. Desperately want to eat it by itself. Exercise willpower. Sadly break banana apart with hands and drop it into blender.
2. Throw in the yogurt, peanut butter, and almond milk after it.
3. Stuff in as much spinach and kale on top as you can, breaking the leaves apart if need be. Add cinnamon. Make sure there is room for the blender blades. I didn’t consider that beforehand.
4. Blend.
5. Have a sip. Tastes pretty good, mostly like banana.
6. Notice the cup is only maybe two-thirds full.
7. Stuff some more spinach and kale in there.
8. Blend. Taste. Little thicker and tastes less like banana. Cup still has some space.
9. More spinach and kale! And almond milk so it’s not so thick.
10. Blend. Taste. Okay, that’s enough greens. Enjoy.

A full cup after blending and adding more greens a few times

Like I said before, this tastes mostly like banana with hints of peanut butter and cinnamon, despite it being super green. It’s a sneaky way to eat more veggies, and spinach and kale are very good for you. The sneakiest part is that you’re eating a lot more greens than you would if they were just on a plate in front of you because they take up so much less space once they’re chopped up in the blender. It’s like a concentrated shot of healthiness, one that you can’t even taste. This makes me feel like I’m hacking at life.

I’ve made this three times now and I’ve found that the most important ingredient is the banana. As long as the banana:greens ratio is right, it’s going to taste great. This smoothie is filling, tasty (despite it having kale, which is not even close to tasty), and has a huge margin of error, all of which is ideal for someone like me. And, all in all, I think it’s under 400 calories. It’s hard for me to say because I freestyle with the ingredients so much. Even so, 400 calories is not a lot for a meal, and this smoothie definitely fills you up like a meal. I’ve had it for both lunch and dinner.

Not bad for my first try! If you try it, too, let me know what you think – especially if it’s your first experience with kale!