Spinach. For Breakfast.

Say what?

I like to think I have a pretty balanced diet.   Not perfect.  But pretty darned good.  I actually eat and enjoy a wide variety of vegetables.  I love fruit.  All fruit.  I honestly can't think of an exception.  I like foods with healthy fats like fish, almonds, and olive oil.  I choose whole grains over white flour products.  Greek yogurt is now my go-to choice over the higher sugar varieties I preferred in the past...

I'm turning into my mother.

Yikes.

(Hi, mom!)

But still, the only time I find myself eating vegetables is at dinner.  And while I do tend to eat a lot of vegetables at dinner, it really wouldn't kill me to fit in a serving or two earlier in the day.  To that end, I've noticed a lot of recipes lately for so-called 'green smoothies' for breakfast and/or lunch and thought, why not give this a try.....

There are lots of options out there and I sort of made this one up based on what I had been preparing as a breakfast smoothie on occasion already, the recipes I had read online, and what I had on hand in the fridge.

"Recipe":
1 cup skim milk
1 sliced, frozen banana
frozen blueberries
2 handfuls spinach
2 scoops of Shaklee Cinch vanilla shake mix

(Without a shake powder there are lots of alternative protein options like a tablespoon or so of peanut butter, some plain Greek yogurt..... Options I'll probably try sometime but this is what I've got for now.  And of course, you can always modify for whatever fruit you do or do not have on hand and experiment with soy milk, almond milk according to your preference.)

Add all ingredients to blender and blend, blend, blend!

Verdict:
Less than 5 minutes to make and would be super convenient if you needed a breakfast on the go.  Keeps me full till I'm ready for a mid-morning snack.  Packed with nutrients (and a serving of vegetables!).  Endlessly flexible.  And, just like everyone in internet-world promised, the spinach did not alter the taste - I blended everything but the spinach first and tasted it that way just to be sure.

Mine was not quite as powerfully green as some pictures I've seen, but I think that may have been because of the blueberries.

While I don't tend to have breakfast smoothies too often in the winter (my hands are perpetually icy cold and holding a cold beverage doesn't help that fact), I will keep this in my repertoire and be making again and again in the future.