If you’ve never stuffed a handful of baby spinach into a smoothie, then you’re missing out. Adding spinach to a smoothie is hands down one of the easiest (and sneakiest…hehe…shhh) ways to get your spinach serving in for the day.
Any why eat spinach? Check out this quote from whfoods.com:
Spinach is an excellent source of bone-healthy vitamin K, magnesium, manganese, and calcium; heart-healthy folate, potassium, and vitamin B6; energy-producing iron and vitamin B2; and free radical-scavenging vitamin A (through its concentration of beta-carotene) and vitamin C.
So basically…you should eat spinach because it’s good for you. Yep…just like mom said. Parents…they’re always right!
Anywho, if you’re on the fence on trying spinach, then try this recipe on for size. I promise, you won’t taste the spinach at all. Just chocolate-y-creamy goodness.
This smoothie has a pretty short and healthful ingredient list: banana, milk of some sort (I used vanilla soy), cookies, ice…
…and the star ingredient – spinach!
I know, I know Green-Monster-first-timers. It looks scary, but it’s good. Trust me!
Cookies ‘N Cream Green Monster Smoothie (Energy Boosting)
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: 1 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Cuisine: American
Description
The Green Monster signature ingredient is spinach (or kale). The vegetable is almost tasteless and imparts that gorgeous green color on the smoothie. Fun, right? Add more spinach for a deeper green color.
It’s a healthy smoothie (with both a fruit and vegetable serving) hiding behind a handful of cookies. Sneaky, sneaky! 😉
*Vegan if you use vegan cookies*
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 – 2 cups loosely packed spinach (or kale)
- 1 banana (a frozen banana will give you a thicker consistency, but non-frozen works, too)
- 1 cup vanilla non-dairy milk, sweetened (or use unsweetened milk, dairy or non-dairy – just also add a drop of vanilla and your sweetener of choice, to taste)
- 2 cubes ice
- 1/4 cup chocolate cookies (or sub chocolate/vanilla sandwich cookies and use non-sweetened milk and vanilla extract – see notes)
Instructions
- Place spinach, banana, milk, and ice in the blender.
- Cover and blend until banana/ice is processed and smooth, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add cookies to the blender, re-cover, and blend until cookies are chopped finely, about 30-60 seconds. Optional – sprinkle an extra cookie, crushed into crumbs/small pieces, on top before serving.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Easily multiplies for additional servings, if needed!
I found some great chocolate cookies at Trader Joe’s that were not only tasty and crunchy but also not as filled with chemicals and additives as some other options.
***
If you like this recipe, then you may also enjoy:
- Healthy Cookies ‘N Cream Smoothie (sans spinach)
- Green Monster Muffins (one of my most popular recipes – sweet spinach muffins – they’re shockingly delish)
- Vegan Green Monster Muffins (the vegan version of my popular recipe)
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Have you ever added spinach to your smoothie? What did you think about it?
I just finished slurping down a smoothie with spinach in it. I have one each and every day! My body just craves them now. They make me feel so energized, and you’re totally right- you cannot taste the spinach at all!
I’m so used to (and fond of ) putting spinach in my smoothies that it actually feels weird to do one without it!
I’m obsessed with green smoothies – ever since i grudgingly tried one about 6 months ago – you just can’t taste the spinach!!!
This one looks fab- thanks for the recipe 🙂
what a delicious smoothie im always looking for new green smoothie ideas!!!
I always want to add spinach to my smoothie and never have any fresh on hand! This might be the perfect smoothie to try it out with. It makes it look like mint chocolate chip!
You can use frozen! I tested it out here: https://thechiclife.com/2011/07/matcha-green-tea-green-monster-smoothie.html 🙂
It looks like a mint chocolate chcip ice cream in blended form! My fav flavor 🙂
I love green monsters! It’s so crazy how you can’t taste the spinach! It’s such a good way to sneak in some extra greens 🙂
Great way to get your spinach for sure…looks fantastic 🙂
That looks awesome! We love green smoothies but I never would have thought to make a cookies and cream one. Yum!
DELICIOUS!!!!! This looks INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SO sneaky! Adding cookies to a smoothie that contains spinach! LOL! But yes…I’ve added spinach to my smoothies (gotta do that more often). If you don’t add too much, you really can’t taste it!
This green monster smoothie looks so good! I used to make them all the time when I lived stateside, but now that I live in Puerto Rico, it is almost impossible to find good fresh spinach, and you’ll pay an arm and a leg for it! Do you know if its possible to use frozen spinach in green monsters?
Thanks! That’s a great question Courtney! I was actually wondering the same thing because I almost always have frozen spinach. I mean, you’re supposed to use frozen veggies, right, so why not spinach? 😉 If I try it out, I’ll definitely blog about how it turns out! Hmm…maybe I could do a test run today!
I did test it out! It works: https://thechiclife.com/2011/07/matcha-green-tea-green-monster-smoothie.html 🙂
Awesome! Thanks for testing it out 🙂
You’re welcome! 🙂
next time instead of the cookies try cacao nibs, they’re a lot healthier!
I haven’t tried spinach, but I do use kale in my smoothies every morning! I just drop in kale, water, flax seed, banana and whatever fruit I have lying around. Even my 2 year old loves it! I will be trying this one in the morning though! Thanks for sharing!
New follower!
My girls and I downed this smoothie as fast as you can say Green Monster Smoothie. Very yummy! Since I didn’t want to include gluten, I used Nutella instead of cookies and it was great! Thanks so much!
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