the GREEN SMOOTHIE MILKSHAKE FAKE recipe

i know a lot of people (myself included!) are really trying to get healthy this time of year, so i thought it would be perfect to talk about my favorite blender today.

last year (christmas 2012) my parents gave me the world's best blender – the blendtec. i am not even exaggerating when i say it changed my life! i was two months out from having a baby and ready to get serious about losing the baby weight. so i started drinking a HUGE green smoothie every single morning. and guess what. i watched the extra pounds i had been holding on to just melt away. i was also making sure i did 30 minutes of cardio 3x a week and was doing 30 minutes of weight training with a trainer twice a week. so i wasn't just drinking green smoothies. but i did go from not working out and eating sugared cereal every morning, to a big green smoothie every morning and about 30 minutes a day of working out, and got into better shape than i was even before i got pregnant. i was finally the weight i had been when i got married. 

so what does this have to do with the BEST DEAL EVER on a blendtec? well my parents gave me the refurbished version of the blendtec and it has been absolutely perfect. we've used it over 200 times in the past year and it hasn't had a hiccup. you can get yourself the refurbished version too for $279.95 (retail $384.95). this is the very best deal you will ever find on a blendtec, yes, even better than costco. 

“but what if it breaks?” you say. “costco would take it back” you say. well guess what. blendtec will too. it comes with a 7 year warranty and they will replace your blender if anything happens, no questions asked. 

we use our blendtec for green smoothies, making homemade baby food, soup, salad dressing, milkshakes, and tons of other things. 

now for my green smoothie recipe that tastes like a milkshake. this is the recipe that i highly recommend if you're just starting out with green smoothies. i can get anyone to like a green smoothie with this recipe! even my skeptical, stubborn husband likes this.

GREEN SMOOTHIE MILKSHAKE FAKE
you will need:

1 cup almond milk
2/3 cup fage greek yogurt
1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter
2-3 heaping handfuls spinach
1/2 frozen ripe banana



add ingredients to blender in that order, starting with liquid and ending with frozen banana. if you don't have a frozen banana, no worries! try to get the ripe ones at your store if they carry ripe bananas (usually these are in a brown bag marked “for baking”) and then just add a cup of ice to the smoothie.

when i go to costco i always get one or two bags of bananas and bring them home to get ripe on my kitchen counter. i let them ripen on a different counter than my other produce because as they start to ripen they will make your other produce ripen way faster too! once they're pretty spotted i peel them and break them into big pieces (1-2 inch pieces) and put them into a ziplock to freeze. then i always have plenty of frozen ripe bananas on hand for a green smoothie.

the key to this is adding a TON of spinach. i literally grab two huge handfuls (maybe more) and stuff spinach into the blender until it's pretty full. the spinach will blend right down and i promise you won't even taste it! but it WILL fill you up, give you healthy nutrients, and make you feel alive and energized! 

i've tried this recipe with just a cheapo blender once when i was on vacation. it's definitely not as good because the spinach doesn't blend nearly as well with a cheap blender and you can kind of taste it more. with the blendtec it basically liquefies that spinach and then you're left with a really smooth drink that seriously tastes like a milkshake. i look forward to my green smoothies in the morning! this one especially is super great for a skeptic and it doesn't require an acquired taste at all.

let me know if you try the recipe and what you think!