Green Monster Challenge

Normally, when a New England girl says "Green Monstah" she is referring to a dear 36 foot, 2 inch left field wall in the only ballpark on Earth that matters.  However, I am steering away from popular convention to talk about a different Green Monster. I recently stumbled upon this blog where Angela shares the "Green Monster Movement".  Angela combines spinach or kale, seeds, powders, fruit and milk to create an amazing energy smoothie full of nutrients and incorporating so many healthy foods into her daily diet that some of us struggle to include regularly (ahem, me).  According to her, working these smoothies into her daily diet has increased her energy enormously, decreased her cravings for sweets (who couldn't use help with that?!) cleared up her skin, and made her hair and nails stronger.  Sounds good to me!  Almost too good.  But, it can never hurt to get more of those healthy, nutrient dense foods into your diet right?  So, I challenged myself to have at least three Green Monster smoothies a week for a month.  As a bonus, I get to use my favorite kitchen appliance, my Magic Bullet, and whatever fruit I have on hand.  Here we go!

Week 1: Attempt #1
Combined fresh strawberries, fresh mango, a banana, nonfat vanilla yogurt, and a handful of baby spinach.  Blend in Magic Bullet.

So, it wasn't very green, and admittedly, I could have used more baby spinach, but I just didn't buy that you couldn't taste it in the smoothie.  I really couldn't though!  It was quite tasty and you don't have to take my word for it, the pictures speak for themselves.  That's right, my super picky 16 month old is consuming spinach.  Haha!  She'll never know!

OK, OK, Attempt #2
Combined fresh mango, a banana, nonfat vanilla yogurt, and as much baby spinach as I could fit.  Much more green, and still really good!  Oh, and Miss T is catching on.  When she hears the Magic Bullet, she comes running for mummy's smoothie.  Attempts to give her a cup of her own fail, she just wants mine. sigh.  Well, it was so good that I made one ahead of time for the next morning to save myself some time.  Hubs came home from work wanting a smoothie, so I graciously offered him that one.  He liked it, but said he could taste the spinach.  I doubt it.  When I make a lasagne with tofu in the ricotta cheese he never notices, but if I mention it, all of a sudden he was all too aware of the offending soy product.  Anyways...

Attempt #3
Before heading to work, combined fresh strawberries, nonfat vanilla yogurt, as much baby spinach as I could.  Took this one to go on my walk to work.  I had just enough time to finish my smoothie by the time I arrived at my floor.  Delicious.  And, it didn't really take all that much time to make.  Plus, I noticed that my usual 10:00am sweet snack craving was mysteriously missing.  Hmm, we may be on to something.

Unfortunately, I've run out of fresh fruit.  Fortunately, I just remembered that we have bags of frozen fruit that I use to make T's baby food.  Seriously, I just remembered that as I was typing this post.  Maybe I need to add some ingredients that will help with memory.  Or maybe just get more sleep.  Anyhow.  I've missed a day, but I'll be back on the smoothie wagon tomorrow!  My original goal was to do 3 a week, but I'm finding that I'm enjoying them so much, that's not much of a challenge!

One thing I will mention is that these smoothies are thick and tend to give me a green "Kool-aid" mustache.  I may have to invest in some straws.  Perhaps some of these cool reusable glass ones?  Or these stainless steel ones?

Check out Angela's blog for her recipes and those submitted by other readers, or just do what I do and use what you have!