Smoothies!

Neon green smoothie!!!

Summer in Baltimore can be pretty gross. And by gross, I mean absurdly hot and humid, especially in my third floor apartment. With summer, come daydreams of hammocks, good books, and nice cold drinks with umbrellas in them. I don’t have any umbrellas but I am armed with a blender! Last year, when the heat was pretty unbearable, Nick and I made homemade margaritas like they were going out of style.


This summer, I decided to whip out the blender once again, but to make smoothies instead. Smoothies are pretty easy to make, healthy, tasty and, better yet, cold and sweet! Another wonderful thing about smoothies is that they leave room for experimentation. Most ingredients can be exchanged for other ingredients. Don’t want mangoes? Use pineapple instead. Replace apples with peaches or plums in a recipe. Adding herbs and spices, like mint or fresh ginger can do wonders. In place of ice cubes, freeze your fruit (which is normally, what I do). The possibilities are endless.

Add all the ingredients to the blender

The following smoothie recipe is one I made this weekend. Don’t be turned off by the color, although, I admit, that a green smoothie doesn’t seem all that appetizing. However, I can guarantee that it was quite yummy! Spinach may seem like a bizarre ingredient to add to a drink but it allows you to add a little more veggies to your day, and, magically, the smoothie will not even taste like spinach. Craziness, I know. But definitely worth a try! I actually made this for a light, refreshing dinner, on Saturday, since we had a large lunch earlier that day.


Tropical Spinach Smoothie
1 cup milk (you can use any type- I used rice milk when I made this)
6 oz. of low-fat vanilla yogurt
a generous handful of baby spinach leaves
half a mango, skinned and chopped
one banana, sliced
8 oz. pineapple chunks (if using canned, drain them)
1 teaspoon honey (optional)

Freeze the fruit. I usually chop and freeze them the night before. Once frozen, toss all the ingredients into a blender and process  until smooth.