The Sophisticated, Green Elvis

There's an awful lot that I love about summer. This year fresh produce is at the top of my list. I've never been a very healthy eater, and I'm trying really hard to change that. That number on the scale has been ticking up, and while I know that numbers don't mean everything, my clothes also feel a little tighter and I just feel like a blob.

So I've decided to embrace the season's offerings! This weekend we went strawberry picking and to the new Spa City Farmer's Market in Saratoga. We came home with four quarts of beautiful, sweet strawberries, over two pounds of rhubarb, and a glass bottle of cream from a local creamery. It makes me a little giddy!

This post is actually not so much about these seasonal offerings, but more about the smoothies I've been downing for breakfasts over the last week or so. I started with this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker, and then branched to some other things revolving more around whatever I had in the freezer. A few days ago, I grabbed a beautiful little bunch of bananas which ripened nicely and all but one went into the freezer last night for smoothies. And this morning, I just wasn't in the mood for the standard fare with frozen pineapple, mango, and whatnot AND I'd also gotten a package from Amazon which included PB2. I tried this for the first time a few days ago, and it kind of blew my mind.

I'd heard about powdered peanut butters before, but was a little wary about them. It seems pretty weird, right? A powder that you mix with water and it has a fraction of the fat of regular peanut butter? That's cracked. But since I've been battling the scale a bit lately, I figured it was worth a try. Hey, it would be great in smoothies if nothing else, right? Well! Although it definitely doesn't have the texture of regular peanut butter, it does have a pretty darn good peanuty taste. I spread some on a graham cracker to try it out. Winner. And this morning...

I decided I'd try out my smoothie theory:

The Sophisticated, Green Elvis
(sophisticated because of the date, green because of the spinach, Elvis for the ... you know)

1 cup almond milk (I used unsweetened vanilla)
1 frozen banana
1 date
1 tablespoon PB2
1/2 tsp - 1 tsp cocoa powder
a pinch of bee pollen
a nice handful of baby spinach

I put all my ingredients into a large, 4-cup glass measuring cup and gave it a spin with my immersion blender. Don't be shy about letting it run for awhile until the date and the spinach are blended really well.

Makes 1 serving.

Mine fit into a pint-sized mason jar with room to spare. No pictures because I was too lazy to get my camera and because the smoothie tasted so good I just drank it all.