Creamy Banana Spinach Smoothie

I absolutely love starting my day with a green smoothie! I feel like I'm getting a big dose of nutrients and starting my day on the right foot. When I'm not making my spinach mango smoothie, I love to make this banana version!

I've also kept this spinach banana smoothie dairy free and vegan, so it's a perfect smoothie for people with food allergies! Because I'm using frozen fruits and veggies, it's a really good breakfast smoothie since I usually have everything on hand already!

Also you might be thinking - a spinach smoothie, ew?? I promise it doesn't taste like spinach, and this is coming from someone who isn't a big spinach fan! The banana and the nut butter mask any spinach taste, and instead it just tastes subtly sweet.

If you're a smoothie lover like me, you have to try my pumpkin pie smoothie and chocolate cherry smoothie.

Why you'll love this banana spinach smoothie!

• Easy to Make: This green smoothie is so easy to make, it'll be ready in just a few minutes!
• Make Year Round: Because I'm using frozen bananas and spinach, you can make this year round and don't have to worry about having fresh fruits and veggies on hand.
• Perfect Way to Start the Day: It's packed with nutrients from the spinach, banana, as well as add ins like ground flaxseed and nut butter.
• Great Snack or Breakfast: This is great to have with your breakfast or as a snack later in the day.
• Naturally Sweet: You get natural sweetness from the banana, so it isn't overly sweet and there's no added sugar!

Ingredients Needed

• Milk: I'm using almond milk here but feel free to use regular whole milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk or any other non-dairy milk. You can also sub it for water if you prefer.
• Bananas: I prefer to add frozen bananas to my smoothies instead of a fresh banana! It makes the smoothie a lot thicker. What I do is when I have a bunch of ripe bananas at home, I peel them and cut them in half, then place them in a freezer safe bag.
• Nut Butter: use whatever nut butter you have on hand - peanut butter, almond butter or cashew butter! If you have a nut allergy you can use sunflower seed butter.
• Spinach: I'm using frozen spinach here but you can sub it out for fresh baby spinach if you prefer or that's what you have on hand.
• Ground Flaxseed: make sure you're using ground flaxseed and not whole flaxseeds! You can swap it out for chia seeds.

Step by Step Instructions

Step 1: Place all of the ingredients in a blender.

Step 2: Blend until smooth and enjoy! If you're finding the smoothie isn't as smooth as you would like, you can add some more milk and blend again.

Expert Tips & Tricks

• Extra Thick Smoothies: Sometimes to make my green smoothies extra thick, I like to add frozen cauliflower rice! I promise you cannot taste the cauliflower at all.
• High Quality Blender: Use a high-speed blender to help blend up the frozen banana and spinach, giving you a creamy smoothie.
• Add Greek Yogurt: Another way to thicken up your smoothies (and make them creamier!) is to add Greek yogurt.
• Protein Powder: Feel free to add some vanilla protein powder to the smoothie.
• Make it Refreshing: When it's super hot outside I like adding a baby cucumber, it makes the spinach banana smoothie even more refreshing!
• Mix Things Up: Swap out the ground flaxseeds for hemp hearts or chia seeds.
• Sweeten the Smoothie: Make the smoothie a bit sweeter by adding a dash of maple syrup or honey.

Frequently Asked Questions

Storage

This smoothie is best enjoyed right away! To prep ahead of time, you can portion out the spinach and bananas in freezer safe bags. When you're ready to make them, you just need to add the milk, flaxseed and nut butter!