Friday, September 14, 2012

The Easy Way & A New Shake

I've been back on my shake routine for a little over a week now, and I've been looking for more convenience. My spinach doesn't really hold up for very long, and I'm not a fan of going to the grocery store more than once a week. So, I decided to make spinach cubes & keep them in the freezer.
Not only does this keep the spinach from going bad before I'm able to use it all up, but it also saves a lot of time in the morning.
If you have a full size blender, I would definitely suggest using that when making the cubes.
All you need is
1/2 cup 2% milk
1 bag of spinach
Ice cube trays or a mini cupcake tin
 Pour all of the milk in the blender & fill the rest with spinach. If you're using a full size blender, I would suggest still adding just a handful of spinach at a time so you don't over work the blades. It's basically going to look like spinach milk. There is no thickness to this whatsoever.
Once it has blended down, add more spinach & blend again.
 Disclaimer: This process may not work as well if you don't have a super cute helper. ;)
 If you're using a mini blender, you will have to dump some of the liquid before you can continue with the rest of the bag. I had to do this twice. But the steps are pretty simple. Just keep about half full of liquid, half full of  spinach until you're done with the entire bag.
 Then pour it neatly into ice trays or a mini cupcake tin. If you don't use ice trays, you need to lightly spray the surface of the cupcake tin with nonstick spray.
 Pop them in the freezer over night & they will be ready to go in the morning!
I use 3 cubes in each shake. This process, for me, made 8 days worth of cubes.
When you pop these out of the molds, store them in a freezer bag to take up less room.

And as promised, a new shake recipe.
Here's the old one, in case you missed it.
I got tired of bananas.
I tried a few other fruits, but none that were blog worthy.
This, though. This is heavenly.
I can see myself drinking this for a very long time.

1/4 cup Low Fat Vanilla Yogurt
[use vanilla greek yogurt for a creamier shake]
1 tbsp peanut butter
8 oz 2% milk
1 tsp honey
dash of cinnamon
3-4 spinach cubes
4-6 ice cubes

Put all ingredients into blender & blend until frothy.
Milk & honey? I told you it was heavenly. Just try it. Don't be scared of the spinach.
If you're worried that this won't hold you over until lunch, don't be.
It will, unless you're doing a lot of activity.

What is your go to shake recipe? Even though I love, love, love this one, I'm constantly looking for new ideas!

2 comments:

Mrs. Nix said...

Love this idea! What's your shake routine? Do you drink one each morning for breakfast and then eat regular meals for lunch and dinner?

Shirley said...

I just used your spinach ice cube idea. Love it! My spinach is always wilting before I can get to the bottom of the box.