Minty Greens Earth Day Shake

First and foremost, I wanted to announce some exciting news with you guys: I am now an ambassador for Premier Protein! I’m so excited to be working with this company because I love their products. They make tasty protein shakes, smoothies, protein bars, and protein fiber bars. My favorites are their shakes and fiber bars…major noms.

The shakes taste great and pack a serious nutritional punch. They come in three flavors: chocolate, vanilla bean, and strawberries and cream. My favorite is actually vanilla. Usually, I’m a chocolate person but their vanilla shake tastes exactly like vanilla milk. Here are the stats on their shakes:

• 30 grams of protein
• 160 calories
• 1 gram of sugar
• low fat
• 24 vitamins and minerals
• no artificial colors
• proprietary protein blend

Good stuff! I love the low sugar count. Sugar stats are one of the first things I look at when buying packaged foods. Anyway, on to the shake recipes!

 

It’s Earth Day! I feel like I don’t appreciate my beautiful surroundings as much as I should. I’ve started running again lately and during each run, I try to stop and take a look around. We live in an unbelievably beautiful area in Colorado…way up high in the mountains. We have skiing, mountain biking, climbing, biking, you name it you can do it here in Colorado.

Spring and Earth Day are both a reminder of how precious life is…does anyone else feel like that? Everything looks so beat down and dead after winter. Seeing grass grow, birds chirp, and flowers start to bloom is pretty incredible.

Warmer weather equals smoothies! The folks at Premier Protein sent me a yummy looking recipe for an Earth Day inspired protein shake. They call it their “Dirt Shake” (love the name).  It looks pretty amazing too.

Right? That’s a fancy lookin’ shake.

Inspired by Premier Protein’s “Dirt Shake” and Earth Day, I came up with a delicious, mint chocolate green shake. Here’s the recipe:

Minty Greens Earth Day Shake

• 1 1/2 cups spinach
• 1/4 of an avocado
• 1 banana
• 2 cups ice
• 1 Premier Protein Chocolate Shake
• 1/4 tsp peppermint extract
• top with cacao nibs and shredded coconut (optional)

 

This turned out so good. The avocado and banana make the shake super creamy. I usually add xantham gum to my smoothies to make them thicker but I didn’t have to with this one.  You absolutely cannot taste the spinach or avocado, by the way.

The mint taste is so refreshing-perfect on a warm day!

Peppermint extract is great…in moderation. Too much can and will ruin your shake. My recommendation would be to use 1/4 teaspoon first, then taste it. If you like more mint, add slowly. Like, really slow. A hint of mint is the way to go.

 

Take a look around today and appreciate the world you live in. Life is good! Happy Earth Day everyone