Green Smoothies for the Athena's

This school year our nurse was able to secure some grant funding to allow us to form a club for girls that are underserved and just need some extra TLC from positive, supportive, successful women.  The club is run by one of our recently retired teachers and the girls just love her.  The group is called the Athena's and they do different fun activities every week.  Last week they tasted homemade apple butter on homemade whole wheat bread after a nice long walk around the school grounds and discussed their thoughts and ideas for how the club would benefit them.  This week they did some gardening in the courtyard and are excited to decorate it next month with carved pumpkins and other Fall items.  They also snacked on local Montgomery County grown apples, applesauce and gingerbread muffins while they learned about a successful woman in history - Betty Ford. 

I was invited to teach the group how to make smoothies, but not just any smoothies - we made green smoothies!  First, we started off making a peach smoothie that included vanilla yogurt, orange juice and frozen peach slices.  After everyone was able to taste the first batch, we add a good 2-3 handfuls of fresh baby spinach to the same ingredients and gave it another try!  To the girls amazement they loved it!!  Many of them were completely surprised that you can't actually taste the spinach in the smoothie but it really boosts the nutritive value of the drink.  The next time you need a quick breakfast idea or an afternoon pick me up, try a green smoothie.  I promise you won't taste the spinach, but you will reap all the benefits spinach has to offer.

Green Smoothie Recipe for 2

2 cups frozen fruit chunks

1 cup 100% orange juice or other flavor

1 cup low fat vanilla yogurt

1-2 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves

Blend all ingredients and enjoy!  You can use this recipe as is or change the fruit, juice or yogurt to fit your taste.  If you don't have any yogurt, add some milk, soy, coconut or rice milk.  If you have fresh fruit, just add some ice cubes for that ice cold frothy goodness!

I neglected to take a photo of our smoothies today so I borrowed this photo from: http://marcussamuelsson.com/