St. Patty’s Day Green Machine Smoothie

In the spirit of St. Patty’s Day and all of the green things we’re sure to be eating and drinking—green pizza and beer anyone? Valley presents to you a healthier option: the Green Machine smoothie. With protein and two servings of vegetables and fruits all combined into one easy package, this is the easy, healthy alternative to the usual State Patty’s routine.

What You’ll Need:

1 Frozen Banana—peel before freezing!
1 Apple of choice (I used Honeycrisp)
1 Handful Spinach
1 Handful Baby Kale
1 Spoonful Peanut Butter (or other nut/seed butter of preference)
Water to thin

How To Make It:

1. Start by adding your spoonful of peanut butter to the blender, then add about a half a cup of water. Blend to make an easy equivalent to nut milk.

2. Chop the apple into medium chunks, add to the blender. Blend.

3. Cut up the banana into medium chunks. Blend.

4. Add the handfuls of spinach and kale. Blend until there are no more visible pieces of leaf.

5. If this is too thick for you, add water to thin.

6. Enjoy!

Note: This recipe is very customizable. If you want to use a different type of fruit, pretty much any fruit will taste good with this smoothie. You can’t taste the vegetables because of the nut butter and the banana, and if you wanted to add chia seeds, hemp hearts, oats, protein powder, or nut milk instead of water, that’s up to you and your taste buds!

Photos by Corinne Fierro