This tasty green smoothie is sweet, creamy and refreshing. Kids love it!
Popeye Power Smoothie
Ingredients
1 cup orange juice
½ cup pineapple juice
½ cup low-fat plain or vanilla yogurt
1 banana, peeled and sliced
2 cups fresh spinach leaves
2 cups crushed ice
Directions
- Wash hands with soap and water.
- Rinse fresh produce under running water before preparing.
- Combine all ingredients in a blender.
- Puree until completely smooth.
- Serve immediately.
- Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.
Notes
- For a thicker smoothie, use frozen fruit or vegetables instead of ice. Frozen vegetables from the store should be cooked first according to package directions.
- Use any type of juice, including juice drained from canned pineapple.
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Comments
I've made this spinach and fruit smoothie for elementary and middle school students and everyone likes it. I brought it to class the week of St. Patrick's day which was perfect with the vibrant green. Instead of ice, I used frozen mango. My banana was also frozen. It was really sweet and tropical tasting. Even though I packed the spinach in, the kids don't taste the spinach.
This smoothie is so good! A lot of the kids were surprised that it tasted so good because of the green color but it turns out to be a fan favorite at every event!
Everyone loves this! If you need a dairy free version, substitute an avocado or an extra banana for the yogurt.
I tried this recipe with some fifth grade students on a Friday afternoon. After the lesson, once everyone was served, the students decided to "toast" by clinking their paper cups and taking sips after every "toast". Everyone got a turn to offer a "toast" and I was amazed at how many celebrated many of the new foods we'd tasted during the year. "Here's to strawberries", one student exclaimed. "Here's to garbanzo beans", "...and hummus"...and on and on it went. At the end they spontaneously decided to garnish their drinks with the few remaining spinach leaves. More "toasts" ensued and the final toast was "We love spinach"!
I used a can of pineapple chunks, and used the juice from that for the smoothie. Then put the rest of the pineapple chunks and juice in a containter as a snack for later!
Canned crushed pineapple in juice works very well as a substitute for the pineapple juice.
Great suggestion!! Something I normally have in the pantry :).
We always come back to this recipe since everyone loves it. Kids who initially say they don't like spinach change their minds after tasting this Smoothie. We also received favorable taste test results when we substituted 1 1/2 cups of kale for the 2 cups of spinach--another great, green variation!
It looks good. Is the sugar content on the nutrition label based on using plain yogurt or vanilla yogurt?
There are now two nutrition labels to show the difference between plain and vanilla yogurt. Thank you for asking!
-The Food Hero Team
Kids and adults love this smoothie! We did this recipe at an elementary cafeteria tasting and I had many parents come up to me in the weeks afterward and tell me that their children insisted that they make this recipe at home. My own kids request it at least once a week.
I've had 100% success in getting spinach haters to actually *like* spinach when we've made this recipe in class (it's better if the haters are the ones making the smoothie). I like to use a traditional blender, not a handheld one, to chop the spinach super fine.
I love this recipe! It's definately the best way to eat spinach. Tips: blend the smoothie really really well so that all the bits of spinach are chopped up. I peel and freeze my old bananas to add to my smoothies so they are nice and thick. Kids love it!
This smoothie tastes WAY better than it looks. You can't even taste the spinach, but you're still getting all the healthy nutrients from it!
Yummy! Tastes great and love the thickness. The spinach leaves really makes it as we tried it 1st without them. And kids love the color too! Oh, we have tried this with vanilla, strawberry and blueberry yogurt, and most of all love the blueberry!!! Also we often use only one type of juice, whatever is on sale that week.
Kids love this recipe- and so do I!
All the nutrients from spinach with the taste of what my students call "healthy bubblegum!"
The green color is a little deterring, but the flavor is truely great! The pinapple juice keeps it very fruity!