A couple months ago, I was babysitting one of my favorite families. I had agreed to take the three kiddos (nine-year-old twin girls and a complete pistol of a four-year-old boy) to paint some pottery in Lincoln Park. When the pottery place was too crowded for us to paint (on a rainy Saturday afternoon- imagine!) I had to come up with a Plan B, and fast – and so, we ended up traipsing to my nearby apartment. Kids and babysitter alike were hungry, but my house lacks the heavily processed snack foods that are such staples in many families’ pantries. So what did we do? We made Hulk Smoothies. 

Hulk Smoothies are really just the smoothie I make myself for breakfast every morning, but I added the “Hulk” to the name in reference to the green color and to convince Mr. Pistol to try it. Smoothie-making turned out to be fun for everyone – since my recipe requires no exact measurements and only eyeballing fruit amounts, the girls took charge of adding ingredients to the blender, and Mr. Pistol was allowed to press the “blend” button. With fuel in our bellies, the kiddos and I overcame our hanger and the rainy day blues to play cards the rest of the day, and the parents were happily surprised when Mr. Pistol started bragging about the delicious Hulk Smoothie he had made everyone for a snack.

In my daily life, I love this smoothie for a post-workout breakfast. The beauty of smoothies, in my opinions, is that they are incredibly difficult to mess up. A handful of this, a generous pour of that- it’s pretty much bound to turn out well. Below are my general guidelines for Hulk Smoothies, but you can make modifications based on your personal tastes. Enjoy!

Hulk Smoothie

Ingredients:

• Spinach
• Half an avocado (or half a banana, if you prefer- you can’t really taste the avocado, but its purpose is to make the smoothie creamy!)
• Frozen pineapple
• Frozen mango
• Your choice of juice (as in the picture above, I used Orange Peach Mango from Trader Joe’s because they were out of my usual choice, Orange Banana Strawberry. Both are amazing and you can’t go wrong!)
• Cinnamon to garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Add a couple handfuls of spinach to your blender. How much? Hey, I said this was a measurement-free recipe- you make the rules!
2. Add avocado to the blender.
3. Add frozen fruit to the blender- again, you decide how much of each fruit you want!
4. Pour juice into blender. I guess this is technically a measurement. I usually pour the juice to the one-cup line on my blender, and that’s enough to fill up a tall glass and a little more. One great option is to add more juice and the keep the extra smoothie in the freezer for another day… or eat it out of the blender with a spoon once it’s blended, as if it’s ice cream. Not that I do that.
5. BLEND. Pour your Hulk Smoothie into a cup, and if you’re feeling feisty, top it with cinnamon for an extra kick.

THERE! So, so easy, and it feels like I’m starting my day with a treat. What other smoothie ingredients are your go-tos? Do you prefer them as a snack or post-workout meal?