[From this post on Oh She Glows]

During January 2009, I felt a huge void in my life. I was unhappy with my career and I was often up late at night until 3 or 4 in the morning worrying about work. I dragged all day long and I was turning into someone I didn’t recognize anymore. I started blending green vegetables in my blender after reading about Kris Carr’s green juices. While I didn’t have a juicer, I did have a blender, and I was excited to blend my green ‘juice’ any way that I could.

In my Story of the Green Monster post, I explained:

Determined to feel alive once again, I crammed the healthiest foods into my blender and I blended my little heart out. Of course, the first few attempts looked horrific and they tasted no better. But, I didn’t care. I drank every last drop of those green monsters before I made the long commute to work each morning. The green monster not only gave me energy, but it represented something much deeper than that- inner peace and self-love. I knew that the stress I had put myself through over the past few years was nothing short of damaging to every cell in my body. I created the Green Monsters as a way to take time out for my health. Even if I knew it was going to be a hellish day, drinking my Green Monster in the morning provided me with a sense of calm in my life.

This was one of my first concoctions:

No almond milk, just kale, an English cucumber, and baby carrots. lol. It was scary to say the least!

Thankfully, my Green Monsters have improved greatly since those initial days.

On January 26, 2009, I gave my two weeks notice at my job. It was a very, very bad week for me and I was at an all-time low in my life. I drank those green monsters every single morning despite everything going on. I imagined that I was Popeye with superhuman strength. And boy did I need it.

I still receive a lot of emails and tweets from people who have just tried their first green monster. Many people have challenged themselves to drink Green Monsters in 2011 and I’m always excited to hear about other’s experiences! The most frequent message I receive is, ‘I thought they looked so gross, but they actually taste so delicious! Now I am hooked.’

I am also asked a lot what my classic go-to recipe is so I thought it would be fun to do a post on my most frequently enjoyed Green Monster recipe.

This is a recipe that I keep coming back to again and again and it never fails me.

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Classic Green Monster

Yield: 1 serving/2 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond milk, or milk of choice
• 1 ripe banana, preferably peeled + frozen
• 2 handfuls organic spinach
• 1 tbsp chia seeds OR 1 tbsp ground flax
• 1 tbsp nut butter (here I used Dark Chocolate Almond Butter)
• 1-3 Ice cubes

Directions: Starting with the liquid, add in 1 cup of milk of your choice. Now add in the chia or flax and nut butter. Next, add in the spinach followed by the banana on top. Blend until smooth. Add in your ice cubes and blend some more. Serves 1– about 2 cups.

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When I am feeling a little frisky, I love to add in some powders too! I keep Navitas Maca powder, Vega Shake & Go, and Amazing Grass Wheat Grass on hand whenever the budget allows.

Yesterday I added into the classic mix: 1 tsp Maca, 1 tbsp Vanilla Almond Shake & Go, and 1/2 scoop wheatgrass powder. It was my first time trying Vega Vanilla Almond and I thought it was pretty good, but I greatly prefer the Choc-O-lot flavour. I love making a Chocolate-Mint GM using Vega’s Choc-O-Lot and some fresh mint leaves.

Add your liquid in first. This just helps the blender do its job better.

Next add in your powders, chia seeds or ground flax, and your nut butter:

Now add the greens. I use two handfuls of whatever green I have on hand. I most often use spinach, but I also like to use red or green kale now that my Vita-Mix can handle it.

Finally, add the banana. The weight helps pack all the ingredients down!

Blend away until smooth!

I added in 2 large ice cubes and blended some more.

Pour into a glass and enjoy!

Mmm, this one is absolutely delicious. Creamy, sweet, smooth, and loaded with nutrients!

I’m always asked how I can drink smoothies during the cold winter months and my answer is easy:

I often drink Green Monsters following my workout when I am often craving something liquid and cold.

I’m also always asked if you can taste the spinach and the answer is no. =) Kale, on the other hand…YES (unless you make it super sweet to overpower the bitter quality of the kale).

Good to the last drop!

Other Mentionables:

1) Need more encouragement to eat your veggies? Check out this article: ‘Want a Golden Glow? Don’t Bother with a Suntan- Eat Your Greens Instead.’

Are you a smoothie or ‘Green Monster’ fan? What’s your favourite go-to recipe?

I started making green smoothies in October of 2009.  Since that time I have lost 40 pounds and have managed to keep it off.  I have embraced this lifestyle change so much that I routinely drink green smoothies for breakfast and lunch.  When I do eat out these days, I have no shame and eat whatever I like, but I always go back to my green smoothie daily routine.  I too have noticed increased engery, lower blood pressure (it was not high to start with), lower cholesterol, less skin break outs, and less bloating that used come with my regular diet.  I just connot say enough about green smoothies!   Now my sister and my mom have joined the green community as well!  If you are going to make this kind of lifestyle change you need to invest in a very good blender.  I use Vitamix, but I am sure there are others on the market.

Since reading your blog, I was motivated to get onto the movement as well. I am a pretty healthy eater working my way vegan. Anyhow, I been looking for a great way to get more greens into my kids and my diets for added benefits and greater health.  With me being a single mom and going to school I needed something  quick and healthy that was going to pack nutrients and energy that tasted good so my kids would drink it. My daughter has horrible acne issues and nothing seems to work, my son very picky eater so this is my challenge.
Just finished a 6 day pure juice out of a juice machine and now moving to the monsters for all benefits of juices and vegetables. Today I made my kids a chocolate amazing meal drink w/chocolate soy milk and while it was a little chunky they still drank and liked it, so will probably blend it to make a shake next time. But I feel great knowing they got alot of amazing greens and antioxidants.
Me, I just made my first green monster, loved it and I feel fabulous. I will let you know how I feel after two weeks of doing so.
This is my recipe: 2 handfulls of organic baby spinach, 1 tbsp chia seed, 1 1/4 cup of soy milk, 1/4 cup plain kifir, 1/2 cup filtered water, 1 scoop amazing grass wheat grass, cinnamon, nutmeg, 4 frozen strawberries, 1/4 cup organic blueberries, 1 kiwi, 1 tsp agave nectar, and ice.
Thick and shake like, wonderful! I will be playing with other flavors as well. And I cant wait to add amazing grass meal to them as well for a complet balanced meal as well as other amazing grass products, as well as the life’s basic protein another reader suggestion.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Tina

Ever since I’ve started reading your blog, I’ve been infatuated with 2 major things.  1. VEGAN OVERNIGHT OATS and 2. GREEN MONSTERS!!!  You have revolutionized the health world by introducing sooo many ways to eat and drink these 2 awesome health foods.  Anyways…here is my most recent favorite Green Monster recipe.

Ingredients

*1 handful of ice
*1 handful of frozen fruit (I used strawberries, papaya, mango, bananas, and pineapple)
* 1 cup of almond milk
*2 handfuls of spinach
*1/2 c. to 3/4 c. of vanilla or plain yogurt
*1 tbsp. of chia or flax seeds
*1 tbsp. of honey

Simply place all ingredients in the blender and VOILA!  An easy and healthful smoothie that will leave everyone asking..what’s in that?  Can I try it?  Looks good!

I love seeing how green my smoothie comes out by adding spinach.  I say the greener, the better…

Thanks!! ~Lisa
www.happypuppyluckylady.wordpress.com

My boyfriend and I eat green monsters a few times a week and are trying to up our intake. We have 2 favorites, and this one is mine:

2 heaping handfuls of spinach (probably 2 cups?)
Odwalla green machine juice
Orange juice
about 1/2 cup blueberries
3 large carrots, cut up

Delicious!!

Perhaps my most oft-advised piece of food frugality wisdom is using what you have already in the fridge to cook what you “want” to eat.  This can also be re-hashed as buying what’s on sale and cooking with that instead of choosing the recipe first then purchasing the ingredients later.  Additionally, another element of frugality is using what you have around before it spoils.  At any rate, I remind you of this because recently my local store flier had both yogurt quarts and spinach bags (large) on sale.  They are both good individually of course, but like anything that has to be bought in larger quantities – it’s tough to down it before it spoils.  Even with my recent vigilance about eating in – I was beginning to get frantic about the impending spoilage time line.

On an entirely different note, I really like those Naked Green Machine Drinks… but they are not budget friendly.  I’ve justified with Costco coupons, sales and the occasional treat, but for the most part I exercise resistance.  Anyway – my love of those peaked my interest in something I had browsed over on a friends blog not that long ago.

THE GREEN MONSTER… dun dun dun!

Anyway, the Green Monster is not only a drink it’s a movement.  A drink that is made up of Spinach and basically whatever else you want (best I can tell from the example recipes).  In this case yogurt was include.  So onto my very own recipe experimentation (this is a food blog after all).

Ruby Leigh’s Green Monster Trial #1
-1 Cup Spinach, not tightly packed
-Just a bit of Chopped Carrot
-Just a bit of Diced Cucumber
-Whole Apple Diced (and cored)
-1/4 cup Yogurt
-2 Tbs water
-1 tsp Flaxseed oil

Ingredients are listed in the order that I dumped them into the Magic Bullet Mug.  Once in, you blend, shake a little, and blend some more.  If you use a rather large apple and a rather small blender (as I did), everything may not fit in at the start. This was the case in my experiment.  Eventually, everything worked out though.
And, here’s the final concoction (half-eaten ;)).  The verdict: It was very tasty, although not really comparable to Naked’s Green Machine as I had thought.  However, it was a little mealy and thicker then I like my “drinks” I’m not sure if simply adding water would help or if I should also remove the apple skins.

A little about me~ i’m a 35 year old single mom of two kids. I am currently going to Everest College for Massage/Spa, graduating in December and a little nervous about that.
In November 2010 I went to the Dr for a regular checkup. When I was weighed in and saw the numbers on the scale I thought I was going to fall off the scale “297” Oh my gosh I can not believe it. I always new I was overweigh but to that extent, NO! My blood pressure out the roof, as well as my cholesterol, beginings of diabetes, etc… With heart and health issues running really high in my family and having two kids to live for I decided something had to change and quick, I didnt want to die. But what do I do, all I know is what I was raised up with. And when I looked back it was a family generation pattern of unhealthy eating and I didnt want my kids to end up here where I am.
So that day I went home and completely cleaned out my cupboards, fridge and freezer of all junk food, processed food etc… Went to the store and stocked up on all things i knew to be better. My kids fought me hard, it was a change for all of us and they didnt like it. It was hard as I struggled greatlyeating the same boring meals.
One Year later I have lost 85 pounds, however it seems I get so bored or something happens and I fall off track. I have gained back ten pounds but it’s like I go into self destruct mode and self sabotage what I do as if I dont deserve it.
Then out of no where I ran across this site and reading your blogs has set a spark in me. I was reading up on going vegan as this is what I would like to do for at least 90% of my diet. It’s hard for me to do most things because I have something going on in my digestive track which is why i was considereing going vegan in the first place.
So as of the other day I decided to do a 3 day juice fast to hopefully help my digestive tract from the overload and give it a break. I had my first green monste this morning.
Recipe: Spinach 2-3 cups, 1/4 beet, blueberries 1/4 cup, and carrots 4 blended with 1 cup soy milk, ice and blended.
Lunch I juiced not blended: 3 cups kale, 3 carrots, ginger 2″pc, garlic 3 cloves, sweet potato, and sweet potato.
I plan on having to blended green monsters a day and two glasses of veg.juice a day with herbal detox tea, other herbal teas, broths low sodium, and water for 3 days to detox my body. i will dry brush my body once a night and get into a sea salt and ginger bath to aid in detoxification.
After I will continue to do a green monster drink at least once a day. I am planning on doing a garden to use all my own veggies. I also can not wait to start getting a better income so I can purchase amazing meal chocolate infusion and other amazing grass products. I am purchasing a wheat grass juicer so i can have a liquid shot a day as well. I’m also drinking alkalized chinese medicinal machine. I hope all this will help my digestive and heal whatever is going on in my stomach.
i cant wait to try your recipes as well, they all look so good. I’m also going to try and start my own blog of my weightloss and nutrition successes. I am staying focused with your quotes as well, writing them down and posting them throughtout to clean my body and soul. Thanks again for all your inspiration, Cant wait to see what all you do. PS, i to plan on doing a triathlon 🙂 best wishes, sorry so long, i like to write!

Ok well, I started doing this smoothies because I wanted to fit more veggies into my diet and tight schedule. I´ve been drinking them every day and up to know, I´m not planning on going back 😀

The ingredients are:
3 handfuls of spinach (about 3/4 of my blender, push them tight to get more in there)
1 mango
1 cup of blueberries
2 cups of cold water
*Fruits should preferably be frozen.
*You can add a tbsp of chia seeds for a good dose of omega 3 😀