Secret Chocolate Smoothies

The reason these are secret is because--sssssh!--they contain spinach. The beauty of this recipe is that you can't taste the spinach. If you are still afraid, as I was, of adding spinach, I recommend starting with a high proportion of blueberries. They are dark and will keep your smoothie from looking green.

These are surprisingly good! I'm in a phase right now where this is what I want for breakfast every morning. I hope our little blender can hang in there.

Secret Chocolate Smoothies (2 servings)

Source: Eat to Live

1 banana

2 T. cocoa powder

1 T. ground flax seed

1/2 C. almond, soy, or skim milk

3 dates, chopped fine and soaked in warm water for a few minutes, optional

5 C. fresh baby spinach or 1-2 C. slightly thawed frozen spinach

2 C. frozen fruit, thawed slightly* (I use 1 C. blueberries, 1 C. fruit mix)

Blend all ingredients except the fruit until smooth. Add fruit and keep blending until very smooth. Consume.

*I have found that smoothies tend to blend better if the fruit is thawed slightly in the microwave first--30 seconds to a minute, depending on how much fruit you're using. If you have a blender that is not wussy like ours, maybe this is not necessary. I usually do not thaw the blueberries. If I'm using frozen spinach, I thaw that for 30-45 seconds first as well, because I cannot bear the thought of little chunks of spinach in my drink.

These smoothies are pretty versatile in terms of what kinds of fruit you can add. I use a frozen fruit mix from Walmart that has strawberries, peaches, pineapple, and mango and add some blueberries if we have them around. You could also use just strawberries, or just mango, or just blueberries as the original recipe calls for.