When January 2015 rolled around, I decided I wanted to go on a "cleanse." Rather than follow anyone else's guideline, I decided I'd just drink a green smoothie every morning for breakfast, avoid salt and oil for awhile (I already eat pretty healthy most of the time, but I felt that I was adding too much salt to my meals and wanted to sort of reset my taste buds), snack on fruit, and eat some sort of cooked starch dinner. After a couple of weeks of green smoothies, I was missing my banana nog (the green smoothies were sucking up a lot of my bananas). Do you blame me? That stuff is delicious. So being the weirdo that I am, I decided to combine them and make a green banana nog.


It seemed to work out well. I liked the taste, but I wasn't sure if it was just because I was already used to the taste of greens in my smoothie and maybe couldn't taste them anymore, or if the rum extract was covering up the flavor sufficiently, so on Sunday I took my green banana nog to church and suckered convinced my little brother (a senior in high school and definitely not vegan or health conscious) to taste it, telling him that it tasted like eggnog.

His reaction?

"What? It does taste like eggnog. How did you do that? Did you put eggnog in it?"

Mission accomplished.

Doesn't look much like eggnog, but sure tastes good.

This batch (about 6 cups of smoothie) had 2.5 bananas and a 10 oz box of frozen spinach (3.5 servings according to the box), which is 6 servings of fruits and vegetables, just at breakfast. Now that's a good way to start out the day!

Green Banana Nog

Ingredients:

• 2-3 frozen bananas, broken into smaller chunks
• 10 oz box of frozen spinach (Start out with half this amount and add more if you can stomach it)
• 2-3 cups of hot tap water
• 3/8 tsp cinnamon (I usually just use a generous sprinkle here)
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg (and a slightly less generous sprinkle)
• A pinch of ground cloves (and for the precise people...)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4-1/2 tsp rum extract (I found that 3/8 teaspoon is my ideal)
• 1/2 tsp Stevia working solution, to taste

Directions:

1. Measure hot tap water into your blender jar (high-powered blender recommended). Most blender jars have measuring lines on the side, so you won't need to get measuring cups wet or anything like that.
2. Remove the spinach from the wrapper and set it in the water.
3. Leave it alone for a while to thaw a bit, then come back and break it into chunks.
4. Add all remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. (Note: This may take more blending than your blender's "smoothie" cycle, so be patient and if necessary, scrape the sides if unblended greens get stuck there).
5. Pour into your drink container of choice and enjoy.