This delicious and nutrient dense green smoothie should be a staple in your kitchen. We all need more greens, the 6 leaves of spinach on your Subway sandwich, doesn’t count. For athletic families on full throttle with practice and weekly tournaments, cooking healthy vegetables can be defeating, enter Hulk Juice. This anti-inflammatory smoothie is packed with more than greens; it has protein for recovery and healthy fats to keep you going. Oh yeah, its also refreshingly delicious. It’s great for breakfast with some eggs or oatmeal and its also an awesome post workout smoothie. Stop treating your body, and allowing your kids to treat theirs, like it’s a rental rather than a permanent home, and make this part of your daily routine.
But first….Get a good blender.
A good blender is essential to having a great smoothie game. If you’ve read this far, that means you care about your families and your own health enough that a Vitamix ($300-400) is probably a good investment. If not, get a Ninja ($100-$200).
Prep all these ingredients in the blender at the night, but leave out the frozen mango and ice.
Ingredients
Spinach. Its cheaper to get raw bunches, but we just get the $5 containers of pre washed organic spinach.
Collagen Protein. Not a requirement, but highly recommended. Derived from bovine collagen. Collagen is the most abundant protein found in our connective tissues so it’s awesome for young growing athletes and all of us former athletes with failing joints. It has also contains all of the amino acids for muscle recovery. I recommend getting it from Vital Proteins (Sprouts or Online) or Bulletproof (Whole Foods or online).
Frozen Mango. This is the secret ingredient of this smoothie. Do not substitute. Make sure you use frozen. A 4LB bag at Sprouts is only $10. Costco usually carries frozen mango.
Tangerine Juice OR Coconut Water. Get them both at Sprouts or Safeway. Coconut water is better if you need to keep sugar intake down. However, Tangerine juice is a good way to hide the taste of the greens for kids.
Celery. Not pictured. Celery has so many digestive and detoxing properties we never knew about. It does add more of a veggie taste, so start with no celery until your crew acquires the taste for spinach alone.
Hemp Seeds. Hemp seeds are good for you on so many levels, full of healthy fats but they also make the smoothie more creamy. Find them at Sprouts, usually by the energy/protein bars.
Chia Seeds. The spark of life. Get em’ at Sprouts in the bulk isle.
Raw Cashews. Optional. You can substitute raw cashews for hemp seeds. Cashews have been correlated with testosterone development.
ICE. DON’T FORGET ICE.
HULK JUICE RECIPE (Serves 2)
-Massive Handful of Spinach (~3 Cups)
-Frozen Mango ~3 Cups
-2-4 Scoops of Collagen Protein.
-1 Cup Coconut Water or Tangerine Juice.
-2 TBSP Chia Seeds
-2 TBSP Hemp Seeds OR small handful of cashews
-2 Celery Sticks (OPTIONAL)
-ICE!!