Green Chai Smoothie

When I first started my new eating regimen, I perused the internet for blogs related to my latest craze. There are quite a few. One of nine that I bookmarked on my iPad is Healthy Girl's Kitchen. I especially love that she has a "before" and "after" pic on her blog and this, in itself, inspires me. The fact that she is now blogging about recipes found in Chef AJ's new cookbook, Unprocessed, makes me love her blog even more. So when I saw her blog about chai, one of my favorite all time great memory inducing drinks, I knew I had to get to the store asap to buy the spices needed for the chai spice blend.
If you love chai and you love eating healthy, believe me, YOU NEED TO MAKE THIS. Okay, sorry for yelling but it is really that good. I gave some to my friend and Zumba instructor, Kanani, and that was not the end of it. I received several text messages from her as she waited for me to get home so I could send her the recipe. It's that good. I already made more spice mix. Go to the store right now if you don't have all the spices in your pantry. Healthy Girl's chai recipe can be found here. I changed it up a bit (except for the spice mix).

Green Chai Smoothie

Ingredients
One blender full of fresh spinach
1-2 large frozen bananas
4 pitted Medjool dates
7 ice cubes (more or less)
2 tsp. chai spice blend (see below)
Enough milk (soy, almond, rice...whichever you prefer)
(Makes about 3 nice size servings which you want to do so you can share or keep an extra one or two for later)

Add it all to your blender (I have a Vita Mix that I love and cherish) and blend it up. No regrets. Trust me.

See how much spinach is in here? It's a lot!

I am now a lover of Medjool dates mostly because I have, for the most part, given up sugar. Dates sweeten all my sweets.

I used soymilk but usually I would use unsweetened almond milk. Here you can see how much milk I added AND my wonderful spice mix.

Top view. You can see the spinach, frozen bananas, and spice mix.

Getting ready to blend it all up!

Chai spice blend
2 tbsp. ground ginger
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground cloves
2 1/2 tbsp. ground cardamom
2 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. white pepper (I used black pepper because that's what I had)

Put it in a jar and shake it up. I would double the recipe if I were you. And put it close to your blender. You will use it often.

The color is really quite beautiful.

If you go on Healthy Girl's blog she has a picture of herself drinking her chai drink so I thought I'd do the same. Hers is way cuter but I gave it a shot. What the heck!