Five-ingredient green smoothie for St. Patrick’s Day

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I know a lot of celebrations have been cancelled or changed because of everything that’s happening right now, but here’s a smoothie recipe that’s perfect for the occasion.

This is the perfect smoothie to make for breakfast, because it has protein from the protein powder, and caffeine from the matcha.

If you’re like me and you’re not a fan of salads, this smoothie is a great way to get greens like spinach into your diet. No matter what kind of tasty ingredients try to cover up the taste of spinach in a smoothie, I can usually still taste it, but that’s not the case with this smoothie. It tastes like a milkshake, I PROMISE.

This smoothie only requires five ingredients: bananas, spinach, vanilla protein powder, almond milk, and matcha. For those of you who don’t know what matcha is, it’s green tea leaves that have been ground into a powder (I’m a little obsessed with it).

I used frozen ripe bananas and frozen spinach to prevent them from going bad and being thrown out, plus frozen ripe bananas are usually sweeter. I’m a complete newbie when it comes to protein powder. I’m using the Vega Protein & Greens vanilla flavoured protein powder (my mom got it for free from work because her boss didn’t like it, which was a great deal on our end).

I never really measure my ingredients when I’m making a smoothie, but here’s an estimate:

• Two frozen bananas
• One scoop of protein powder
• Two handfuls of spinach (maybe two cups worth?)
• A quarter of a teaspoon of matcha
• One cup of almond milk

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Throw it all in the blender and you’re good to go! To make sure the spinach gets blended really well so I can’t taste it, I put it in first so it’s at the bottom of the blender. That way, everything else puts more pressure on it as it gets blended.

Here are some add-ins you could try to make your smoothie even better:

• Use flavoured matcha for some extra flavour. I love the vanilla matcha from DAVIDsTEA.
• Add some peanut butter before blending for some extra protein.
• For a chocolatey twist, add some cocoa powder.

What’s your favourite smoothie combination? Let me know in the comments!

Tomato Spinach Pasta

This is a staple in my menu repitoire. It’s easy and quick to make, only needs a handful of ingredients, and is a nice light meal.

To make this Tomato Spinach Pasta, you need spinach, tomatoes, pasta (shocking), sun-dried tomatoes (including the oil from the jar), and olive oil.

Start by chopping up some tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes. The more sun-dried tomatoes you use, the more flavourful the dish will be.

While you’re chopping the vegetables, boil some pasta. It doesn’t really matter what kind.

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When the pasta is done cooking, add the veggies and some olive and sun-dried tomato oil. Again, the more sun-dried tomato oil, the more flavour there will be. Start off with a little oil and add more as needed.

The great thing about this recipe is that it’s really just about winging it. Don’t like spinach? Don’t use it. Have some broccoli you need to use up? Throw it in. I also like to sprinkle some Italian seasoning, pepper, and cheese on top.

Throw it in a bowl (or eat it straight out of the pot, I won’t judge), and enjoy!

What’s your go-to easy supper? Let me know in the comments!