After coming home from the gym this morning, I had a huge craving for a big, thick, fruity, summery smoothie to enjoy on my patio since it’s just so beautiful out today. While I was gathering the ingredients on my counter, I had a laugh because it almost looked as if I were about to prepare a salad because of the amount of spinach I try to jam into my magic bullet when making smoothies. So I decided to take this strange salad “before shot” before I blended it all up because I thought it was quite funny. :)
Now because I jam all that spinach in, and combine ingredients like cranberries, strawberries, and protein powder with it, my smoothies sometimes turn into an unappealing brownish sort of colour. That’s not a problem for me, as I just grab a spoon and enjoy it for the flavour and ignore the colour, but I realized when I was setting up to take pictures of it that it might be a problem when trying to sell others on trying a recipe… So after having another good laugh, I decided to prepare the second smoothie in layers, which certainly looks a lot more appealing in my opinion. ;-)

This recipe is a perfect post-workout smoothie because it’s loaded with protein, fibre, fruits, and veggies (I promise, you won’t even taste the spinach!), but could easily be enjoyed at anytime for breakfast, a snack, or even dessert. Frozen cranberries are my new obsession in smoothies because they are extremely good for you, and they help thicken the smoothie while adding a little tartness.

Post Workout Salad Smoothie with Cranberries, Spinach, and Mango
Makes 2 large servings
Ingredients
- 1 banana
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used VegaOne)
- 2 tbsp flaxseeds
- 1 cup frozen cranberries
- 4 strawberries
- 1 cup frozen mango
- 4 cups spinach or field greens
- 1 celery stalk
- Blueberries (for garnish)
- 3 cups water
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar
1. In a large blender, blend together banana, 2 cups of water, spinach, celery, and mango.
2. Pour mixture into two glasses.
3. Rinse blender, and then blend together protein powder, flaxseeds, coconut sugar, strawberries, cranberries, and 1 cup of water.
4. Pour half of the new mixture to fill both glasses.
5. Garnish with a small handful of blueberries.