Will’s Green Leprechaun Smoothie for St. Patrick’s Day, First Grade!

Originally posted March 13, 2018.

Years ago, my son had a wonderful first grade teacher. She was creative and kind. The kids all loved her! During St. Patrick’s week, she told her classroom that they might see tiny, happy leprechauns about! She left out some nickels for the leprechauns. The children were all very excited about this and kept watching to see if a leprechaun might come to collect the nickels! One morning, when the children came in, the nickels were gone but, there were sparkles on the floor in a trail! Wow! The leprechauns must’ve come that night and left their trail of glitter!

My 6 year old son was quite intrigued by this whole leprechaun thing. He came home and asked me if we could leave out some coins to see if we could lure a leprechaun. Plus, he extrapolated upon this project. He decided he could catch the leprechuan in the act. He proceeded to make a leprechaun trap out of a cardboard box. He figured if he put a quarter under an upside down box propped up with a stick, with a string attached, well, the leprechaun would come to get the coin, trip the stick and just happen to caught under the box!

He set up his invention with great excitement.

Whaddyaknow? The next morning, the box trap had been tripped! Plus, there was glitter in the family room leading from the sliding glass doors! And there was glitter on the grass outside!

He picked up the box with excitement! No coin! But no leprechaun! Tricky leprechaun must’ve been too quick to get caught! But here was his trail! He was very, very happy about the whole project, even though the leprechaun got away! What a fun, happy time! So fun to live in the world of childhood world of imagination!

Will’s Green Leprechaun Smoothie is in honor of this fun, happy time during first grade, when imagination knows no bounds.

Will’s Green Leprechaun Smoothie gets its green from actual plants, not green food dye!

It’s actually just a fruit smoothie with added greens. Does the idea of a green smoothie sound and look gross? I used to think so, too, and I had a friend who insisted that you cannot taste the added spinach in a banana smoothie. I just wouldn’t believe it. Well, I tried it once and was hooked. You really can’t taste the spinach mixed into a fruit smoothie! And, you get lots of green superfood nutritious benefits! And remember that eating well helps your mental health as well! So, take care of yourself on all fronts. You can do it!

So, skip cooking complicated dishes to get your green! all day! Will’s Green Leprechaun smoothie is an easy and quick way to improve your nutrition with short prep time.

Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1/2 banana

Handful of frozen mango cubes

handful of frozen spinach leaves

1/4 avocado

Crushed ice as needed

1/2 tsp Manuka honey

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Matcha Tea powder (yum!)

Sprinkle of cinnamon

(You can add nuts or seeds and other superfoods, such as cocoa nibs, pomegranate powder or ground flax seeds for energy and nutrition. The possibilites are endless.)

I use a Ninja mixer. I had three Nutri Bullets in a row that went bad before I took notice of the Ninja product. (What can I say?) I’ve had this Ninja for two years now and its been working great. It’s more powerful and grinds up that crushed ice and those nuts just fine and it’s easy to clean.

So, basically, all you do is put the ingredients in the Ninja cup.