Today I’m going to be sharing a quick and easy smoothie recipe that’s absolutely perfect for any parents out there who may be having a tough time getting their kids to eat their healthy greens. This 5-minute spinach banana smoothie is made with two cups of fresh spinach but your kids will never be able to tell because of how amazingly yummy it tastes. The recipe gets its great flavor thanks to some smart ingredient usage, with Greek yogurt and banana blending perfectly with spinach to mask that famous “greens” taste. It’s a perfect option for a quick breakfast on those busy mornings, and it’s equally enjoyable as a healthy afternoon snack that your whole family can enjoy.

Four Ingredients Is All You Need for a Delicious & Nutritious Treat

The beauty of this recipe is definitely in its simplicity. Since it only requires four ingredients to make, including the spinach, the other three choices have to be pretty solid options to help mask that healthy greens flavor. Thankfully they’re all up to the task. Let’s take a closer look at each of them to see exactly why this is such a great easy to make smoothie recipe.

Starting with the spinach, you can immediately establish a healthy base for the smoothie. Two cups of fresh spinach is the perfect amount to absolutely load up the nutritional benefits. It’s literally packed full of several important vitamins and minerals, including vitamins A, C, D, and K, iron, zinc, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. Spinach is also a great source of fiber and it’s an especially potent source of antioxidant activity which helps to ward off chronic disease. (1)

Adding a banana in with the spinach helps to offset the aforementioned “greens” flavor nicely. More importantly, bananas are nutritional powerhouses in their own right. Packed full of essential nutrients, bananas are an excellent source of B-complex vitamins, fiber, and potassium. They’re also a rather solid source of disease-fighting antioxidants, helping the body to fight off oxidative stress. (2)

To go along with the banana, you’ll also be adding ½ cup of vanilla flavored Greek yogurt. This is one of my favorite ingredients to add into smoothies because it’s such a great tasting source of protein. Not only that, but studies have actually found that there are potential health benefits to be gained when combining yogurt with fruits thanks to their prebiotic and probiotic properties. (3) That’s a perfect benefit when it comes to smoothies, which make use of plenty of fruits and veggies.

Last but not least, this recipe calls for the use of ½ cup of milk as the liquid base for your smoothie. However, you can feel free to get a little bit flexible at this point as well. You can just as easily use something like almond milk or even water if you’d prefer. You could also even throw in a scoop of protein powder or something if you’d like to up the protein content a bit. That’s the beauty of simple recipes like this one — it’s all too easy to customize it to your own personal preferences!