Name: Tagalong Cookie Goes Green
Prep time: 2 min
Cook time: 1 min
Total time: 3 min
Yield: 1
Ingredients: 1 frozen banana; ½ cup almond mylk; ½ cup sliced zucchini; handful of baby spinach; ¼ large avocado (38g); 1 tbsp peanut butter; 1 tbsp cashew butter; 1 scoop Vega Sport Vanilla protein powder; 1.5 tbsp cacao powder (or use a chocolate protein powder); 1.5 tbsp maca powder; dash of cinnamon; dash of sea salt

I don’t care if you like Girl Scout cookies or not; your going to love this creamy, nutrient dense smoothie I like to call “Tagalong Goes Green”. Not only for the taste, but for it’s health benefits as well; specifically gut and hormone support.

I know it seems like a lot of ingredients, but most of them should be staples and the ones that aren’t you can leave out (maca, but highly recommend for health benefits: see the NN Pantry for more info. on this super herb).

First off: Avocado; a source of fats for a happy heart and hormones, AND boosts’ your nutrient absorption! Also being the source of creaminess along with our next guy…zucchini: full of fiber, greens, vitamins A, C, magnesium, thiamin. There to incorporate more greens into our diet. We (as Americans) need to eat more vegetables, plain and simple. You can’t event taste it, for all you “ew-veggies in-my-shake folks”. Next we have bananas: potassium rich, fiber rich and there for glycogen refilling purposes. Bananas are one of my favorite fruits for the wide array of vitamins and minerals they provide, as well as a good source of carbohydrates from fructose for immediate energy. Moving on to the nut butters: a source of protein, heart protecting monounsaturated fats and they taste amazing in this combo (hence the taste of a Tagalong Girlscout cookie!) The protein powder gives you fuel to power through your day and is made from peas and brown rice. It is quiet friendly to our digestive system and is one of my favorite brands of protein powder on the market, due to their clean ingredients list.

Next in this smoothie is maca and cacao powder. These two go together like peanut butter and jelly, chili and crackers, cake and ice cream! You get the picture 😉 They taste sublime when paired! Maca and Cacao are both superfoods from South America. Cacao is used for the chocolate taste, is a source of fiber, as well as containing cancer fighting flavonoid antioxidants and theobromine; which has been shown to improve cognitive function. Some SUPER food for thought – pun intended! Maca is great for hormone support; it helps to keep them in balance, which is so crucial for our organ systems to function properly. Maca is also very rich in amino acids for building and maintaining lean muscle. It provides you with a good amount of vitamins B and C. What a super-duper food!