Power Green Pineapple Smoothie

Power Green Pineapple Smoothie is a refreshing blend of pineapple, power greens, and chia seeds for a vegan, energy boosting smoothie that even the kids will love!

It’s been 2 whole weeks since I’ve written up a post for you, and all I can say is thank goodness for automatic scheduling or I’d have nothing for you!  I hate that I’ve only been able to post one recipe a week lately, so consider this Power Green Pineapple Smoothie a refreshing, healthy peace offering. 🙂

I’ve been doing some traveling, which you may have noticed if you follow me on Instagram.  My husband and I hit the California coast for a few days, specifically Monterey, Carmel, and a state park close to Big Sur for some hiking with the most breathtaking views!   I came back for one day, then hopped in the car and took a road trip to San Diego for my son’s 4-day basketball tournament.  We did have some time outside the gym to hit La Jolla (my favorite!) to relax and enjoy the warm weather.  It was great until the ride home, which took a whopping 11 hours.  I was prepared for traffic coming home through San Diego and L.A. on a Sunday afternoon, but the extra 2+ hours made it really tough.  Let’s just say I’m not a patient person when it comes to traffic….ever.

Suffice it to say, I’m so glad to be home creating recipes again!  I knew this smoothie would be the first thing I needed to make when I got home so I could share it with you here.  I’ve been tinkering with the recipe for a long while and I knew just what I needed to do this time around.  My teenage taste testers gave me a big thumbs up, and my youngest son dubbed this the best one yet.

Smoothie victory. 🙂

This smoothie happens to be vegan — not because I follow a vegan diet, but because I just wanted to go for simplicity here.  That simplicity looks like this:

There are a whopping 2 cups of power greens in this smoothie, which is a blend of baby kale, spinach, and swiss chard.  I make my kids salads with power greens all the time, and I knew it would be good to incorporate them into a smoothie so they’d get even more energy-boosting nutrition from them.  Any which way I can get them to consume more produce is a win in my book.

I used fresh pineapple, which I cut and froze to make smoothie-making easier.  I tried this with fresh, unfrozen pineapple once and had to add so much ice to make it frosty that it tasted watered down to me.  I did add some coconut water here (regular water is just fine, too) as there has to be some liquid or everything gets jammed up and the blender overheats.  Unfortunately that has happened to me. 🙂

The green apple adds a nice dimension in flavor and also thickens it up slightly.  The chia seeds are great because they’re nutritional powerhouses.  I have a big bag of them and love to throw them into my smoothies, overnight oats, or make chia pudding with them.

As far as sweetening this smoothie up, I wanted to use a natural sweetener instead of sugar.  Agave syrup is something I like to use in my smoothies because it’s flavorless.  This way, the greens, pineapple, and apple flavors really shine through.  I used a tablespoon here, but if you like yours sweeter, you can add up to a tablespoon more.

If you’re skeptical of green smoothies, this Power Green Pineapple Smoothie will really surprise you.  You can taste the greens, but the pineapple and apple makes this so sweet and refreshing that you don’t mind a bit.  I mean, my kids are downing these things like they’re milkshakes, which is definitely sayin’ something. 🙂

More smoothies you gotta try:

Blueberry Banana Oat Smoothie

Pear Ginger Smoothie

Metabolism Boosting Smoothie by The Recipe Rebel

Peach Pineapple Chai Smoothie by Girl Versus Dough

Post-Workout Green Smoothie by Gimme Some Oven

Strawberry Mango Spinach Smoothie by Making Thyme for Health

Power Green Pineapple Smoothie

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Total time

10 mins

 

Power Green Pineapple Smoothie is a refreshing blend of pineapple, power greens, and chia seeds for a vegan, energy boosting smoothie that even the kids will love!

Author: Flavor the Moments

Serves: 2 large or 4 smaller smoothies

Ingredients

• 3 cups pineapple chunks, frozen (I froze fresh pineapple for this recipe)*
• 2 cups power greens blend, such as Earthbound Farms
• 1 medium green apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1" chunks
• ⅓ cup water or coconut water
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1-2 tablespoons agave syrup or your favorite sweetener*

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in your blender and blend until smooth.
2. If you have a Vitamix blender, place the ingredients in this order: water, agave syrup, chia seeds, apple, greens, and frozen pineapple.
3. Serve immediately, and enjoy!

Notes

If you'd like to use unfrozen fresh pineapple, just add about ½ - 1 cup of ice to make your smoothie frosty! If using a Vitamix, add the ice last.
I used about 1 tablespoon of agave syrup here, but if you like your smoothies sweeter, add an addition ½ - 1 tablespoon.
Recipe by Flavor the Moments.

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