This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure and privacy policy.
This Gorilla Green Smoothie recipe comes from my friend Katie’s new book, The Wellness Mama Cookbook. If you’re not familiar with Wellness Mama, her site is loaded with information on natural health and wellness, particularly when it comes to parenting. I always turn to Katie’s website when I’m looking for a natural solution for my kids– like making homemade elderberry syrup.
I recently had the opportunity to chat with Katie on her podcast, and we covered everything from detoxing, to feeding picky kids, to why we both love dates, and more. You can listen to our podcast together here.
Katie sent me a complimentary copy of her book, and it’s loaded with real food recipes that are all grain-free, encouraging readers to make more vegetable-centric choices. The book does contain meat and dairy, so it’s not a great fit for my vegan and vegetarian readers, but it’s perfect for anyone looking to transition away from a diet of processed foods. Katie’s recipes are all easy and familiar, including favorites like chai coconut granola, angel food cake smoothie, sausage breakfast hash, chicken piccata, dairy-free upside down pizza, grain-free chipotle chicken fingers, creamy broccoli soup, and more.
Want to save this for later?
I'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Katie gave me permission to share this easy green smoothie from her book, so I hope you’ll enjoy it! Her recipe combines delicious tropical fruits with protein-rich chia seeds and sneaky spinach for a sweet green treat with a protein punch.
Ingredients
- 1 orange
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 2 cups Coconut Milk or Almond Milk
- 1 cup frozen pineapple
- 1 frozen banana
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- 1 tablespoon collagen powder (optional)
Instructions
- Peel the orange, remove any seeds, and place in the blender. Wash and dry the spinach and add to the blender with the remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth.
Nutrition
Per Serving: Calories: 279, Fat: 8g, Carbohydrates: 29g, Fiber: 10g, Protein: 8g
Reprinted from The Wellness Mama Cookbook © 2014, 2016 by Wellness Mama (Harmony Books, Penguin Random House LLC).
Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite smoothie combination lately?
I think you should add Oreos! ???? I’m sorry…. had to add some levity to the rather intense sugar discussion. Megan I’ve been a candida sufferer for years and experience exactly what you mentioned – cravings and food obsession. I’m interested in looking into the two diets you referenced here. Just stumbled on your site and I’m very interested in your recipes. Thanks!
HA! Good idea!! Glad you found me. 😉
sounds delish-and I agree WOW, such a heated response to natures pure lovely fruits and vegetables.
add more whole foods and you can’t go wrong.
I would much rather add a banana to my smoothie than stevia, if added sweetness is what I wanted.
stay positive and nice y’all
Oh my! Such a debate over a smoothie. I love to hear all sides and ideas, but yikes to the mean spirited approach on some of these comments.
Thank you for sharing this, Megan! I just came across this book and was curious about it. After I go grocery shopping, I’ll be trying this one! Sounds yummy.
Hi Megan! Interesting discussion here, as I’m recently more sugar-free than ever in my life. I was just wondering if you ever have trouble with candida with all the dates and fruit you eat? When I initially came across your site, you used stevia, but now you seem to abstain from it altogether. I don’t find I put weight on with eating fruit, but it doesn’t do my body good either, in relation to yeast. Just wondering your thoughts on that angle. 🙂
After some trial and error on my part , I actually don’t believe that the candida protocol that has you eliminate fruit is all that effective. I did it for months, and never felt even remotely better– my skin suffered, my energy suffered, and my cravings were through the roof with all the stevia I used. It also had me a bit food obsessed, probably due to all the restriction, and that left me emotionally miserable. Sometimes I feel like we have to go with our gut-instincts, and mine say that a better healing protocol would be to follow something like the SCD diet (Breaking The Vicious Cycle has a great explanation of how fruit sugars are digested before they can feed bad bacteria), or even Medical Medium’s protocol, which is a bit radical, but his methods have healed too many people for me to dismiss it.
Hey Judith — can you provide links to all the episodes of My 300 Pound life where they complain about being morbidly obese because they ate too many bananas? Thanks.
Jesus, Judith, just shut up already. There are about 5,000,000 different smoothie recipes on the internet. If you don’t like THIS particular one, then just move on. Some of us like fruit. And fruit and spinach is healthier than processed food any day so what’s the problem?
Please don’t answer that; it was rhetorical.
When I discovered the Detoxinista blog I had just been diagnosed as a typeII diabetic with insulin levels four times higher than the high range. I have used many of Megan’s recipes for “treats” and I find that I do not over indulge but feel satisfied with just a small amount without having cravings for them. My insulin level and hgbA1c are now normal range. I agree that everyone has to know their own bodies. I can tolerate fruits, dates, and maple syrup. These work so much better for me than deprivation or Stevia. Thank you Megan for changing my life and I will try this latest smoothie posting. I am a nurse practitioner and feel fairly knowledgeable about nutrition.
Judith doesn’t need to eat sugar ’cause she’s sweet enough already!
Been loving the new cookbook, Megan!
I’ll have to listen to that podcast 🙂 My fave smoothie is this one http://www.realsoupfortherealsoul.com/?p=1512 … I drink it without fail every single morning and never ever tire (I’m such a creature of habit)
Thank you for sharing this appetizing recipe.
Maybe Judith should start her own blog.
I often find that it is a lot easier to criticize others than to actualy do something, just saying…