Green Tea Raspberry Smoothie

This Raspberry Smoothie recipe is the perfect way to kick off your day. Made with green tea for a little caffeine and antioxidants, tangy raspberries and added protein for a complete meal or snack that is perfect to enjoy at home or on the go!

Back a few years ago I was a professional sales consultant who was on the road a lot of the week. If it wasn’t for smoothies I would have starved because it is kinda hard to eat a chicken salad while driving to your next appointment. Time has always equated to money for me (I blame my father for this thinking) so sitting for a rest, even though well needed, was not an option.

I have mellowed in the past few years and learned to have a much greater relationship with money, ditching my golden handcuffs and working as a food blogger. Finally living in my passion and motivated more now by what makes me happy than what makes me money.

Not that I don’t like money… because I am a travel nut and that doesn’t come free.

Smoothies or shakes if you will were pretty much my go-to meal on the road if I had afternoon or morning meetings. They are best made and consumed right away but they only take about 2 minutes to make and you can sip them while driving so they were a lifesaver!

This recipe was adapted from a recipe I found in a Clean Eating Magazine from September 2010. It has been a while I have been loving this smoothie!

Some of my other favourite smoothies

• Chocolate Peanut Butter – 1 cup almond milk, 1 scoop chocolate protein powder and a tablespoon of natural peanut butter, ice cubes and maybe a 1/2 cup of water. Blend until smooth.
• Skinny Pineapple Smoothie
• Cherry Lime Smoothie

For some extra vitamins, I would also sometimes add a big handful of spinach to my shakes. The pineapple one I wouldn’t do this with because it turns an ugly green and while it may taste ok it looks hideous.

One trick if you are going to add spinach or even kale (leaves only) is to blend it up with the liquids first and then add the fruit, protein and ice. This lets the blender chop the spinach super fine to almost a liquid making it less noticeable.

Ingredients you will need

• Green tea – steeped for 5 minutes and cooled completely. To cool the green tea down quick just sit it in the fridge for 5 or so minutes to chill.
• Raspberries – fresh or frozen. If using fresh be sure to rinse them first.
• Milk – I use almond milk or 1% milk but you can use any milk you prefer. For the nutrition calculations in the recipe card, I used 1%.
• Vanilla whey protein powder – or the vanilla or plain protein powder of your choice.
• Ice – optional. Adding ice will make for a thicker colder smoothie.

How to make a Green tea raspberry smoothie

Add all of the ingredients to a blender.

I wish I had more to say here but it is really that simple. Now you see why smoothies are the best and fastest meal on the planet!

Pour into a shaker cup or tall glass and serve immediately.

If you let this raspberry smoothie recipe sit for too long the liquids will start to separate. If this happens just stir with a spoon, pop it back in the blender and give it a whirl, or shake it up if you are using one of those smoothie cups with a lid.

Do You have to use raspberries?

Of course not! Green tea goes really well with any berry particularly raspberries, strawberries or blueberries. Peaches would be great too! You can even go so far as to use a flavoured green tea if you like.

No protein powder? No problem!

This recipe is very adaptable and if you don’t like or can’t consume whey protein powder there are several options:

• Casein powder is a slower digesting protein that makes it easier to digest.
• Vegan protein powders – some may change the taste a bit to have a more greener flavour but can still work well.
• GreeK yogurt – add a 1/2 cup instead of the whey
• Regular yogurt – it is a little thinner than Greek yogurt so I would add 3/4 of a cup.

When altering the proteins you may need to add a little water to achieve the thickness or desired consistency.