Alternate title: Cool It With The Chicken Wings

Phew.

It’s been a busy few weeks around here.

I’m sure you can all relate. Between the holidays, parties, road trips, out-of-town guests, and birthdays, we’ve had a lot to do and a lot of fun doing it. This past weekend was no exception. On Friday we met up with some peeps for dinner, where we shared a couple of the biggest calzones known to mankind. Justin and I rewarded ourselves for cleaning the house on Saturday by hitting up our favorite buffalo wing spot for dinner, and then we went out to dinner with my family on Sunday to celebrate my brother PJ’s birthday with some delicious steak, caramelized onion and blue cheese pizza with a side of the best sweet potato fries east of the Mississippi. Maybe even west of the Mississippi too. Seriously, they’re so good. (Sidenote: New Year’s Eve is a wildly popular birthday in our family – PJ, my brother in law Chris, and 2 of our cousins all celebrate on the 31st…anyone else out there?)

I know I’ve shown this picture before, but it kind of sums up the life we’ve been living the past couple of weeks. Well, it might be more accurate if we had chicken wings in our other hands…

So…yeah.

After what can only be described as an “indulgent” few weeks, topped off with a weekend that can be best described as “aggressive,” I decided to reintroduce two of my long-lost loves to my daily routine yesterday: smoothies and mason jars.

I’ve spoken openly about my love for mason jars in the past and I am happy to report that the love hasn’t faded in the least. My relationship with smoothies, on the other hand, has been hot and cold recently, but I’m determined to make it work. I usually make them to drink at home, but a friend mentioned that she makes her smoothies to bring to work with her, so I decided to give that a shot since I usually eat breakfast on the job anyways.

Now I get the impression that I didn’t win all of you over with my last post about smoothies; maybe it was the reference to girls looking like Popeye, I don’t know. But I’m willing to be the bigger person and give it another go. I know that there are some folks out there who aren’t charmed by the idea of drinking spinach, and I understand that. Really, I do. It sounds gross and I don’t blame you for scoffing. But you’re just going to have to trust me and try it out because spinach smoothies are great; you get all of the health benefits of the spinach (click here for more info) while drinking what tastes like dessert. That’s a win-win in my book.

So that’s how I found myself whipping up a peanut butter and banana smoothie to go yesterday morning. The only difference this time was that I transferred it to a mason jar, tossed it in my purse, and hopped on the train to hang out with a few hundred of my close friends on my way to work.

I felt like a million bucks after drinking it, and I’m pretty sure my body appreciated it more than the wings that I had been huffing down all weekend. I picked up some more smoothie ingredients at the store yesterday, so hopefully I’ll be back with some more recipes to share with you guys soon. Happy Tuesday!

Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie

• 1 1/2 – 2 cups spinach (fresh or frozen)
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/3 cup milk (add more for desired consistency)

Blend together the spinach, yogurt, and milk until the spinach is smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and blend everything together to your desired consistency and enjoy!

note: if you’re using fresh spinach, freeze the banana beforehand to yield a thicker smoothie. Just peel and slice the banana the night before and keep it in a covered container in the freezer.