I’m starting to feel like just maybe this warm weather is here for good now. These comfortable temps have finally inspired me to break out my blender for the first smoothies of the year this week!

Normally, I wouldn’t quit drinking smoothies in the colder months, but our apartment has been so uncomfortably cold all winter that I couldn’t bear to even think about choking down a frigid smoothie while my nose was numb with near-frostbite. This past winter was hard on me and I’ve been begging for it to get warm enough to not have to wear several layers of clothes to bed at night with the space heater cranked up to 11.

So, this little life hack is something that I’ve had to wait a long time to be able to share on the blog— hope you find it as game-changing as I did.

Don’t be fooled, the smoothie pictured above may look a fruity shade of red, but I assure you it’s heart is green!

I don’t think many people are phased by the thought of putting green leafy stuff in their smoothies anymore, and that’s a great thing. I know I don’t eat enough greens, they’re not my favorite things in the world, so learning that I could puree them into a smoothie to the point that they become nearly undetectable was a lifesaver.

There’s just one problem, my blender is not nearly powerful enough to liquify fresh spinach or kale, so what i end up with is always more of a chunky chewy cold soup. It can be pretty unpleasant to gulp down a smoothie that is little more than soft mulch, no matter how good it tastes. But luckily I’ve come up with a solution that has pretty much solved the problem for me (at least until the day I get a high-speed blender that can truly annihilate everything in its path.)

Frozen spinach.

Not just any frozen spinach though. I’m talking about taking loose fresh spinach, bagged or bunched, and sticking it in the freezer. Not the cooked stuff that comes in a box in the freezer aisle and comes out in a giant green brick, you gotta use the fresh stuff.

I stick a bag of loose bagged spinach directly in the freezer. For bunched though, I would wash and trim it then allow it to dry on a towel before freezing it in a single layer on a baking sheet.

When the spinach freezes, it becomes extremely brittle and fragile. The leaves don’t stick together but freeze individually, so it’s easy to portion out how much you need. When this stuff hits the blades in even my weak little blender, it shatters into teeny tiny little pieces, not totally obliterated like a high-speed blender would do but small enough to feel like a drink instead of a fruit porridge.

It was wonderful to drink a smoothie that was actually smooth when I got back from my run today.

A cold smoothie is so good after a hot run in the sun!

This one had frozen strawberries, frozen spinach, silken tofu, maca powder, chia seeds, coconut water, almond milk, and a little bit of leftover citrus-flavored kombucha.

Good stuff.

Maybe this hack isn’t news to anyone, but it sure has changed my smoothies tremendously, so I thought I’d share.

What’s your favorite smoothie recipe?