Merry Christmas Lovely People!
Anyone who has been living a *SANE lifestyle for a while now will know that a little inSANEity here and there does absolutely nothing to knock us off the path. Regardless, the holiday season can strike fear into the hearts of even seasoned SSoS’ers. Never fear, dear readers! Enjoy the season! Eat *SANE when you can, don’t worry when you can’t. And when you get a quiet moment at home to whip up a smoothie, make it this one. It tastes like Christmas – in all its mint and chocolatey glory – but is as healthy and SANE as healthy and SANE can be.
Even Jonathan was jealous when he caught me with one a week ago. 
You could even make a whole bunch for your friends and family and forget to tell them it’s healthy. Once they taste it they’ll never believe you anyway. And, because it’s a green smoothie THAT ISN’T GREEN they won’t even be alerted to the fact that it contains more kale than they have eaten in the last year. HA!!!
If you’ve gulped down any of my other smoothies you’ll know that you won’t be able to taste the slightest hint of kale. YAY!!! Because really, who wants to drink a smoothie that tastes of kale – at any time of the year, let alone slap bang in the middle of the holidays??
I found these Candy Cane Green Tea Herbal Tea Bags at Trader Joe’s – which is what inspired this recipe – but if you can’t get to a TJs then use regular mint or peppermint herbal tea bags instead. If you’ve listened to our green tea podcast you’ll know that hiding green tea in smoothies is a great idea if you’re like me and can’t stand the stuff. Whatever works!
Even better is that once the holidays are over and everyone else is hitting the gym and starving themselves, you’ll still be enjoying the taste of Christmas, and be getting slimmer and healthier faster by supping on this fabulous Mint Chocolate smoothie and doing your 10 minutes of eccentric exercise a week.
Now there’s a gift for you.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
- 1 1/2 cups 12 fl oz. water
- 1 mint herbal tea bag
- 1/4 cup / 2 fl oz. sugar-free chocolate syrup
- 2 oz. / 55g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2/3 cup / 2 oz. / 55g chocolate whey protein
- 8 oz / 225g kale
- 1 TBSP xylitol or equivalent sweetener
- 1/8 tsp peppermint extract (please measure – this stuff is REALLY strong!)
- 1/4 tsp guar gum
- Steep the mint herbal tea bag in hot water for 10 minutes and squeeze tea bag well before discarding.
- Put mint tea and other ingredients into blender in the order listed, except the guar gum.
- Blend at high speed until completely smooth.
- Remove blender lid stopper and while blender is still running shake guar gum in.
- Blend for 10 seconds.
Tracywhy use the guar gum? what’s it do?
carrieTracy – guar gum is a thickener and stabilizer. It turns your smoothie into a much smoother smoothie and also stops it seperating out, which most veggie smoothies do after varying amounts of time. It’s a texture thing. If you don’t care about texture, just leave it out. Hope that helps!
UrzayLove all your recipes Carrie – what would be nice is if you add to them a list of how much Saneity in each serve and how many serves it makes, foe example:- this recipe makes x amount of serves and each serve has
X amount protein serves
X amount veg serves
etc.
What do you think?
carrieHi Urzay – will get back to you shortly!
EllenCarrie, I tried this today, and while the overall tase was amazing I got it entirely too sweet. So, I figure I misunderstood. When you say “sugar-free chocolate syrup” I presume you did not mean “unsweetened chocolate syrup” (if there is such an animal!) I used what I could locate here, which was Walden Farms. Then I also added the xylitol, which may have been the problem. since the Chocolate Whey Protein Powder is also sweetened, I think I just went way overboard! Next time I’ll omit the xylitol. also, since I didn’t have Kale and used spinach instead, this could have contributed – kale would probably have been more bitter and the extra sweetness may have been needed. Thanks so much for your great recipes! I will try not to improvise next time! :)
carrieHi Ellen – I meant the sugar-free syrups that they use in coffee shops – they are clear, flavored syrups. You can always make it without the xylitol and then add to taste if necessary. I am now worried about your whey powder – what is it sweetened with and how much is in there? ALso, I would recommend trying the recipes as written the first time, so you know the intended taste and then tweak subsequently if you want / need to. Hope that helps! So glad that you tried it!
KaraCarrie,
I Finally made this today. (Life has finally settled down after all the Ballyhoo)
The taste was really good but I could still tell its was “green” by the texture. What kind of blender do you use? The smoothie looks much more liquified in your photos
carrieHi Kara – I use a Vitamix. It liquifies everything…the smoothies are smoother than a milkshake! Best investment I made since I went SANE.
SusanDid I read this right? 8 oz of kale for this single serving? WOW that’s alot. I have a Vitamix too, so I know it can handle it. But just thought I’d check.
LOVE the recipes Carrie. Keep ’em coming. You’re helping me to stay SANE!
carrieSusan – YES! 8 oz – imagine getting almost all your veggies in before lunch! :-) Thanks for your kind words!!
LynnHi Carrie, It is 2 hours since I tried this chocolate mint smoothie and I’m still having mega palpitations, heart racing, sweating, jittery etc. how much caffeine do you think is in all that cocoa? Am I just an English lightweight?
carrieOh my, Lynn. The amount of caffeine in coca is very small. I am not sure what your reactions were due to :-(
CherylHi Carrie, I made this smoothie last night but my peppermint tea must have been too warm because by the time I blended it smooth in the Vitamix, it was a very warm drink. No worries, I just poured it into a couple cups and refrigerated it overnight. It was a good excuse to have chocolate for breakfast! I did find it a bit thick so I thinned it out with a shot of espresso. Not sure how SANE that is but it made it taste like a peppermint mocha frappuccino!
I don’t how you made 8oz of kale taste like a treat! You are a genius!
carrieWelcome aboard the Green Smoothie train, Cheryl!! Adding espresso is fine as long as there is no sugar :-)
LauraThis sounds wonderful but I feel like that sounds like alot of cocoa for one smoothie. Is that much cocoa still sane?
carrieHi Laura – pure cocoa powder is one of the SANEst things on earth!!!
BrendaHello Carrie…
I make these for my husband, nightly, sometimes in the afternoon too… one for breakfast the next day, and one to go with his lunch of leftover meat! He is completely in love with the mint ones!
What brand of cocoa powder are you using? Just trying to find the most economical one, since I’m going through 8 ounces in a couple days!
Thanks!
carrieBrenda – I use Valrhona which I buy in bulk because it is cheaper that way, but it is still pretty expensive. I believe JB uses Hershey’s which he buys in bulk from Costco, so that may be a good option for you if you’re using such a lot all the time. Hope that helps!
AndreanneHello Carrie,
I’m currently reading the Calorie myth and decided to try my first SANE recipe. This smoothie is FABULOUS. I modified the recipe a bit with the ingredients that I had on hand: I skipped the chocolate syrup, substituted the kale for lettuce and added 1 tsp of chlorella and 6 drops stevia. I also used Lakanto instead of Xylitol which I cannot tolerate). Is Lakanto a SANE food? My only concern regading this smoothie is the quantity of Cacao. Shouldn’t individuals with adrenal fatigue be limiting their cacao intake? Thanks for your great web site. I’ll help me to stick to SANE food. :)
NickHi Carrie,
I’m interested in trying this recipe, but I don’t want to use chocolate syrup (due to the chemicals in the ingredient list). Due you have an alternative that may be more natural. Can I just add more Cacao powder?
carrieHI Nick – the syrup is just to add a punch to the chocolate flavor. You could add more cocoa but you might also need to add more sweetener to counteract the bitterness. Or you could just leave the syrup out and have a less chocolaty smoothie. Hope that helps!
Danette McOmberIs there an alternative to the tea? Can I leave it out or add extra peppermint extract? What are my options?
Danette McOmberCan you post the link to the chocolate whey powder you like to use? They all vary so much in taste, and I’ve found I really don’t like some of the brands.
carrieDanette – try this info: https://carriebrown.com/archives/23109
SharonI made this for the first time this morning and was disappointed. I made sure to follow the recipe exactly – I wanted to make sure I was doing it right! I spent quite a bit of money on the ingredients I didn’t have (pretty much all of them.) As my husband described, “This tastes like I dropped my peppermint candy in the garden.” It’s not terrible, but the claim that you can’t tell that there is kale in it is a bit exaggerated. Also, as another has noted, this makes a very warm smoothie when made as directed. I’ve put at small amount in the fridge to see if my satisfaction improves with the temperature of the drink. I’m not giving up on trying others of your recipes, but this one made isn’t going down as a favorite. With that said, if someone is looking for a way to get 8 oz of kale in his or her diet without having to chew it all, this is probably one of the most palatable alternatives out there.
Danette@Sharon – The drink is MUCH better cold. With ALL of Carrie’s smoothies, I actually use very cold water, and then also blend in about 8-10 ice cubes at the end.
carrieHi Sharon – there are so many variables when it comes to taste and I can only share my experience as I find it. I don’t exaggerate how I taste things, but everyone is different. I think cilantro tastes like soap, although most people don’t. I hate kale but I couldn’t taste it in this smoothie. Then there’s the ingredients – maybe you used a different strain of kale than me, maybe you used a different brand of cocoa powder to me (cocoa powders can taste wildly different). Feel free to make it cold if that is how you prefer it – things so taste different depending on the temperature. Hope that helps somewhat?!