Cayenne Spiced Green Smoothie (Raw Vegan Recipe)

I woke up today with my food planned. Sometimes when I can't fall asleep (like last night - we bought a new vacuum, and I HAD TO VACUUM! I have the nesting bug and was cleaning until about 3am) - anyway... sometimes when I can't sleep,  I like to take the time to plan out my EATS for the following day. I know it might sound corny, but I love doing it. I actually get excited about all the healthy food I have planned for the next day. It motivates me.

My first meal? A wonderfully spicy green smoothie to get my day going. As I'm writing this, and drinking the smoothie, I feel some movement in my belly from baby. I guess the spice is going to wake us both up. The spice in my smoothie comes from black pepper, ginger, and cayenne. I decided to add a healthy dose of cayenne last minute because I recalled reading this good article on the awesomeness of cayenne recently. In the article they list ten reasons to add cayenne to your diet such as: cayenne aids digestion, cayenne kills prostate cancer cells and shrinks tumors, cayenne shrinks hemorrhoids, cayenne increases blood flow, and more. Bring on the cayenne.

The result? The smoothie is delicious so I wanted to share it with you. Here you go!

Cayenne Spiced Green Smoothie
Recipe by Kristen Suzanne of KristensRaw.com
Yield 1 quart

1 cup filtered water
1-2 cups ice
2 medium-large bananas, peeled
2 large handfuls spinach
1 tablespoon hemp seeds
2 heaping tablespoons hemp protein powder
small knob fresh ginger
squeeze of fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
dash (about 1/8 teaspoon) black pepper

Blend everything together until smooth and enjoy this spicy delight as it brings buzzing energy to your gorgeous day!