A Green Julius (AKA Orange Vanilla Smoothie)
By: Roni | Posted in: 3 WWP, 5 WWPP, Beverage Ideas, Breakfast Ideas, Green Smoothies, Snack Ideas | 16 Comments
The other day I found myself craving an Orange Julius. Are they as popular as I think they are?
Growing up we had an Orange Julius at our local mall. It was always a treat for us at the end of a family shopping trip. Once I was old enough to be dropped off at the mall alone (ahhh High School memories,) it was always one of my first stops.
If you’ve never had one they are smoothie-like but not nearly as thick. Now they come in tons of flavors but to me there’s only 1, orange. I mean they are called ORANGE Julius.
Flavor-wise they are super sweet with a hint of vanilla and a frothy top straight from the blender. 
As a kid I could suck one down in about 10 seconds. I shudder to think what my blood sugar levels were like back then.
Anyway, I set out to cure my craving and then it hit me…
What about a GREEN Orange Julius?
Here’s my fun healthy twist on an old favorite of mine. It totally hit the spot and I got more than my days worth of Vitamin C and Vitamin A.
- 2 cups of raw spinach (60g)
- 3 small ripe clementines
- 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup of skim milk (4 oz)
- About 6 ice cubes
Put all the ingredients except the ice in the blender.
Blend until smooth.
Add the ice cubes and blend again until smooth.
Enjoy!
(note: points are based on Nutritional Information)
| Servings | Amt per Serving | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | entire recipe | |||
| Calories | Fat | Fiber | WWPs | |
| 180 | 1g | 5g | old: 3 | new: 5 |
| Sugar | Sat Fat | Carbs | Protein | |
| 31g | 0g | 39g | 8g | |
Other ideas you may enjoy... |
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I’m so making this for my husband tonight! I bought my Vitamix and he immediately realized that I could make him orange julius’s daily. I managed to find some decent recipes but haven’t made anything in awhile. He will be stoked for this treat:)
Gosh, picked up spinach and my 93rd box of Clementines today so of course I will be making this. Thanks so much.
I’m thinking about trying the whole Green smoothie thing. What are you using to mix them? A plain blender? Looking at buying a Ninja. Thanks!
I just use a bullet…
Magic Bullet MBR-1701 17-Piece Express Mixing Set
LOVE it. :)
But a blender would work all the same.
Roni…
The points for this are 5? but how can that be? Isn’t everything on the ingredient list a free power food except for the 1/2 cup skim milk? I am sooo confused. Please help. thx
J
J,
That’s why I left this note….
You have to decide how to count it. I base everything on Nutritional Info to be “safe” The highest it can be is 5. Please ask your leader and see what she/he thinks. It’s one of the reasons I’m not a fan of the new plan.
Sorry I can’t clarify things for you. :(
-Roni
I agree Jo Anna… I wouldn’t count anything except the skim milk! Great treat!
There is actually only 1 Weight Watchers Points Plus Value in this Green Orange Smoothie and that is for the 1/2 cup skim milk because everything else is a power food.
Most all fruits and veggies count as 0 points on the new WW point system. WW found that if people were given the choice they would turn to fruit and veggies for 0 point value instead of another food with higher points. This encourages members to make better choices and pick fruits and veggies and keeps them fuller and better nurshied. Otherwise they might pick something of the same point value with less nutrients.
So with this recipe: clementines, spinach, vanilla and ice cubes all are 0 points and 1/2 cup fat free milk is only 1 point. Good news huh! Check out a meeting at WW soon! They have lots of great info at the meetings!
The last time I inquired with WW they said processing the fruit in smoothies does NOT count towards the free fruits. As of last year it seemed to be a matter of opinion by Leader. I supply all NI and let people decide. That way I do no “false advertising” saying things are lower points when they may not be.
I just had the BEST time making this. I used a large orange instead of the clementines and 1% milk since that was what I had on hand. I also could only bring myself to toss in a cup of spinach. I have to say–I will not be making this one again. On the bright side. I ran it through my WW recipe builder and it came back as 4 PP. I only drank half–so 2 PP. And I am definitely NOT hungry any more! Thank you so much for trying so many new things–and for putting up with all the PP insanity!
I made almost the same smoothie this morning, but I used Greek yogurt that had pomagranite in it instead of the milk! Yummy. Thank you so much for introducing me and so many others to the green smoothies with you great blog and fun videos. Ps I miss seeing you and Ryan cook. Both my girls love watching them and if not for the videos we would have never tried a pomagranite.
Rebecca
This looks incredible!! My wife and I just got a Vitamixer, after years of complaining about how expensive they are. But once we began using it, we were addicts. Then I broke it. Sigh. We used to have a magic bullet!
Rebecca –
I miss them too. We’ve done a review together on Roni’s Weigh..
http://ronisweigh.com/2012/01/product-review-vitacake-and-sweepstakes.html
and have you seen our new parsnip video?
http://greenlitebites.com/2011/12/30/produce-pick-parsnip/
Here I am at home during the super bowl sick as a dog with a stupid virus. Thought about this recipe and thought “what the heck, I’ll give it a try. That’s a ton of vitamins.” You know what? It is excellent! It was so good that a soon as I was done with mine I immediately made one for my daughter whom I think is coming down with this virus. She did not want to taste it, but as soon as she did she loved it. I made hers with an orange rather than the three cuties. My daughter said “it tastes like a fluffy orange”.
Will be making this again!
Roni, you need to buy a Vitamix blender – expensive but the best blender I have used in my life!!