St Paddy’s Day Shamrock Shake

The Makeaway (kind of) Chronicles: Episode 2

Dis dhuit! (Hello in Irish/Gaelic) or for the more stereotypical among you, top o’ tha morning to ya!

Yep, today’s recipe is Irish themed in honour of St Patrick’s day this coming Thursday.

Am I Irish? No.

Do I have Irish Family? Not that I’m aware of.

Have I ever been to Ireland? Never.

Am I fond of Leprechauns? Not especially – bit violent for me.

So why am I celebrating this public holiday? 

Well my lucky charms (mmmmm lucky charms), I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but a lot of the people at the company I currently work for are none other than of Irish heritage, including the boss, the manager, the foreman, a lot of the yard workers… in fact the business is pretty much Irish dominated. Nothing wrong with that, although sometimes when the foreman gets angry and speaks really quickly, I’m reduced to having to rely on someone else to translate or just smiling, nodding and chiming in the occasional ‘hmm, yes I completely understand’. Lies.  

Anyway, I’m currently not at work, I’m having a week off in Devon with the parents and the sister (and the army of pets) but I will be returning to the 8 till 5:30 life on Thursday – which as mentioned earlier is ironically St Patrick’s Day. Back to The Irish (who will hopefully be in a good mood) for one of their most coveted celebrations; it just all seems very fitting.

So yeah, as a kind of returning celebration (you can’t really celebrate going back to a job you don’t enjoy but hoo hey) I decided that I wanted to create something festively Irish themed for this week’s post.  Whilst I’ve never been much of a breakfast smoothie type person –I’m all about eating solids in the morning – I do like a good smoothie as a snack or post-workout fix sometimes and back before I aged like that guy who drinks out of the wrong cup from the Indiana Jones and the last Crusade film, I also used to love milkshakes. Chocolate Nesquik in particular was my jam. However, nowadays too much dairy doesn’t agree with me too well and as a result I try to limit it to treats (i.e. Ben & Jerry’s). Luckily for me the development of the 21^st century has ensured that there are plenty of dairy free milk options to choose from and as a result I knew that I would be able to recreate something perfect for St Patrick’s day, the McDonald’s shamrock shake!

No, it’s not a dance that Nan might whip out at the next family get together, it’s a delightful beverage.

A shamrock shake is somewhat of a more American-Irish thing and they actually aren’t sold in England (although I do think they might make an annual appearance over in Ireland around this time of year). This decadent desert item consists of a green-dyed mint flavoured milkshake made up of mint ice cream, vanilla syrup and milk, Think of a mint Aero milkshake from Shakeaway and you’re pretty close. As I had already had some success with creating a mint choc chip ‘nicecream’ in the past, I knew I could modify the concept into a smoothie form.

With some green produce adding colour, fruit for sweetness and some peppermint extract giving the minty kick, this makeaway version of a shamrock shake not only tastes like a treat but also packs a nutritional punch to the face. Don’t be put off by the ingredients, I promise that if you were to follow a Rainbow, there would be no pot of gold at the end, just a vat of this stuff. It’s seriously addictive.

I realise that I could have just drunk some Guinness to celebrate St Patrick’s day which would have also made the prospect of work easier but Guinness hurts my soul and makes it difficult to communicate to others without either crying or impersonating a falcon.

I’ll take the shake.

Ingredients:

1 cup almond milk/milk of choice

1 handful (roughly 1 loosely packed cup) of spinach

½ ripe/frozen banana

¼ hass avocado (can also be frozen)

A few drops of peppermint extract

2-3 finely chopped dates or some natural sweetener of choice to taste (a pinch of stevia also works well here)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Optional toppings: some grated dark chocolate or mini chocolate chips

Instructions:

Put everything into a blender (bar the chocolate) and blend till smooth and creamy. Sprinkle chocolate on top if desired.

That’s literally it.

Yay! Anyone can make this smoothie!

Apart from those who don’t have access to a blender. 

Ta bron orainn (Sorry in Irish/Gaelic).

As this was a bit of simplistic recipe this week, I decided to be somewhat productive with my time and conduct a little background research on one of the star ingredients in this shake, the avocado. I know that this somewhat vague and aesthetically challenged ingredient seems to be every nutritionist’s wet dream but honestly, most if not all of its health claims do have merit. Below are 7 (lucky) facts to chew on if you fancy, all relating one of the most nutritious foods on the planet. 

Reasons to ‘ave a cado (I found this unacceptably funny)

1. You’re probably aware that avocados are fruits not vegetables but specifically they are single seeded berries. Gasp! Yes, that avocado sitting in your fridge right now is none other than the cherry’s ugly stepsister.
2. They are both high in vitamin E and anti-oxidant rich tannins which provide anti-aging properties. This may be what has managed to stop Angelina Jolie from ageing… that and the botox.
3. They contain Phytosterols, cartenoids, flavonoids and a bunch of monounsaturated fatty acids which can help lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase HDL (nice) cholesterol.
4. They’re rich in protein and fibre and low in sugar with 1 avocado having roughly 4g of protein; not bad for a fruit.
5. Avocados are also known as the alligator pear (ooooh exciting) and are an Aztec symbol of love and fertility as they cannot self pollinate and rely on other Avocado trees to get it on.
6. The word itself derives from an Aztec word (ahuacatl) meaning testicle. They are literally the testicles of fruit.  Oh dear, I’m not really selling them am I? Errrm, they’re also the key ingredient in guacamole. Who on this earth doesn’t like guacamole? Phew, saved it.
7. Finally, global consumption of avocados is increasing every year with all major holidays, including St Patrick’s Day. Well they are green after all.

 Have a good one and get your Irish on!