Hot-Weather Treat: No-Fat Chocolate-Cherry Shake

Here in Virginia summer has descended with its usual wallop—scorching temperatures and high humidity without even the occasional thunderstorm to cool things off. Fortunately, we've come up with a recipe for a cool summer treat.

Our inspiration came from Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book Eat to Live, which advocates a diet high in fruits and vegetables. Though some of his recommendations are a bit extreme for the likes of us—we're not sure a longer life would be worth living if it did not include olive oil—we're all in favor of fruits and vegetables, so we've been looking over his recipes with interest. One, for a chocolate spinach smoothie, gave us the idea for this chocolate-cherry shake, which we've been happily slurping for weeks.

Although this calls for quite a bit of spinach—a couple of fat handfuls—you'll never taste or see it in the finished product. You'll just have the invisible satisfaction of knowing that this cold, chocolatey deliciousness packs a lot of nutrition.

Chocolate-Cherry Shake

3/4 cup coconut water (you can also use any kind of milk)
Heaping 1/2 cup frozen pitted cherries
2 T. cocoa powder
2 dates, pitted
2 ounces baby spinach (about two good-size handfuls)
1/2 cup ice cubes

Place all ingredients in a blender, and let it rip. Makes two decent portions or one monster portion.