Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Smoothies

I have been drinking a lot of smoothies lately. They are becoming meal replacements at times, healthy snacks throughout the day, pick me ups for adults and kids alike and hydrating drinks anytime!



My best friend wanted some of the recipes I've been making so I thought I would share them here as well;)
I really wish I had recorded each one from day one because there have been SO many delicious and nutritious versions but I just didn't manage to journal them. 

Smoothie #1:
Almond milk (8 ounces per person) original
Greek yogurt, plain (anywhere from 2 Tablespoons to ½ a cup or more)
Frozen banana (usually, I put ½ to 1 whole banana per person --- and I peel, cut and freeze the banana ahead of time to make it easier)
Frozen pineapple chunks (I peel and cube the pineapple and put in gallon or quart sized bags and lay them flat until they freeze so they are easy to break apart and I use a few cubes per person)
Frozen green, red or purple grapes (I add a handful or so per blender)
Almonds (hand full or just a few)
Oats (I use old fashioned, 5-minute or 1-min and add ¼ to ¾ cup per person)
Flaxseed (I use anywhere from 1 -2 teaspoons up to 2 Tablespoons
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder

To make the above a green smoothie, I have been adding 1-4 hands full of organic baby leaf spinach, kale or a couple of celery stalks, cucumbers and/or carrots. I'm adding more and more vegetables as we go and those are my favorites. I read somewhere that raw spinach,  kale and some other greens were not as good for you as cooked so I kind of cook them by pouring almost boiling or boiling water over them and then rinsing with cold water.

Smoothie #2:

Almond milk
Greek yogurt
Oats
Almonds
Banana
Flaxseed
Protein powder

Smoothie # 3:

Coconut water (8 ounces per person)
Honeydew melon frozen cubes (I peel, cut and freeze the same way I described with the pineapple)
Cantaloupe frozen cubes
Green frozen grapes
Orange (peeled)
Quarter of a lemon (with peel)
Sometimes, I stop here and other times, I will add protein powder, yogurt or frozen banana

I have also added dried plums, beets,different yogurts, nuts and more.

My next add in will be green tea and I want to experiment with other teas and plan to make my own nut milk and to get my kefir healthy enough again to start using it as my base. 

I have been pinning (in love with pinterest!) smoothie recipes and finding blogs and sites with all kinds of great ideas and I will try to remember to share as I go. For this post, I recently tried this refreshing smoothie from this site

Until next post...