Smoothies

A few posts ago, I discussed a product I use with smoothies.  You can see that post here.

As much as I love smoothies, my true love of breakfast food is...poptarts.  Yes, the over processed, not one thing good for you, college student, breakfast of champions.  I love them. Frosted brown sugar cinnamon.

Currently I'm 144 hours poptart free, so excuse me if I'm a little edgy.  You see I've recently started going to the gym in the mornings.  As long as I can remember, after a good work out, run, Zumba marathon, whatever, when I'm done I want FRUIT.  I crave it.  Back when I used to run pretty regularly (ancient history), I would eat a bowl of applesauce afterwards.  Needless to say, when I get home in the mornings, I don't want poptarts.  I want fruit.  So I've been making smoothies.  I use the product discussed above.  All I have to do is take one out of the freezer when I get home, and by the time I'm ready to leave for work, I can eat in the car.  Healthy and a time saver!

Today I'll share my 2 favorite smoothie recipes so far.

The first recipe is slightly altered from a recipe my co-worker gave me.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Frozen strawberries
Banana
Spinach
Peanut Butter
Orange juice
Almond milk
Honey

The second recipe I made up. About 15 minutes ago.  I'm drinking it now.  It's delicious, but it has a lot of seeds.  Maybe not so good for your way to work unless you have floss! :)

Triple Berry Smoothie
Frozen triple berry blend
Frozen peaches
Spinach
Pomegranate juice
Almond milk
Honey

I don't have amounts, because I've never measured.  You can't mess it up. They're in order from the ingredient there is the most of, down the the one I use the least of.  Don't let the spinach scare you.  YOU CAN'T TASTE IT.  Promise. Swear.  Pinky promise.  You can see little green flecks and that's the only way you would ever know it's there.  You can use regular milk too if you want.  I like the almond milk.  Less fat. Less calories.

Do you have any favorite smoothie recipes you'd like to share?

Fruit - Part 2

I know at one point I promised pictures of my finished product of the fruit kabobs.  Unfortunately, my neighbor decided to cancel his internet for a bit, which means I've been living off my iPhone.  Not the ideal way of blogging.  So, after much delay, here is the finished product.

As much as everyone loves greasy, unhealthy Superbowl food, these were a nice change.  They also helped out with the whole guilt factor.  I think these will become a regular addition when we have people over.

The leftovers aren't bad either. :)

Fruit!

I know, I know.  You know how to "make" fruit.  The question is, "do you know how to CUT fruit?"  As part of our new healthy lifestyle (aka Dave's healthy lifestyle and my supportive girlfriend lifestyle), we've been eating a lot of fruit.  Tomorrow for Super Bowl, we will have all the usual suspects: hot wings, dips, bite-sized sandwiches, more dips... but to make things a BIT healthier, I decided to do fruit kabobs. This means my evening consisted of slicing, dicing, and peeling.  I like to cut fruit myself rather than paying to have someone else do it.  This way I know it was done properly, and by properly, I mean cleanly! Remember, if the knife touches the outside of the fruit, it touches the inside! So wash your cantaloupe,  pineapple, and kiwi before you cut it!

After washing comes the fun part, actually cutting the fruit.  I started with cantaloupe.  First, cut it in half. (Please don't criticize my cutting board. It's one of three I own and it does the job!)

 Next scoop out all the pump and seeds, get some of the mushiness out too.

Now cut the half in half, and then half again. (It will be in eighths when it's all said and done. And cut.)

Now slice the fruit away from the rind, and slice to whatever size you'd like!

Easy enough!


Now onto a slightly more complicated fruit.  Pineapple.
Slice off the top (with the green), and the bottom. Then start slicing down the sides.  Try to get as much of the rind off (it leaves little indentations), without losing too much of the actual fruit.

 Once you get all the edges cut, you'll end up with this.

 Cut into quarters.

 Slice the core away from the fruit.  Again, try to get all the core cut away, without losing too much fruit! Then cut into desired sized slices!

Lastly, my favorite.  Kiwi! Not only do I love this fruit, I love this method of cutting it.  It's so easy and you don't lose all the fruit you would normally lose if you tried to use a knife for the whole process.  First of all, cut the top and bottom.

 Next is where it gets tricky. Slide a spoon in-between the fruit and the skin. (This picture was not easy to take!)  Then slide the spoon all the way around the edge of the fruit.

And you end up with this!

Perfect!

Now I'm all set to make my fruit kabobs in the morning.  I already have the strawberries cut up, and my grapes are all washed.  I'll try to remember to take a picture of the finished product tomorrow!

Healthy breakfast

Sorry for the long, long delay.  My camera broke, and at the time, I didn't have a phone with a good enough camera to continue trying to run this page.  I now have BOTH a working camera, and an iPhone with a decent camera...so let us continue.

Today's post doesn't even require a camera.  I'm making a recommendation.  A recommendation that was recommended to me by a co-worker.

Who had it recommended to her.

You can find them on amazon.  They are Norpro 431Silicone Ice Pop Makers.  It goes like this:
1) Make fruit smoothie.
2) Put in Ice Pop Maker
3) Freeze

Now you have 4 smoothies ready to go, rather than having to make one every day, having to wash out your blender, etc.  They take a few minutes to thaw out, but not long.

My first batch was based on my coworkers recommendation of: bananas, frozen strawberries, honey, peanut butter, milk, and apple juice.  I bought some frozen peaches too, but I'm not sure I'll get to them because I've already decided I like this recipe!

I'll be cooking tomorrow evening, so hopefully I'll have a new recipe! It's one of my favorites!