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. :)

No-Bake Energy Bites

I love these. I love that they do not involve baking. I love how they taste. I love how easy it is to mix and match the ingredients. I've found a number of variations of this recipe online. The most basic seems to be this:

1 cup dry oatmeal
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Roll into balls. Done!

I added 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips. I've seen some recipes call for dried fruit or coconut. I just eyeballed the amounts. Mainly because measuring peanut butter and honey is more trouble than its worth. I used reduced fat peanut butter for my batch and couldn't taste the difference. I just made these tonight and the one....or two....that I sampled were delicious! Perfect mid-morning snack!

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!