Pumpkin Eggnog Smoothie

In an attempt to keep my kids from utter malnourishment, we've started drinking a smoothie every day after school (give or take a few). The same few smoothies get old really quick. Plus, it's officially almost winter and I wanted to find something that had warm winter/fall flavors instead of all those perky berries (not that there's anything wrong with that...) 

One night we stumbled into this sleepy time smoothie that used milk, bananas, nutmeg, honey, and cinnamon. It was just the type of winter warm smoothie inspiration I'd been looking for. I mean, it was a cold smoothie, but something about that combo felt warm to me. As we started mixing it up, it started to feel a lot like eggnog--that milk, those spices. So in an '80s throwback move, I tossed in a few raw eggs (yes, I did) and then thought that it needed a vegetable--a nice fall/winter vegetable--like a little bit of pumpkin. This is extra interesting (well, as interesting as an entire discussion of smoothies can get), but I still hadn't found a pumpkin smoothie I was in love with. Until now. This one just has a really nice blend of warm spices, winter foods, and overall virtuousness. Into that, you can also toss some ground flax seed and some oats or oat flour. You can make it with regular milk or almond milk. Both are delicious. You can add more pumpkin if that's your thing. You can experiment with the spices. I like this best with more nutmeg and less cinnamon. A bit of cardamom probably wouldn't hurt either. You can cut those raw eggs if you want. Or make it without the honey. It's still plenty sweet from the bananas. 

Pumpkin Eggnog Smoothie
adapted from Raw Blend
Serves 4
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $1.40
bananas: .40, milk: .25, pumpkin: .10, eggs: .20, honey: .15, flax: .15, oats: .10, other spices: .15

3 large frozen bananas
2 C milk
3 Tbsp pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon (I like it with that, but like it better without)
1-2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp crushed flax, optional
2-4 Tbsp oats, optional

Put all into a blender and blend.

Sprinkle with extra nutmeg if that's your cup of nog.

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Grape Peach Spinach Smoothie

You're welcome.

I mean, I kind of owe it to you after last week. Happy New Year, friends. May you enjoy your resolutions as much as I enjoyed this smoothie.

P.S. One thing I love about this recipe is that it involves grapes (which many smoothies do not), making it the perfect use for any imperfect grapes you have. Surely I'm not the only one who's always getting sour-ish and/or thick-skinned grapes.

Grape Peach Spinach Smoothie
adapted from Simple Green Smoothies
Serves 4 (6 small portions, which is what we did; or 2 large ones)
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $5.00
grapes; 2.00, coconut water: 1.00, peaches: 1.50, spinach: .50 (Buying things on season, on sale will reduce the cost for this.)

Note on coconut water: It's expensive--a couple bucks for a couple cups. I've never bought it before, but I wanted to give it a try. I had a sip and it was very anti-climactic. It's good in this smoothie, but I think any mild juice like apple juice or white grape juice would be great too. Also, I'm not sure how healthy some pasteurized coconut water from Walmart is. That said, if you actually got it out of a a coconut I might buy into its superfood status a little more. And it might be a little less expensive if you were to use the whole coconut in other ways. If you wish to simplify this recipe, just use some juice or water.

2 C grapes (I used green)
1 C coconut water
2 C peaches (I used frozen)
2 C spinach or other greens (I used mixed baby greens)

Blend in a decent blender that blends things smooth. Enjoy.

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Kale Apple Celery Green Drink

As opposed to every other human being in the Western world, I kind of like Mondays. After the debauchery that was the weekend (for us that means overmuch Easter candy or, in my case, a few too many pieces of coconut cake) I start to reassemble our house. Oh, I don't go all crazy. A few years ago, I tried the Flylady thing--daily cleaning, sink cleansing, lists. And then I realized something shocking. If I cleaned my house every day, people messed it up every day. Rude. And kind of depressing. If I exercised every day, no one could take it away from me (well, not exactly, though coconut cake doesn't maybe do it lots of favors). If I wrote every day or went for walks with my children or talked to sisters and friends, then I still had that. But a clean house--nope, nada, gone. Still, I knew I couldn't quite give up until the chaos consumed us in a whirlwind of sticky crusts, cat fur, and poop smears on the toilet. I really couldn't. So every Monday, I clean my house. Very well, or at least pretty well. (Note: If you would like to see my house clean, please come by around 11:00am on Monday. But don't stay long.) And it feels really good. I sit there and enjoy the sunlight and clear counters and loveliness. And I know--even on Friday night when the corners of the kitchen floor are starting to look a little dodgy--that once this week my house was clean and that it won't suffocate me in messiness. And I like that too.

Somehow this Monday tradition sort of started to extend past cleaning and into a more personal realm. Every Monday I do a nice little yoga session with myself. I even feel all yoga-y while I'm doing it. And if I'm lucky and have time I make some healthy food.

Last week I discovered this. It was called Green Energy Detox Cleanse Drink. Which I think pretty much covers every crunchy/healthy key word possible. Kind of like those workouts that promise energy, muscle, beauty, endurance, thin waist, lottery wins, and let's not forget the reversal of male pattern baldness (in two weeks or less!).

Anyway, I thought the drink would be gross. I thought I'd have to add sugar. But I didn't. It was sweet and delicious. And, while, I'm not sure about the whole energy detox cleanse promise, it did involve two vegetables and two fruits. I've never put celery in a drink and liked it, so I've got to give them that. Also, it kept me full until lunch time, which I consider impressive for a green drink.

Kale Apple Green Drink
adapted from Skinny Mom
Makes 2 smoothies, or a big one
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $1.15
banana: .15, celery: .10, kale: .25, peanut butter: .20, apple: .25, almond milk: .20

1 banana, frozen (and ripe)
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 handfuls kale
a nice, fat spoonful peanut butter (I probably used 2-4 Tbsp though the original recipe called for a mere 1/2 Tbsp)
1/2 apple, chopped
1/2 C unsweetened almond milk (I used a coconut, almond mix)

Blend it all together in a decent blender. A crappy-ish blender will probably work too, though you might have to add more milk.

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Chocolate Banana Blender "Ice Cream"

If you have any presence on Pinterest at all, you've surely seen the "One Ingredient Banana Ice Cream" or perhaps the "Two Ingredient Banana Chocolate Ice Cream." These consist of frozen bananas blended in a food processor until they're creamy and ice-cream-esque.

It seemed like a great idea, so I set out to make my own. However--perhaps because my food processor is insufficient or perhaps because my taste buds are too accustomed to regular ice cream--these didn't work for me. My bananas never got to the fully creamy state--they were always a little chunky and so then my concoction just tasted like a "Frozen Banana That Somebody Whacked Up and Put in a Bowl" or "Frozen Banana That Somebody Whacked Up and Put in a Bowl with Cocoa Powder Mixed In." Obviously neither of these was really rocking my world.

 So then I added some peanut butter and a then a bit of Nutella. I thought this would do the trick, but when they met with the frozen banana, they seized up and the mixture got really thick (and still not creamy). So then I gave up on veganism (though not quite on healthiness) and dropped in a bit of homemade Greek yogurt. And badabing badabam. It worked. Not only worked, but it was really really delicious. Really Really. And we added sprinkles for fun.

 (Also, you could add spinach and never taste it, but it will make this a slightly odd color that your kids might not go for.)

I toyed with the idea of calling this "sugar free" even though bananas clearly have sugar in them. Yet there are no other "added" sugars--either of the processed white sugar variety or the natural honey/maple syrup types, so I still think "sugar-free" works pretty well to describe this. You can add a bit of Nutella if you have it, but you can totally love this without that too.

Chocolate Banana Blender "Ice Cream"
adapted from all those internet recipes for banana "ice cream"
Serves 4-6 smallish servings
Prep time: 7 minutes
Cost: $1.05
bananas: .55, cocoa: .15, peanut butter: .10, Greek yogurt: .25 (or much cheaper if you make your own)

3-4 frozen ripe bananas (in chunks or slices)
3-4 Tbsp cocoa
2 Tbsp peanut butter
1-2 Tbsp Nutella (optional)
2-4 Tbsp thick Greek yogurt

Use a food processor or fairly nice blender. Blend bananas until they're chopped up pretty well. Add cocoa, peanut butter, Nutella (if using), and give it a few pulses--it'll get really thick, (so don't go and ruin the motor on your food processor or anything). Add Greek yogurt and pulse until mixture becomes smooth and creamy. I had to stop occasionally to mix my mixture because at first it would clump up in a ball, so I'd take a spoon and sort of redistribute the mixture and then pulse/blend some more. Eventually it got itself going and blended into a thick, smooth delicious concoction.

Eat. With sprinkles if you like to dance with the devil.

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Banana Nutella Smoothie (with Spinach)

So every week my children consume several cups of raw, fresh spinach.

How, you ask, do I accomplish such a thing with the pickiest kids on earth? 

Answer: Nutella (and banana and milk). And, yes, apparently I've become one of those people who just throws Nutella into everything willy nilly. You can make a different type of green chocolate smoothie. It's delicious, but by using Nutella, well, everything is just so so easy. 

It's not a perfect solution for encouraging spinach consumption, I admit, but I actually only use a little Nutella (1/2-1 Tbsp per cup or so of spinach); the banana is the main sweetener. In fact, you can make this perfectly delicious without the Nutella or with some peanut butter instead--feel free if you think I'm a big pushover of a parent. But do let me say, in my defense, that each serving (1-2 C spinach) has only 1/2-1 Tbsp Nutella. That's actually just about 9 grams of added, non-natural sugar (yes; the banana also adds some sugar, but I don't count sugars from fruits and I don't think WHO counts them either in their daily sugar recommendations). If I gave my kids a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios (which I regularly do), they would consume that much added sugar in a serving as well. And as far as I can tell there is no raw spinach in Honey Nut Cheerios. So, ha. 

For better or for worse, this is two of my kids very favorite smoothie and I'm just happy to have them eat it. I have to say though that this isn't one of those "hidden veggies" recipes. This smoothie is either very green or brownish-green, so, yeah, you may want to have them try it blind-folded first. We served it to some friends once and they looked at my like I was a crazy loon. But then they liked it and asked for it the next time they came. The end.

Banana Nutella Smoothie (with Spinach)
makes 1 smoothie
Cost: $.75
Nutella (generic): .15, banana: .15, milk: .15, spinach: .30

Note: This recipe is a template. You can use more or less Nutella, more or less spinach.

Note: The banana must be frozen for this to work well. When my bananas get too brown, I peel them and break them into pieces and throw them in the freezer (in a Ziploc bag--I don't just hurl them into the freezer). It's one of the best things I ever started to do. If you don't have frozen banana, you can freeze some quickly by slicing a banana into thin slices and putting them on a cookie sheet in the freezer.

1 frozen banana (must be nice and ripe)
1 C spinach (I usually use more, but try this for starters)
1/2-1 C milk
1 Tbsp Nutella (I use generic)

Put in blender and blend until smooth. If you're only making one serving (like this), you'll probably want a smaller blender. If you've only got a big one, double this recipe.

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Strawberry Chia Coconut Smoothie

I've been looking for a strawberry coconut smoothie for a while and have tried a lot of different recipes this summer. And, oh sure, they've all been good. But none has been quite good enough to really knock my socks off so I post it on this blog. Until now. I took my kids (all my kids) shopping on my last shopping trip. Which means we usually wind up with some impulse food buys. I can't even say I discourage this; when picky kids pick up a new food and say that want to try it; nay, beg you to buy it so they can try it, sometimes you just give in. So I wound up with half a gallon of almond milk and half a gallon of coconut milk. The almond milk was a huge hit (too huge--I don't want to buy almond milk for the rest of my life). But the coconut milk was met with less love. Even I didn't love it. Since coconut is used so often in perfumes and tanning oils, the pungent smell was just too perfumed for me, though I liked the taste. But in a smoothie, oh man, in a smoothie.

I found the basis for this recipe at the blog Oh She Glows. It's delicious. I mean, truly, it's perfect. I worried about the sugar content of coconut milk, though in reality the sugars are less than in cows milk (yes, they're added sugars in coconut milk as opposed to the natural sugars in milk, but only 9-ish grams in coconut milk compared to 13-ish grams of sugars in cow's milk).

I also wondered if it would be super banana-y. Sometimes banana just takes over and there's a lot of it in this. But it's very subtle and nice in this so fear not if you don't love banana.

Also, I love chia seeds, but if you don't or can't find them or the thought of them (or finding them) seems scary to you, you can totally make this without them. However, if you want to give them a try, they're loaded with omega-3's, fiber, calcium, phosphorus, and other good things. And this is a really easy, safe way to try them.

Strawberry Chia Coconut Smoothie
adapted from Oh She Glows
Makes 2-4 servings
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $1.90 (or just under .50/serving)
bananas: .25, strawberries: .75, coconut milk: .75, chia seeds: .15

Note: This is not the canned coconut milk. It's the kind you'd find in 1/2 gallons of quart containers in the refrigerator section. However, you could probably use the canned stuff thinned just a wee bit if that's what you've got and you want to avoid those added sweeteners. Also, you could totally use a different type of milk (almond, rice, even dairy), but the coconut is pure bliss and a super good pairing with strawberries.

2 frozen bananas
3/4 C frozen strawberries
2 C coconut milk (or any other milk; I bet even cows milk would work)
1 Tbsp chia seeds

Put in blender and blend.

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Big Green Triple Chocolate Smoothie

The title--well, it kind of says it all. I think there are a few things in life you really can't go wrong with. Chocolate is one. Spinach is another. So when I got Fit Mama Real Food for my Secret Recipe Club blog this month, I didn't have trouble picking the recipe I wanted to make. So I made it. And made it. And made it. Uh-huh. It's delicious. And chocolate-y. And green. But not green like that plop of icky green cooked-from-a-frozen-block spinach that my mom used to plop on my plate when I was a kid. Oh no. Green like all that vitality being pumped into your body under a chocolate-y disguise. By which I mean that even though you can see the spinach, it does not have a strong taste in this smoothie (and there is a whole lot of it there, so that's saying something). I can't really taste it at all, but perhaps if you were highly attuned to the taste of all things green you would taste it just a bit.

This smoothie is especially nice as temperatures rise. When it gets hot, I find myself craving ice cream all the time. And there's nothing wrong with a little ice cream here and there. But 3 times a day might be pushing it. Drinks like this make me feel like I just ate a cold dessert even when I really just ate several cups of raw spinach, a banana, some dark chocolate, and milk.

This is extra easy to make, but here are a few tips for achieving smoothie perfection:

1. If you've got a lame blender like me, you're going to want to melt the chocolate into just a bit of the milk before you make this. Otherwise, you'll end up with a banana spinach smoothie that contains chunks of chocolate that get stuck in your straw. That hardly ranks on the world problems list (and you better believe I drank that first smoothie and enjoyed it), but I did like it better with the chocolate incorporated more. If you have time, melt the chocolate, and let it cool a bit, but even if you are in a hurry and throw it in warm, your smoothie will still turn out cold (just not quite as cold).

2. I've always got frozen bananas on hand because when my bananas get too spotty, I throw them in a bag in the freezer. All smoothie lovers (or banana bread lovers) should do this. However, if you forgot to freeze your bananas, cut them thin and put them in a single layer on a plate. Twenty minutes later they should be pretty frozen. 

3. I used regular milk for this, but am pretty confident it would work with many different types of milk if you wanted to vegan it. Tomorrow I plan to use a couple tablespoons of coconut milk in it just because I love the stuff and have some sitting around.

4. If you've only got, say, regular chocolate chips lying around, you could still use them. Just omit the maple syrup and use about 3 Tbps chocolate chips in place of the dark chocolate and unsweetened chocolate.

Big Green Triple Chocolate Smoothie
adapted from Fit Mama Real Food
Serves 2--makes 3-4 C
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $1.50
banana: .15, spinach: .80, chocolate: .25, milk: .20, maple syrup: .10

1 banana, frozen in chunks
3-4 C spinach (I'm usually pretty generous with the spinach)
1 Tbsp dark chocolate (I used Ghiradelli 60% chips)
1 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 C milk
1 Tbsp maple syrup (I used the pure stuff)

Melt dark chocolate, cocoa, and unsweetened chocolate into 2 Tbsp of the milk. I do this in the microwave at 15-20 second intervals. Once melted or mostly melted, remove it and allow it to cool for a couple minutes.

While it cools, put the banana, spinach, and milk into your blender. Blend it. Then add the melted chocolate/milk combo and blend until it's smooth and brownish green (it is a surprisingly non-repulsive shade of brownish green, but brownish-green nevertheless).

At this point, you might want to taste your smoothie to see if you want the maple syrup. If you do, go for it.

Then drink it up my friends. It's surprisingly filling.

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Fruit, Spinach, and Yogurt Smoothie

There is much to love on Pinterest. But today I'm going to tell you about one thing I do NOT love: those bogus posts that a) do not link to any kind of real page, b) do not look in the least like the actual thing you make--as if they took a stock photo (yeah, they probably did) and posted it for whatever lame/lousy recipe they made, and c) do not in any way, shape, or form actually work.

Let's take that hair straightening tonic I made last week for example. It called for 2 Tbsp brown sugar and 1 C warm water. Shake together, spray on hair, comb through, and--boom--straightened, shiny, supermodel hair. I like to consider myself a thinking woman. I should have realized that brown sugar + water equals stickiness (do I or do I not have 4 young children?). And, yet, there on the pin was a picture of a girl with the most beautiful, shiny, straight hair ever. How could I not believe? After the surface of my bathroom was entirely covered in a thin layer of sticky (from spraying my long, thick hair with sugar water), after my hair was not straight and distinctly crunchy, and after I felt like I needed a another bath from the sticky mist wafting down to my arms and everywhere else, I realized that some posts on Pinterest aren't really posts at all. What they are exactly, I'm not sure. I would call them advertisements because they do everything an advertisement does--give you an unrealistic picture of a subpar item or idea. But there's nothing for sale so I don't understand what is to be gained by posting bad advice with gorgeous picture. Anyone get it?

Okay, okay, so why the rant? Because I planned to make a greenest of green green smoothie. I even wanted to call it that. To look at the deep green elixir on Pinterest that seemed like it must have been formed from the rivers and greens of the garden of Eden itself, I was a little surprised at the light greenish, (kind of sort of almost brownish), speckled with pink drink (doesn't make for the best post title, does it) that I wound up with. It just didn't seem quite as virtuous as the lovely shot o' green pictured here (which, incidentally, also has no real post to go to--hmmm). But I drank it anyway. Almost all of it, as a matter of fact. And it was very very good (just like the garden of Eden after all). And then I realized that for breakfast I'd already consumed 1 apple, 1 banana, 1/2 C strawberries, 1 C plain yogurt, 1 C spinach, and half an orange. Welcome 5 fruits and vegetables and one healthy dairy into my January system. And thank you.

So although you don't get a Greenest of Green Green Smoothie, I present to you the Light Greenish (maybe a little brown on the color spectrum) with Specks of Pink Smoothie. Bottoms up.

Fruit, Spinach, and Yogurt Smoothie
adapted from random post-less pin on Pinterest so go ahead, pin this instead
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $1.55 for about 3-4 C
apple: .50, banana: .15, yogurt: .40, strawberries: .40, orange: .10

1 generous C spinach (mine was actually a combo spinach, baby bok choy, and baby chard because I'm an  amazing human being--or maybe because I stumbled upon such a big bag of greens at Walmart last week by accident)
1 apple (I used a very sweet pink lady--pink lady I love you)
1 banana (mine was frozen, but doesn't have to be)
5 strawberries (frozen)
1 C yogurt (I used full fat)
1/2 orange (I sliced the rest and fed it to the minions)
1/2 C water (maybe in a high-end blender you can skip, but mine wouldn't blend without this)

Blend. If you've got a mediocre blender like me what you want to do is pulse it a few times and then start blending on a low-ish setting until it's getting chopped up/mixed. Then up it to a higher setting so that it actually smoothie-i-fies and you don't feel like you're drinking fruit salsa (not that there's anything wrong with that).

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Hot Pink Smoothie

This is the most beautiful smoothie you'll ever make. It's also one of the most unusual. It's also one of the most well-rounded (protein, fruit, veggies). It's vegan if you skip the honey.

If you hate beets, you WILL NOT like it. I'm sorry and I wish it wasn't so. But the beety undertones are inescapable, even if you add a bunch of sugar to it like I did for my kids. So if you don't like beets, you might want to omit them and go for a Light Pink Smoothie instead. That said, if you are going to eat raw beets, I can't think of any other or better way to do it than this smoothie. Also, as just one more note on taste: The first sip is kind of like, "Whoa, earthy/beety." But the more you drink, the less striking/shocking that flavor is. So, unless you really hate beets, it might be worth giving a try. Just give it more than one sip of a chance.

Having a fancy (Vitamix or Blendtec) blender would be nice for this. I don't and even my mediocre blender could turn out a decent smoothie, but without the very high-end blender you will still have a few small chunks here and there and will never achieve silky smooth nirvana. That said, I will give some tips for how to make this as very smooth as possible in a mediocre blender.

The other comment about this is that it's not cheap. The Thai (young) coconut cost me $2 at the Asian store, dates are pricey, and cashews are pricey. It's somewhat balanced out by the uber cheap beets and carrots, but not entirely.

I've wanted to try this recipe for a long time. Green Smoothie Girl created it and talks about it though she never gives the recipe, hoping instead that one will buy her book (who can blame her). But even Green Smoothie Girl cannot escape Pinterest and that's where I found this.

Hot Pink Smoothie
Makes 2-6 servings (2 large--full glass, 4 "normal", and 6 small)
adapted from The Royal Cook
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cost: $2.55 (still only about $.60/serving. You can't even get a soda for that at McDonald's)
beet: .15, carrot: .10, cashews: .40, dates: .40, strawberries: 1.50

A note on Thai coconut: First of all, it is also known as "young" coconut because (shocker) it is actually an underripe coconut--it hasn't developed that tough brown cover we associate with coconuts. Usually you will find them with the outside (which is green) shaved off and it will look white and naked like this. You can also visit that link for tips on how to get it open. I, being ignorant, didn't visit any sites about how to get it open and just took a (sharp) knife and cut the bottom (not the top, like everyone recommends) off and then, whoosh, stuff started leaking out, so I held it over my blender and voila. Ignorance is bliss right. After you've cut the bottom off or whatever method you choose to get it open and gotten the liquid out, stick a spoon in it and scoop out the soft, gelatinous flesh (it doesn't look like something you'd love to eat, but trust me, it's good). If your milk or flesh smells rotten, it is. Don't eat it. You want to look for a coconut that is firm and doesn't have any moldy or soft spots on the outside. Another tip is to shake your coconut. The coconut water shouldn't slosh around. If it does, there is a leak in the coconut and this is allowing bacteria into your coconut (not to mention the fact that you're getting less bang for your buck, people). The flesh can be white, but mine was light pinkish-purple. Some say that that means it's got bacteria in it, but (again--blissful ignorance) I ate it and it was fine. It also smelled perfectly good and coconut-y.

1 Thai (otherwise known as "young") coconut
1/2 beet, peeled and diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1/4 C raw cashews
1/4 C dates, pitted
1 1/2 C frozen strawberries
1-2 Tbsp honey (optional, but I liked it better this way)

Instructions for making this in a mediocre blender:

Open your coconut using my expert (not really) instructions above. Pour the liquid into your blender and then scoop out the gelatinous flesh and add that. Blend this.

Add beet and carrot and blend. Add dates and blend. Add cashews and blend. The idea being that you want to get one thing fairly well blended before you go adding other things and overloading your sadly mediocre blender. When this stuff is all blended to the best of your blender's abilities, add the strawberries. Pulse and blend. The smoothie should get thicker and smoother. It should be the consistency of a very melty milkshake. If it's too runny (as in looks like just a juice), then your coconut may have had a generous amount of "milk." Add some more strawberries and blend.

Add honey if you like (or sugar or agave or whatever it is you use as a sweetener).

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Smoothies in a Bag: Five Days of Smoothies

Note: I'm wordy and keep telling tangential stories. To get to the meat (or fruit as it were) of this post, hop on down to the bolded bit.

So I celebrated Scaling Up by taking yesterday afternoon "off" and spending 4 hours to plant approximately 100 jillion irises (lovingly donated by my dear friend who was Scaling Down her flower beds) in my gardens and around my yard. It was very satisfying and pleasant until the last half hour or so when I hit the wall, but still had to water everything and then got attacked by gnats from the place that is definitely not heaven. [Note: Just as a little warning to the wicked, being attacked by billions of irritating insects who want something from you that they surely cannot have is unpleasant. You should repent immediately.] But somehow I've strayed from the point.

The point was that I finished and then drove my tasty and cheap self to Rally's and got a bunch of burgers and fries for our dinner that night. I felt pretty guilty about it, but then we managed to actually eat together before Kip went to work and I realized that it wasn't as perfectly perfect as an inexpensive pre-planned crock pot meal would have been, but then there are moments in life that aren't always preplanned inexpensive events and I've really got to learn to roll with that. Our meal together (which, incidentally, was enjoyed by all) was good enough for that day.

And, you know, that wasn't really my point either. My point was that it was nice to have a little extra time. I also got to do something else I've been meaning to for a long time. I got to plan out and prepare these smoothies in a bag. There is one for each workday of the week. But first, some back story (don't you just love back story?)

About a month ago, I was at a little gathering of women and one of the ladies commented about how her family never has time for breakfast because they're always running out the door. Her family's solution was to blend up some quick whey protein smoothies and then drink them in the car. Whey protein isn't my thing, but I thought it was a pretty good idea. The problem was (and she was bemoaning this fact as well) was that the smoothie powder/mix was expensive--she said it cost her family $50-60 dollars a month. That put a little bee in my bonnet. And I've been meaning to come up with ideas for inexpensive weekday smoothies ever since.

Below you'll find Five Recipes for Five Days of Smoothies. Each recipe makes about 4 C of smoothie (or 4 servings). The idea is to put the main ingredients in a bag in the freezer so that each morning you can just pop them out and add liquid and voila out the door you go--just as you would be able to do if you had a pre-prepared smoothie powder or mix of some sort.

I've tried to use a variety of tastes so that no one will get bored. Some are milk/yogurt based. Some are fruit/water based. They all contain fruits and vegetables. One contains peanut butter. You can be as creative as you like with the fruits that you put in. However, for consolidation purposes (so you can just buy one bag of frozen fruit if you want) I used blueberries/strawberries (essentially a berry mix) for the berry ones. You could sub in peaches or any other berries/fruit you wished to buy a variety of frozen fruits and then use the leftovers for next week's smoothies.

A few notes:
1. These smoothies are made with whole foods and will provide a lot of fruits, vegetables (and usually greens).
2. They have (usually) no added sugar (most commercial varieties of smoothie have a decent dose of added sugar and if you get it from Starbucks or the mall you can count on a ton of added sugar), though using apple juice as I sometimes do is cheating a little since it's quite sweet.
3. Most of them provide good protein sources.
4. 1 C of smoothie isn't a meal for everyone, but it's better than nothing when you're in a hurry. Also, although a cup of smoothie is a little skimpy for me, my little kids can't usually drink that much--they tend to drink 1/2 C or so. Also if I drink one of these at 8:00, I'm usually getting hungry around 11:00 or 11:30. That's not a huge stretch of time, but it's long enough for an early lunch, and it's just as long or longer than a bowl of cereal will get me. 
5. You don't have to use them as out-the-door-in-a-flash meals. I think they're really nice to have around for after-school snacks that are quick, or to get your fruit/veg's in at lunch or dinner or as a more filling (and overall better imho) substitute for coffee.

What You'll Need for 5 Days of Quart Sized Smoothies:

1 avocado ($.50-1.00)
1 bag baby spinach ($1.79)
1 ripe mango ($.50-1.00)
1 bag mixed berries, (or blueberries or strawberries or peaches or whatever frozen berries make you zing) 16 oz. ($2.50-3.00)
2 C-1 quart apple juice ($1.00)
1 quart plain yogurt ($1.79-2.00)
1 quart milk ($.50-1.00)
3-4 Tbsp peanut butter (.25)
4 bananas (.50)

Total: $.9.33-$11.54. That's between $32 and $45 per month on homemade whole foods smoothies (Or...$1.86-$2.30/day or $.47-$.58/serving)

[Note on pricing: I could get all these things for the cheaper price at Aldi within the last 2 weeks. However, I also included prices that are Walmart comparable and more realistic for many who don't have access to such an inexpensive store as Aldi. Pick your own farms can be a good source of cheap local berries and Asian stores/markets often have great deals on avocados/mangoes/yogurt]

The method:

1. In 5 separate Ziploc bags, freeze all ingredients except the yogurt, milk, fruit juice, or water.
2. When you're ready for a smoothie, throw that in the blender with the appropriate liquids.

Note: If using apple juice concentrate (I always do because otherwise my family drinks all the apple juice before it ever makes it into a smoothie), use 1 Tbsp concentrate and 3 Tbsp water for what would have been 1/4 C juice. You can add the appropriate amount of concentrate into your bags of frozen fruit.

Day #1: Avocado Spinach Smoothie

To freeze:
1  ripe avocado
2 C spinach
1 large banana (broken in chunks)

To blend, add:
1 1/2 C apple juice (or 6 Tbsp concentrate and 1 C plus 2 Tbsp water)
1/2 C plain yogurt

Day #2: Berry Soup

To Freeze:
1 C blueberries
1/2 C strawberries (or just sub some mixed berries for the blueberries and strawberries)
1/2 C spinach

To blend, add:
1 C plain yogurt
1/2 C milk

(This is only as sweet as your fruit, so if you're using sub-par frozen fruit, you can add a bit of honey, sugar, or a Tbsp apple juice concentrate to sweeten it.)

Day #3: The Brown Berry

To Freeze:
1 C berries (peaches work wonderfully too)
2 C spinach
1 banana (broken in chunks)

To blend, add:
1/4 C apple juice (or 1 Tbsp concentrate and 3 Tbsp water)
1-2 C water

Note: This might come out a little sludge colored depending on the kind of berries you use. I realize this can put some kids off, so please note the following:  Red berries = sludgy color; blueberries = purple color, peaches = bright green color.

Day #4: Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

To Freeze:
2 ripe bananas (broken in chunks)
3-4 Tbsp peanut butter
1/2 C spinach (optional--it will turn your smoothie greenish, so if that'll ruin it for your kids, beware)

To blend, add:
3 C milk (I like whole; oh yes I do, but other kinds will work too)

Day #5: Mango Lassi

To freeze:
1 mango, peeled and fruit cut off the bit
2 Tbsp sugar (here's the exception to that no sugar thing; sorry, although seriously, compared to yogurt bought at the store, this is nothing)

To blend add:
2 1/2 C plain yogurt
1 scant C cold water
Note: A quirt of lime doesn't hurt, but if you don't have it, it's not a problem.

This is what I did to prepare:

1. Measured my fruits in their baggies.

By the way, these little mug things people use for coffee...We love to use them in the summer to keep drinks cold. They work wonderfully for cold water when you're running errands, and they can hold cold smoothie too. 

2. Added a sticky note with instructions (a permanent marker would work well too, but I couldn't find one--it's probably in my 2-year-old's dresser drawer or some wonderful place like that)

3. Stuck them in my freezer.

4. It took me 15 minutes to prepare these and I was taking pictures.

PRINTABLE recipe and instructions.

Banana Orange Smoothie

Yesterday I almost had a cold. I could feel it coming on strong. My throat was scratchy, my nose was runny, I was tired, I was blah. I think we know that blah is a very bad symptom indeed and that it means we're going down hill fast. I figured I had nothing to lose at that point, so I combated it with a not really scientifically proven method: namely the consumption of a whole lot of Vitamin C. I took several actual vitamins and at lunch time I juiced about 4 oranges for myself. Supposedly juicing allows the vitamins/minerals to be absorbed much more quickly and efficiently into the system. And supposedly fresh juice is the only way to go if you want that benefit. I don't know if any of that is true, but I know that by that evening I was feeling much better and today I feel even better. So thank you Vitamin C and thank you nutrition myth that seemed to work and thank you Aldi for making the oranges affordable.

This, er, recipe is a result of a little experimenting I did yesterday while juicing bajillions of oranges. I made this for Kip since I was going for straight up orange, but I did have a little taste and it was well worth tasting.

Whether you use fresh juice or not, this smoothie is worth making because it is so non-controversial. It contains nothing green or chunky or un-sweet. That's usually a win for us, so even though I'd just love to sneak some spinach in, I might just go with the heavy doses of C and Potassium and call it good. It's better than graham crackers for an after school snack, that's all I have to say.

Additionally, this isn't a smoothie that requires a food science and nutrition degree. But it's a good idea anyway.

Banana Orange Smoothie
Serves 1-2
Prep time: 2 minutes unless you have to juice the oranges, which will add several more minutes
Cost:

Tip for bananas: When they get brown and spotty, I usually break mine up into inch-long chunks when they and throw them in a Ziploc bag in the freezer.

1 ripe banana, frozen
1-1 1/2 C orange juice, can be freshly squeezed or not

Put in blender and puree. Yeah, not food science. If you want it thicker and more milk-shake-like, add more frozen banana. If you want it wetter and more like a cold, slushy sort of party drink (what we went for), add more OJ.

Pumpkin Smoothie: A Comparison

Throughout the winter we tend to eat a bunch of pumpkin-y things. Most of them aren't really that healthy, but we like to pretend that they're just bursting with nutritiousness on account of their being orange and all. And I do make pumpkin smoothies, which really are pretty darn nutritious. My go-to is a pumpkin smoothie with a bit of banana and a lot of room for experimentation and interpretation. It is good, but it is not perfectly perfect in every way. There is a part of me that suspects that the flavor I'm looking for in my smoothie is really the flavor you find in milkshakes not smoothies. And, yeah, it'd be nice to replicate that in a perfectly virtuous, non-iced-dessert environment, but I'm not quite sure it's ever going to happen. Still I'm not one to shut my eyes to opportunity.

Several months ago, I noticed this smoothie on Pioneer Woman's blog. It used pumpkin pie filling which, while not my nemesis, is far from being my favorite thing. Foods that contain liquid syrup--I don't know--they're just not the kinds of pumpkin foods you can settle down with and make a life together. So I dismissed her recipe and figured I could do even better with a few small tweaks. My first batch was made with pumpkin, plain yogurt, milk, and even a bit of kefir. It ended up needing some serious love--love to the tune of 1/2 C extra sugar.

The next time I went to the store, I bought some pumpkin pie filling. It was just one of those things I had to do. I had to see if I'd been outdone by a slightly grody prepared food product. Answer: Yes, I had been outdone by a slightly grody prepared food product. With the help of Pioneer Woman of course--I have to admit she's pretty good at helping a lot of foods along into something really good. At any rate her version was way better than mine. Okay, okay, I thought, maybe I should just throw in the towel and accept defeat. Her smoothie was, after all, still loaded with vitamin A, not to mention the protein, calcium, and even some good bacterial cultures from the yogurt.

However, when I did a little number crunching I noticed that her pumpkin pie filling version contained less Vitamin A than mine--about half as much. Yes, both were loaded with it, but mine was double loaded (100% of the daily recommendation/serving as opposed to 50% of the daily recommendation/serving). Also, hers had  more sugar. This gave me the motivation to give my smoothie a few more tries.

The result: If I added a bunch of sugar I got mine pretty darn close to her version and still with double the Vitamin A. However, in the end I just accepted less sweetness and used a bit less sugar and felt less guilty and I guess that's just how I roll.

Pumpkin Smoothie
adapted from Pioneer Woman
Serves 4
Prep time: 3 minutes
Cost: $1.65
(pumpkin: 1.00, milk: .40, yogurt: .25)

1 small (15 oz) can pureed pumpkin
1/2 C vanilla yogurt (you can use plain, but to compete with Pioneer Woman's smoothie, you'll have to add another Tbsp or 2 of sugar)
3 C milk (it's best with whole or raw)
4-6 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Freeze pumpkin in a plastic container (or in ice cube trays).

Put frozen pumpkin, yogurt, sugar, and milk in blender. Blend until smooth. Blend in pumpkin pie spice and garnish with another sprinkle of it or a sprinkle of nutmeg.

Work-a-Day Wednesday: Avocado Smoothie (aka Raw Avocado Pudding)

If you've ever watched a sitcom (especially from the 1950's) you know that when people come home from work, they they relax by knocking back some type of alcoholic beverage. That's not really my scene. Especially considering that on Wednesdays my work involves an afternoon of piano lessons with other people's children and I suspect that it just might not go over well with those parents picking up their kids. "Excuse me Mrs. So and So, but I can't talk to you for another minute, because after finishing little Timmy's lesson, I really need to throw down this glass of bourbon. Or maybe a few. See you next week."

Not that there aren't days I'm not tempted to sit down and enjoy something grown up and relaxing. Wednesday is definitely one of those days. Avocados are grown up (in this house at least; my kids won't touch them). So is plain yogurt. Yeah, you're going to add a banana and some juice, so we'll just call it cocktail hour, okay.

At Aldi last week (and this week!), beautiful, perfect avocados were going for $.49 each. I purchased several. The unfortunate thing about avocados is that they all ripen at the same time (rude). But that just means you get to glut yourself on them for a few days.

This smoothie is going to look fairly green. Be not afraid. It's also a little thicker than some smoothies. But it's smooth, sweet perfection make that not a problem. In fact, as I drank mine, I realized that it was just the thing that raw foodists would label a pudding. Which made me realize that this could easily be a raw dessert or appetizer if that's your thing. You'll have to use a yogurt that's been cooked at 104 degrees F (I believe) or less, but I'm assuming if you're a raw foodie, you can totally handle that.

Avocado Smoothie (aka Raw Avocado Pudding)
adapted from Everyday Food
Serves 2
Prep time: 2 minutes
Cost: $1.15 or $.58/serving
(avocado .50 if you're lucky, banana: .15, yogurt: .20, juice: .30)

Note: I first made this with orange juice (which is what the original recipe recommended), which I thought would be weird, but was surprisingly good. Then I made it with apple juice, which I liked even better. The type of juice you use will affect the flavor, but both are very good, so use what you've got.

1 avocado
1 banana, frozen
1/2 C nonfat yogurt
1 1/2 C orange juice or apple juice

Blend until smooth. Add a bit more water (or some ice cubes) if it's too thick.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Five Favorite Smoothies for the Season

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on less than $10/day.

Today I wanted to post an apple pear kale smoothie. Only it didn't turn out as amazingly as hoped. I drank it anyway (and managed to spill about a cupful down a crease in the couch and couldn't even blame the kids--big sigh) and it was fine. But nothing blogworthy.

What to do? Why share several of my favorite smoothie recipes with you of course. Why smoothies? They are, after all, so cold. Well, maybe it's just me, because Christmas cookies are great and all (better than great if you get a good one), but I get tired of being so overloaded with sweets and, frankly, food in general at this time of year. Sometimes I want/need a little detox or something light, nutrient-dense, and hydrating. My body and mind pretty much always thank me for a good smoothie afterwards.

I've tried to keep these somewhat seasonal. Or chosen fruits that defy seasonality in general (aka they use bananas or another fruit we wouldn't be finding nearby in the U.S. anyway). Throw in a bit of kefir for some intestine-protecting micro-organisms (and what doesn't sound yummy about that) and you'll be even better to go at this time of year.

So have yourself a Merry Light Breakfast. (And maybe save me some pumpkin cake at lunch.)

1. Pumpkin (or Sweet Potato) Smoothie (there's a little blabbing on in this post--tell me you're shocked--and three options for different smoothies. They're all good and they're all super packed with Vitamin A.)

2. Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie (Hint: Add some spinach and it looks weird, but you can barely taste a change.)

3. Pineapple-Orange-Carrot Smoothie

4. Apple Kale Smoothie

5. Classic Green Smoothie. You might have to make a trip to the frozen section for some peaches, but you don't get much better than this smoothie.

6. Bonus. Ah, heck. While you're over in the frozen foods section for the peaches, get some blueberries too and make this blueberry soup for a huge kid-pleaser. 

Pineapple-Orange-Carrot Smoothie

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on less than $10/day.

(Yeah, it was too cold to sit out on the deck sipping a cool drink this morning, but it made for the best picture.)

I don't know about you guys, but ever since Halloween we've been swimming in sweets. I'm actually not a huge candy eater (though I manage to steal a piece or two that I otherwise wouldn't), but candy isn't the only thing that's been hanging around. There's been pumpkin cake and pumpkin muffins and brownies and the best darn apple cake I have ever had It will be on this blog soon because if I'm going to be sweeted out this season, I want this cake to be part of it. I also want it to marry me; do you think Kip will be offended.

But wait, this post isn't about cake. Well, in a round about way, it is. It's what to do about after cake. About cake hangover. (Or candy hangover. Or chocolate hangover.)

As if cake hangover isn't bad enough, my toddler (who's surely had her own sweets hangover, despite my efforts that she not get too awfully much candy) woke up at 2:00 in the morning sniffling. She went right back to sleep so it wouldn't have been so bad. Except that I didn't. Around about dawn I dozed off to some extremely wonky dreams and then at 7:30 Kip left for his paramedic training and me and Emma zoned on the couch for a while watching Elmo (not an unusual thing to do for many, but I have a neurotic issue with letting my kids watch cartoons in the morning. I blame my own Saturday morning cartoon addiction.)

Still, at some point breakfast needed to come. I made this smoothie, which--besides being a burst of sunshine on a bleary-eyed day--is packed with Vitaman C and potassium (among many other good things). Carrots are still somewhat seasonal (I've still got a few hanging out, though I really should harvest them). And although tropical fruits aren't seasonal here, somewhere warmer oranges are coming into season as are pineapples grown in the Caribbean. So you'll most likely find those fruits a little cheaper right now. Win win and win again. I think I'll have another (anybody got that musical?).

Pineapple-Orange-Carrot Smoothie
adapted from Real Simple
Makes 2 cups
Cost: .50
(pineapple: .25 if gotten on sale: OJ: .10 from concentrate, banana: .07, carrot: .10)

Note: If you freeze at least some of your produce (I froze the pineapple and banana), you don't need ice for this and can use water. This works for me since my blender doesn't chop huge chunks of ice very well. If you don't think to freeze your fruit, add 1/4-1/2 C ice chunks.

3/4 C pineapple, cubed and frozen
1/2 banana, frozen
1/4 C diced carrot (1 small carrot)
1/2 C OJ (or 2 Tbsp orange juice concentrate and 6 Tbsp water)
more water/OJ as needed to loosen the smoothie into a drinkable consistency

Put first four ingredients in blender and blend till smooth. If you're blender is struggling, add a bit more water or OJ until you can get it blended smooth (still thick-ish, but drinkable).

As one final note: This smoothie isn't as completely smooth as my green ones. The carrots and even pineapple give it just a bit more body. Or teeny-tiny chunkiness. This might not go over with your minions. Mine said they liked it (except for Mark who was still asleep, but who probably wouldn't have liked it), but Elizabeth and Savannah didn't drink a lot (although, there were games to be played). Me and Emma didn't mind. I thought it was crazy awesome.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Avocado Green Drink

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on less than $10/day.

 

Motto: Looks like swamp sludge, tastes like yum.

My sister has a vitamix blender (swoon). She made us these the other day and they looked, um, really gross, but they tasted so good you will not believe.

And while we talk of things you won't believe--avocado in your green drink is wonderful--creamy and rich. Try it; you'll see. 

Avocado Green Drink
Serves 2-4
Prep time: 3 minutes
Cost: $1.75
(kale: .30, strawberries: .40, avocado: .50, apple juice: .40, banana: .15)

3-4 large kale leaves (with a good blender you can leave the ribs in; with a normal blender, cut the big middle ones out)
1 1/2 C frozen strawberries
1/2 avocado
1 RIPE banana (not rotten, but not green--lots of brown spots=good)
2 1/2 C apple juice (this is a bit much and if you are used to ugly green brown drinks, you can use some water for some or all of the apple juice, but we went the low road and had ours apple juice sweet)

Blend in blender. Consume. With eyes close if necessary. You won't regret it.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Cantaloupe Smoothie

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats well on less than $10/day.

Cantaloupe are tricky fruits. They have a short shelf life. It's easy to get a less than great one. And then, well, you've got so much of it. Sure, it's still good for you and low-calorie and all that, but wouldn't it be nice if it tasted great too.

Cue the almond milk and a nice ripe banana.

Why did I have almond milk (Aldi sells it; who knew) on hand? Because of some experimentation with cold summer oatmeal (but more on that later). And after my oatmeal experimentation, I had plenty of almond milk left. Abundance of almond milk meet abundance of mediocre cantaloupe. Ah, symbiosis.

I froze my cantaloupe. To do so, I cut it into inch-size pieces and put it on parchment paper on a cookie sheet in the freezer for several hours. Then I threw the cubes of cantaloupe in a freezer bag. You'll want the parchment paper; otherwise it will stick to your pan and you'll wind up hacking away at it with a metal spatula and ruining your pan and a' cussin' away; or a' bitin' your lip and wishing you could cuss away. So, yes, parchment paper.

My first round of smoothie was made with just frozen cantaloupe and almond milk. It was a bit icy. I liked it well enough, but the peanut gallery wanted something smoother. Enter the ripe banana. There's nothing better than a nice ripe banana to smooth things out. I was worried it would taste like all banana, but it didn't.

Would regular milk work instead of almond? I believe it would, though you might need to sweeten it just a tinge with a teaspoon or a few of sugar, but taste it first because that banana sweetness goes a long way.

Oh, and today when I made another batch, I may or may not have thrown in a few tablespoons of whipped cream (I had to; it would have gone bad on our trip). I didn't mind that one little bit, no I didn't.

Cantaloupe Smoothie
Serves 2-4, depending how piggy you are
Prep time: 3 minutes (after your cantaloupe is frozen)
Cost: $1.85
(cantaloupe: 1.00, almond milk: .70, banana: .15)

2 C frozen cantaloupe
2 C almond milk
1 ripe banana

Puree together till smooth. If your cantaloupe is really a super dud, you may want to add a tablespoon of sugar.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Kale Green Drink

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join us as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.

Let's talk about kale. It's green. It's pretty. It's can handle cruddy soil if you're growing your own (as opposed to its more needy counterpart, the spinach leaf) and it can endure cooler temperatures. In fact, it's sweeter after it's gotten a little frost-bitten, so it's peak season is during the fall and winter. It lowers cholesterol, acts to detoxify the body, has anti-inflammatory properties, and of course tons of antioxidants. It also contains a crazy amount of vitamins K, A, and C, as well as lots of nearly everything else. For more info, have a look here.

And it's cheap. A bushel of about 9 oz. of kale cost half as much at Walmart as a 9 oz. bag of spinach. When used raw in a smoothie, the tastes of the two greens are surprisingly similar.

Kale Green Drink
Makes 3 cups
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: .80
(kale: .15, applesauce: .10, strawberries: .25, peaches: .20, banana: .10)

Note on kale: If you're new to green drinks you might want to start with 2 cups.

Note on fruit: This tastes better if at least some of the fruit is frozen when you start out. Then it's nice and cold and smoothie-like instead of warm fruit-drink like.

3 C kale (middle rib removed unless you've got a strong blender)
1 banana
1 C strawberries
1/2-3/4 C peaches
1 C apple juice

Blend till smooth.

This will supposedly keep for up to 3 days (with most of the nutrients in tact) if it's sealed and refrigerated, though I've always drunk it right up sooner than that.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch (or join us) as or family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.

You may have noticed we eat a lot of peanut butter in these parts. There are plenty of reasons for that. First off, we love it. Secondly, at $1.45/lb, it's a good, cheap source of protein for us. Thirdly, my son eats no meat whatsoever, and we've got to supply him with something to fill that hole (because, unfortunately, I don't think ketchup is going to cover quite all of his nutrition needs).

This smoothie is a great after-school snack or after workout snack (it is the season of resolution after all) or bedtime snack. It's also good when you're starving, but dinner is 2 hours away. Best of all, with fruit, protien, and no added sugar (yes, the PB has some, but I didn't add any), it feels much more sinful than it is. Seriously, it's so easy and so so good.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
Serves 1-2 depending on how much you need to be picked up
Prep time: 2 minutes
Cost: $.35
(banana: .12, milk: .13, PB: .10)

1 banana, frozen
1-2 Tbsp peanut butter
1-1 1/2 C milk (I've used whole and 2%)
Throw in 1 Tbsp cocoa if you're into, um, anti-oxidants
Throw in 1/4 C spinach if you're into more wholesome looking anti-oxidants (This will affect the taste only slightly--the PB taste is fairly strong. But it will affect the color.)

Blend in blender or food processor. Throw in 1/4 C spinach if you will. It won't affect the flavor too much and will add a vita-boost.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Green Drink

Cheap Eat Challenge Count Down: 2 days

It's not easy being green. My son won't touch these. My husband just started to. They contain no chocolate and usually no added sugar.

They taste good anyway. Plus they're super nutritious--couldn't we all use a few extra cups of greens in our diets. Super adaptable--you can take pretty much whatever greens you've got lying around and combine them with pretty much whatever fruit you've got lying about. Easy to make--throw it in the blender. Oh--and cool people like them.

But they look a little...wholesome. Nevertheless, my sister and I enjoyed several varieties of green drink over our Christmas vacation. She has a Vitamix blender (ooh, aaah), and plenty of lovely greens from her CSA or whatever it is. Over the course of 4 days we consumed (though not all in the same green drink) spinach, kale, chard, avocado, strawberries, bananas, peaches, apples, apple juice, orange juice, lemon and even parsley. I think these drinks are what saved us from sudden death from all of the, um, less healthy choices we made that week.

Below is a simple one that is one of my favorites and can be made tastily in the type of mediocre blender I happen to own. Seriously, give it a try. If the green puts you and yourn off, throw in 1 C of blueberries.

Although I don't believe you need a recipe book for green drinks, they can be kind of fun (especially if you've got a decent blender). If you're interested in getting more recipes for green drinks, you can have a look at greensmoothiegirl.com or have a look at Victoria Boutenko's books containing recipes. My sister had Green Smoothie Revolution and Boutenko's also got one called Green for Life. [Warning: These women both have STRONG feelings about green smoothies.]

To keep the costs down at this time of year, buy frozen fruit (stuff from Sam's is probably the cheapest, but WalMart is okay too), but not frozen spinach--sorry, but it will make these nasticular. This summer, freeze a bit of the super cheap fresh stuff. You won't be sorry. I've still got peaches in my freezer. Yum.

The cost if you're wondering of a full day's worth (per the food pyramid, so take that for what it's worth) of fruits and vegetables. (And I've been generous in my estimations--I actually think it's cheaper than this.)

Spinach $.50

Peaches $.75

Banana $.13

Concentrate $.07

Total: $1.45

So if you buy a soda at McDonald's or a coffee in the morning, you can easily skip that and make this. If you buy $20 of prescription prenatal vitamins like I used to, you can definitely skip that and make this.

Simple Peach Spinach Green Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Note: The first time I had one of these, I expected it to taste like a Jamba Juice or something. It doesn't. Jamba Juice has a lot of added sugar in it and this doesn't. It is still sweet and so good, but not in a cup of added sugar kind of way. If you have them regularly, you'll get very used to the milder sweetness (and probably a little addicted), and the sweeter mall versions will start to turn you off.

Another Note: If you really can't handle them at first or your kids can't, you can:

a) use more apple juice concentrate

b) sprinkle a bit of sugar into your/their glass

c) use about 6 oz sweetened yogurt and some milk in place of the water (this will naturally make it more caloric, but also add some calcium, protien, bacterial cultures, and Vitamin D

1 C peaches (frozen)

2 C spinach
1 banana
1 T apple juice concentrate
Enough water to make it blendable.

Blend it up.

If you can't drink it all at once and you're kids think you're wonky for even asking them if they want some, it can be tightly sealed and stored for up to 3 days (supposedly--the longest I've stored mine is about 18 hours--it was still great).

PRINTABLE RECIPE