Strawb&Banan Smoothie Recipe

Steph here - and I am on a smoothie roll! I started my smoothie project by ordering the Oster My Blend 250-Watt Blender on Amazon, then I found a crapload of sweet recipes that I couldn't wait to try.

Grab your smoothie grocery list and healthy add ins like flaxseed and raw cacao! If your fruit man is back - grab your cheap fruit and you are ready to go.

I used honey to sweeten up the smoothie this time

The first recipe I made with my hubby was Kiwi Strawberry - which was great. But I'm not a huge kiwi fan and the smoothie just wasn't sweet enough. Strawberry/Banana mix is ALWAYS my fav fruit mix so I knew I had to try this next.

Dice a banana and 5/6 strawberries into the blender (add more/less depending on how much you want):

Ice, Strawberries & Bananas - a LITTLE healthier than Ben & Jerrys...

I didn't add in the flaxseed because it made the first smoothie taste too grainy. I need to fix that because I really want to incorporate flaxseed into my diet and a smoothie is the easiest way. Any fixes?!

Hey there pretty smoothie

Perfect late night replacement snack!

Strawb Banan Smoothie Recipe:
6 Strawberries - diced
1 Banana - diced
Almond Milk (or soy/rice/etc)
Honey - 2 tablespoons
Ice cubes
> Throw them in together and blend it up to enjoy!

I have made this one twice so far and it's such a great treat when I'm craving sugar at the end of the night. Now I need to fix my flax seed problem...

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First of the Smoothie Recipes > Kiwi Strawberry!

FINALLY! My first smoothie is made! I started my smoothie project over a month ago by ordering the Oster My Blend 250-Watt Blender on Amazon. I found a crapload of sweet recipes that I couldn't wait to try.

Don't forget your smoothie grocery list and healthy add ins like flaxseed and raw cacao! If your fruit man is back - grab your cheap fruit and you are ready to go.

Fruit Man shopping

The first recipe we tried was a Kiwi Strawberry - sounds refreshing and makes me crave Spring like anything.

Dice up your Kiwi

Dice up your strawberries (like 5 or 6 - whatever you can fit in there)

Add in your milk and a teaspoon of flaxseed for good health :)

Blend her up!

First smoothie of bikini season :)

Strawberry Kiwi Smoothie Recipe:
1 Kiwi - diced
6 Strawberries - diced
Almond Milk (or soy/rice/etc)
Teaspoon of flaxseed
Ice cubes
> Throw them in together and blend it up to enjoy!

The blender had some trouble with our larger ice cubes so we need to break up the cubes more in the future. Also you could taste the flax seeds in the shake so I need to figure out how to make that better - any suggestions?! My husband and I also agreed it needed to be sweetened up - maybe we will add in honey next time. Any other sweetener suggestions?

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Healthy Smoothie Add Ins

Good morning, Stephanie here with healthy smoothie ad ins. I started my smoothie project over a month ago and found so many amazeball smoothie recipes I couldn't wait to try. I prepared my smoothie grocery list - but didn't find everything I wanted in the grocery store.

I wanted to get ground flax seed (a decent sized bag to stock up on) and also Raw Cacoa Powder. I'm so busy during the work week, so I turned to Amazon to get my healthy smoothie on.

Flax seed has such amazing health benefits and putting ground flax seed into smoothies is a great way to sneak in more nutrient. One of my favorite websites to check out food health benefits is World's Healthiest Foods - dude I even got their huge book for Christmas a couple years ago! On their flax seed page they list so many benefits:

• Flaxseeds turn out to be significantly higher in polyphenol antioxidants than fruits like blueberries or vegetables like olives. The antioxidant benefits of flaxseeds have long been associated with prevention of cardiovascular diseases and have recently also been tied to decreased insulin resistance.
• Given the strong track record of flaxseeds as foods providing cardiovascular benefits, it's not surprising to see recent research studies showing benefits of flaxseeds for improvement of metabolic syndrome (MetS). One recent study showed a 20% decrease in the prevalence of MetS after 12 weeks on a diet plan that included 30 grams (1 ounce) of ground flaxseed per day in the form of flaxseed-enriched baked bread. 

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• Interestingly, in addition to improving blood pressure and lowering fasting glucose level, flaxseed intake also helped decrease central obesity (as measured by waist circumference). The addition of flaxseed provided all of these health benefits without causing weight gain. That's quite an accomplishment for a food that is over 70% fat in terms of total calories and contains about 10 times as many calories per cup as a fruit like blueberries.

I found Raw Cacoa Powder from Sunfood Super Foods. They offer this perfect description:

• The scientific name Theobroma means “food of the gods”. It should come as no surprise, knowing that ancient Mayans and Aztecs once used cacao as currency! Sunfood Raw Chocolate Powder is the world’s premier raw, organic, antioxidant-rich cocoa powder. It is created by cold-pressing Sunfood Raw Cacao Nibs into a cake, separating the oil from the protein and fiber.
• Cacao offers cardiovascular benefits and cancer protection, and also helps lower cholesterol. Raw cacao has a higher antioxidant rating than blueberries, acai, and even goji berries. It really is a superfood! It is also the #1 source of magnesium of any food. 

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• Other noteworthy mentions include iron, zinc, manganese, copper, tryptophan, and serotonin. It also contains high levels of Phenylethylamine (PEA) – this is often referred to as the love chemical, because it is produced in our bodies when we fall in love!

On Amazon.com, I picked up Essential Flaxseed (Organic) - 14 oz - Ground and you can find that here. I also got the Sunfood cacao powder here. Do you order things online? Or shop around until you find what you want? What are you favorite smoothie add ins? Are you adding things in for smoothies for taste or for health? I cannot wait to try these as soon as they come in!

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Grocery List for Smoothies

Hey there, SH checking in with my smoothie grocery list. I didn't find a lot of smoothie recipes that I wanted to make to the T. So I used the recipes that I found most intriguing and took ingredients from all of those.

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Basic Stock Up > Flax Seed and Cinnamon are super good for you, so I'm going to add them to every smoothie I make
Peanut Butter
Raw Cacoa Powder
Flax Seed or Flax Oil
Cinnamon
Liquid Basics: Soy Milk, Almond Milk, Coconut Water, Orange Juice

Recipes > I used these recipes are inspiration starters for my own smoothie recipes
http://offbeatandinspired.com/2012/09/29/healthy-cocoa-banana-almond-smoothie/
http://www.allparenting.com/my-table/articles/946149/5-fabulous-kid-friendly-smoothie-recipes
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-superpower-morning-smoothie-recipes-from-the-kitchn-183353
http://www.heatherchristo.com/cooks/2013/02/13/berrylicious-rainbow-smoothie/

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Fruits > Trying out my favs first
Bananas
Strawberries
Blueberries

I will let you know my favorite smoothie mixes I come up with! Have you tried making your own smoothie recipes? Do you add in usuals like flax or cinnamon? What is your favorite liquid base  for smoothies? I'm going to try to keep mine dairy free with soy/almond milks and coconut water and OJ. Any tips for creating my own smoothie recipe?

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A Plethora of Smoothie Recipes for SH

Hey hey, SH here and I finally got a smoothie maker as mentioned over here. I constantly have cravings for ice cream, so I am hoping that smoothies are my healthy answer to my serious sweet tooth.

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On my last post, Lydia from Made for More commented with a bunch of solid advice:
"I use frozen fruit and almond milk in pretty much every recipe. The frozen fruit (especially the banana) helps create a creamy, frosty texture without watering down the taste (which is what an iced-based smoothie with fresh fruit will do. The times I don't have a frozen banana and use a fresh one, it ends up being more like a liquid shake. If I add ice to fix it, it gets bland). 
By using frozen fruit, you combine the needed ice and fruit into one! I stock up on bananas and keep a bag of sliced (somewhat ripe) bananas in my freezer so I can have a smoothie ready to go anytime! You'll have fun mix-n-matching and not every smoothie will taste exactly the same! It's fun!
I would say the one way you could mess up a smoothie (as I have!) is to put notoriously bitter greens into it that no amount of banana can compensate for (if you want a green smoothie, use banana and/or a nut butter to round out the taste). Kale is doable and you can keep adding more as your tastes adjust to it. Collards or chard on the other hand... deadly. I once made the mistake of making a swiss chard smoothie... Never. Again."

Lydia recommends these recipes that I cannot wait to try:
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie
- Rainbow Smoothie
- Banana Nut Soft Serve
And in her words: There's no limit to what you can do with it/add in! (Cocoa, mint, coconut, etc).

Lacey also told me that she has been making her smoothies lately with coconut water instead of soy milk. Thanks so much to Lydia and Lacey for their advice - I'm off to make my first smoothie, wish me luck!!

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