Almost Summer Smoothie

There is a paper … well, there are papers… around this house somewhere with a scribbled array of smoothie recipes I’ve been making, drinking and serving. When I find them (if they didn’t get thrown away in one of the almost rare instances someone cleans around here), I will share.

 

For now, I can remember the last one I made and it was refreshing and nourishing.

 

Summer is on the way Smoothie

 

1 cup of coconut water

1 cup of frozen strawberries (we picked them ourselves!)

1 apple

2 teaspoons local, raw honey

 

Delicious!

 

My daughter has been preparing all of our dinners and they have been so tasty.  She has made up her own recipes so sharing might be hard but I’ll see if I can get her to stop long enough to share. She is graduating from high school in a few days and I almost cannot believe it. The time has flown and I will cry more than I can stand if I don’t switch subjects. I typed too long so she isn’t in here to ask anymore. I will try to get the dish notes for you soon.

 

I saw a youtube video recently where someone showed how to make carrot juice using a Blendtec. I am SO trying that. It is a few carrots, some water, a piece of ginger and maybe one or two other things.

I would be more clear but I have yet to add speakers to this computer so I haven’t actually heard the video. . . smiles.

 

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Potatoes & Kale

I miss cooking! I want to bake something, make something, take something delicious to someone!
Alas! My daughter and niece are doing all the cooking for now. . . I hurt my knee and have been on the couch instead of the kitchen.

My DIL and I were watching something on tv last night that shared a scrumptious way to use kale. It made me want to hop to the kitchen to make it but I kind of hobbled to the coffeepot instead. My DIL, however... went home and MADE the kale dish and brought me some! Hi, Ryann for whenever you see this!

For those who don't know yet, our third to oldest son got married on March 18th of this year and we are blessed with another daughter to the family. She has been making cakes, kale, and all kinds of things in their apartment a few minutes away. We get to sample things sometimes and so far, all has been so good!

The kale dish she made? Easy and can be changed in all kinds of ways .
You just rub olive oil on potatoes and put them right on the oven racks. Heat at 400 degrees F until tender. I think the person doing the recipe may have said about 45 minutes but I don't recall and I always just check mine until I know they are done.

Anyway, you let the potatoes cook as they sit and then slice the top portion of the potato off and mash these together. I think it is a version of twice baked potatoes... where you scoop out some of the potato and make a form of mashed potatoes and put these back in the potato boat or skin and bake in the oven. With this recipe, you caramelize onions in a skillet and add kale and some seasonings and then mix this into the mashed potato mixture or serve on top. The ones my DIL, Ryann made were just wonderful!

I am really trying to figure out what to do about this blog. The actual blog is fine but blogspot now has such hard (for me) to figure out formatting that things don't look or function as they should. I've been playing around with one in Wordpress but it isn't even user friendly enough for me. I would take a computer course to figure html and other mystifying things out but the thought bores me.

Until I figure something out... things will make do as they are, I suppose.

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...