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Monday, October 1, 2012

Smooth


Let me tell you what I've been eating for breakfast over the past few weeks: smoothies. I realized that I wasn't eating enough fruit and dairy. So, I started making myself some smoothies for breakfast. It has been the perfect way for me to eat fruits and dairy. It helped me lose a few of my baby weight pounds (that had just been HANGING on!). And since I lost those pounds, it has helped me maintain. Plus, it keeps me full until lunch so that I don't snack like a crazy person.

It's a pretty basic formula and really easy to change up to keeps things from getting boring.

I like to freeze my yogurt for a thicker smoothie. I fill up an ice cube tray with vanilla yogurt and freeze it. Then I pop out the cubes and keep them in a zip-top bag until I use them. Each cube holds about 1 tablespoon of yogurt.  I also like to freeze my fruit (whether I use fresh or canned) so that it makes for a thicker smoothie too. But it doesn't have to be frozen. I just find that it tastes a little more like a milkshake when you use unfrozen fruit.




Breakfast Smoothies

Ingredients:

1 cup fruit (fresh, canned, or frozen)
1 cup skim milk
4 cubes of frozen vanilla yogurt (about 4 tablespoons--it doesn't have to be frozen)
Sweetener, to taste (sugar, honey, brown sugar, Splenda...whatever you want to use)

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a blender. Process until smooth.

Source: No source really, I had just seen a ton of smoothie recipes on Pinterest and it got me in the mood. Then, when I was at the grocery store, I bought one of those Yoplait smoothie packs in the frozen food section. It was soooo good and really low-calorie. But I was surprised to discover when I opened the package, that all of the ingredients could be easily replicated at home.

Notes: I've tried a lot of different types of fruit. I used fresh cantaloupe--which made for a nice, frothy milkshake. I have used frozen canned peaches (I just drained them, put them in a zip-top bag, and froze them in a single layer). I used cuties/tangerines and added a little frozen orange juice concentrate (about 2 tbsp) for an extra kick. The same method worked when I used an orange. I added a little vanilla that time and it tasted like an Orange Julius. I had some lovely red plums that added such a pretty color to the smoothie. I sometimes add a half a banana to whatever fruit I am already using. I used some canned crushed pineapple (undrained) that I had leftover from a recipe one day. It tasted really good--very similar to our frog eye salad recipe.  Really, I think the possibilities are endless.






3 comments:

  1. You've got me going! I'm going to do that. I wonder how Greek Yogurt would work. It's really high in protein and sticks with you even more. :)

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  2. Good idea to freeze the yogurt like that! I have been dicing up our fruit that is near the verge of being bad and freezing it. It works out great. bruised strawberries still taste great, but you don't want to eat them fresh! same with browning bananas and soft peaches.

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  3. I agree, Laurie. When my fruit is just about to turn (bananas, nectarines, plums, etc.), I cut it up and freeze it. It's still edible and tastes fantastic in smoothie form. And that way, I don't waste anything, and I get more fruit, and more fiber in my diet.

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