Tag

smoothies

Beverages Farmer's Market Lunch Recipes Quick and Easy Vegetarian

Sunrise Spring Smoothie

written by Ali

This Sunrise Spring Smoothie is a great, healthy way to start the day. Of course, they might be even better if I actually drank them at sunrise. Let me rephrase – they’d be great if I could actually see the sunrise. Here of late, it’s just been rain…and more rain. I’m starting to feel like the sun is never going to come out. Even the three daffodils that I planted in our front bed are looking depressed (ok – two daffodils – I cut one of them for the photo shoot for these smoothies).

Regardless of when you decide to drink your smoothie, the sunrise spring smoothie is a beautiful blend of all sorts of in season fruits and veggies. Yes – you read that right. I used a handful of beet greens for the top layer of these smoothies. I love all things beet, and any time I find a bunch of beets that have a great looking set of leaves, I buy them so I can get maximum benefit out of them. Beet greens aren’t very beet-y; instead, they taste like a very green version of, well, greens. Beet greens are full of protein, magnesium, zinc, potassium, and B6. One of my favorite ways of making use of them is blending them into smoothies.

I’m also getting desperate for strawberries. However, we live in the PNW, which means the best berries are the ones we get locally here. They won’t be available until around June. In the meantime, I’m willing to buy strawberries that have been shipped here, but will use them primarily in smoothies, because they just don’t quite taste right yet. I also threw in some more mangoes – I discovered champagne mangoes the other day at Whole Foods. Champagne mangoes are a smaller mango and are definitely sweeter than their larger counterparts. They are perfect for the yellow layer for my sunrise spring smoothie.

As I mentioned in my tropical turmeric smoothie recipe a few weeks ago, one of the best parts of smoothies is that they can be stored in 8 ounce jars and frozen. I pull a smoothie out of the freezer in the morning, throw it in my bag with the rest of my lunch and have both a great lunch treat, but also an automatic ice pack for whatever else I’m taking with me for the day. By lunch, my smoothie is thawed out and all I need to do is give it a good shake and drink it.

Yum

Sunrise Spring Smoothie

Ingredients

2 mangoes, peeled and diced
1 pint strawberries, chopped
1 bunch beet greens, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 cup pineapple juice

Instructions

If you are going to layer the smoothie, start by blending the mangoes and pineapple juice. Pour this layer into your glasses. Blend the strawberries and 1 1/4 cups almond milk next. Carefully pour onto the first layer in the glasses. Blend the remaining almond milk and beet greens last. Pour onto the second layer.
If you are not layering, combine all ingredients and blend.
Makes 4 eight ounce smoothies. These can be frozen and enjoyed as needed. Enjoy!

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April 5, 2017 1 comment

Beverages Farmer's Market Lunch Recipes Quick and Easy

Chocolate Berry Smoothie

written by Ali

This chocolate berry smoothie is all about the berries, which are just starting to pop up at markets around the United States. I’ve been on a smoothie binge here of late, largely because I figured out how to make smoothies with just my immersion blender. I used to make smoothies in our large blender, but when the carafe broke, I didn’t bother replacing it and the base has been languishing away in our garage. Since we are likely moving soon, I’m doing my best not to buy more things for the kitchen. My quandary, of course, was how to make smoothies. Especially in the spring, I really love the combination of fruit and almond milk or fruit and juice. I also use a super easy technique of putting my smoothies into ½ pint jars and freezing them, which means they are ready to drink right around lunch time (I put them in the fridge the night before to start thawing). Enter the immersion blender. I really think this is the handiest tool I have. It doesn’t take up much space and it quickly blends fruit and liquids into perfect smoothie creaminess. I had very berry smoothies made up in no time at all this weekend.

Speaking of food prep and freezing, I’ve been doing a lot of writing here of late for Fix Me a Little Lunch about preserving. My main focus has been on canning, which, at least for me, most often comes to mind when I think about food storage. But freezing is also another great way to store fruits and veggies when they are in season. One of my favorite things to freeze is berries. We are lucky to live in a region where blueberries, in particular, are abundant. Blueberries freeze so well and are perfect to have on hand in fall and winter to make smoothies (like this very berry smoothie!) but also muffins, bread, pancakes, and so on. My kitchen hack for freezing berries is this: layout parchment paper on a baking sheet and, after washing the berries and inspecting for any bad berries, lay the berries out in a single layer and freeze them. Once they are frozen, they can be stored in freezer bags or containers. This way, they berries don’t freeze in one impossible to separate clump.

For this chocolate berry smoothie recipe, you can, of course, use fresh berries (or frozen berries from the store). I threw in just a scant teaspoon of cocoa powder in my chocolate berry smoothie this week to give it a bit of chocolate flavor.

Yum

Chocolate Berry Smoothie

Ingredients

1 bag of frozen mixed berries (or 3 cups of fresh berries)
2 cups vanilla flavored almond milk or soy milk
1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Instructions

Blend all ingredients until smooth using a blender or immersion blender. If freezing, distribute between four ½ pint jars and freeze. Enjoy! Makes 4 eight ounce servings.

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March 29, 2017 0 comment

Beverages Freezer Meals Lunch Recipes

Freezer Friendly Tropical Turmeric Smoothies

written by Ali

Freezer friendly tropical turmeric smoothies blend the lush taste of mango, coconut, pineapple, and strawberry with just a hint of ginger and turmeric for a perfect breakfast or lunch pick me up. Best yet, they can be made ahead of time (on the weekend during meal prep) and tucked away in half pint jars in the freezer.

It’s been awhile since I’ve made smoothies. For a period of time, it was a weekly affair – I’d even you-pick my way through various farms in Southern Oregon and freeze berries and other fruit for the sole purpose of making smoothies all winter long. I loved having smoothies on hand throughout the week as part of my lunch. Then we moved and I got out of the habit. And then we (by we, I mean my husband) broke the carafe for our blender. So much for smoothies.

I wouldn’t have given it much more thought beyond that of – once we move again, I’ll get around to getting a new blender. However, I ran across an article on some foodie site not too long ago outlining all the ways to use an immersion blender, which I have and use all the time for soups. One of those uses was to blend smoothies. The light bulb went on. It’s time for smoothies again.

Sure enough, the immersion blender works great. I put all the ingredients in a big bowl and just blended away. I don’t know that this would work too well with frozen ingredients, but with fresh fruit, it’s perfect.

I’ve also been reading quite a bit lately about the anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric and been thinking about how to get more of this beautiful spice into my diet. A smoothie seems the perfect vehicle for turmeric. It’s not too overwhelming of a flavor and goes well with a sweet smoothie. I also used ginger to give these freezer friendly tropical turmeric smoothies a bit more zing. The combination of mango, coconut, pineapple, strawberry, turmeric and ginger was perfect. Working with the ingredients I had on hand, I was able to get three 8 ounce smoothies put away in the freezer for later this week. I’ve still got freezer burritos on hand from last week, so when I do get back in the office later this week, lunch is all ready to go.

So, if you have either an immersion blender or regular blender, I encourage you to make these freezer friendly tropical turmeric smoothies. You won’t be disappointed.

Yum

Freezer Friendly Tropical Turmeric Smoothies

Ingredients

2 peeled and sliced mangoes
1 cup pineapple juice
1 cup light coconut milk
4 strawberries, sliced
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a blender (or a bowl, if you are using an immersion blender) and blend until smooth.
Enjoy!

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This post has been shared with the Recipe Showdown Cooking Game hosted by Binky’s Culinary Carnival in March. The ingredient this month is turmeric.

March 13, 2017 1 comment

Beverages Lunch Recipes

Lazy Day Citrus Smoothie

written by Ali

Given the back trouble this week, I wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of spending too much time in the kitchen. I also seemed to have the salad aspect of the week covered in my tuna salad on endive leaves, so decided to do something with fruit instead of my normal entree/salad combo. I had on hand a couple of bananas, along with a few Sumo oranges, and a pomelo. I also had Greek yogurt leftover from the tuna salad. My back hurt, so I decided not to wrestle with the pomelo.

On a side note, I’m fascinated by all the citrus that shows up this time of year at our supermarket. I think this may be the first year I’ve seen the Sumo orange, and I mistook it for a large mandarin orange. I did a bit of research and found that it is actually a cross between a mandarin orange and a California navel orange and has only been sold in the US for the last three years or so. It originated in Japan. They are great because they are very easy to peel and have no seeds, though I don’t know if I fully trust a fruit that has its own Facebook page. (Yes, I was tempted enough to like it and am now following a fruit on Facebook). For that matter, pomelos are also interesting – as it turns out, they are likely the grandparents of the modern grapefruit, and not, as I’d always assumed, a hybrid fruit that involved grapefruit.

Lazy Day Citrus Smoothie
Makes 4 1/2 pint servings

1 banana
2 Sumo oranges
1/3 cup Greek yogurt
4 or 5 ice cubes

Mix all ingredients in a blender. Add water or more ice as needed to make the smoothie smooth.

February 10, 2016 0 comment