Well everyone, this is the last day of our 7 part series, A Smoothie A Day. I've had a lot of fun searching my pantry, freezer and fridge trying to come up with some exciting new smoothie flavors. I think the coffee one was by far my favorite, but that Almond Joy Smoothie is a very close second.
I wanted to call today's smoothie the "I am sick of winter in Utah and wish I was in the Caribbean instead" smoothie, but that seemed like quite the title for a smoothie so instead I'll just call it...
Put the Lime in the Coconut Smoothie (because I kept singing that line as I was making it)
makes 2 servings
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup frozen mango
1/2 cup frozen pineapple
2 tablespoons shredded coconut
1 lime, juiced
handful spinach
1 serving protein powder
water
Calories (per serving): 261.5
Fat grams (per serving): 2.75
I'm really excited, this 7 part series has led me to another project altogether that I'm working on getting up and going. It's just in the beginning stages right now so I won't spill the beans but I'm hoping to have it up and running in a about a month. Stay tuned to this blog to find out what it is and when it's ready.
I think the little man was more excited about the new cups we bought yesterday then about the smoothie. When I asked him what kind of smoothie he wanted today he said 'chocolate' but I figured everyone else might not be as excited about another chocolate smoothie as my little man was so we compromised on this concoction.
That's right folks, after this one there is only one more smoothie. Any suggestions? I have some ideas in my head but I'd love some other opinions and suggestions. Today's smoothie I can't take complete credit for. A friend, Brittany, shared this recipe with me, I've just made some slight variations. Realize that this recipe makes 3 servings, they will be smaller servings than the previous smoothies. There are a lot of rich ingredients in this smoothie so that's why I've made it 3 servings. You could also cut out the almonds all together and cut out 5 grams of fat and 63 calories per serving.
Almond Joy Smoothie
makes 3 servings
1 frozen banana
1 cup almond milk
1 cup vanilla greek yogurt
4 tablespoons shredded coconut (my coconut is sweetened because I use it for baking, if yours is unsweetened I would recommend adding maybe a 1/2 tablespoon of honey or agave nectar to add some sweetness)
1/4 cup silvered almonds
16 dark chocolate chips
ice
Calories (per serving): 235
Fat grams (per serving): 9.2 (Remember a majority of these fat grams are coming from the almonds, which are a 'good' kind of fat to put in your body. Plus that's with the sweetened coconut, it would be less with the unsweetened.)
Today is Saturday and little man's buddy/cousin was over so he was too busy playing to have some of this smoothie. But this is not the first time I have made it, he loved it when I made it before.
Late last night I was up searching the web trying to figure out how to take better pictures...I was not a success, looks like I'll be up again tonight trying to figure it out!
Do you know what you make when you have a basket of oranges sitting there waiting to be used? Well a smoothie with fresh squeezed orange juice of course. I wanted to make a smoothie that tasted like an Orange Julius. I haven't had one of those is so long and it sounded so good. I looked online for a recipe to get me started but I had some issues with the recipes I was finding. It seems that in order to get that frothy taste that you get from the original Orange Julius you need to add an egg white to the smoothie. Well, I'm not really excited about adding a raw egg white to something I am not cooking, so I didn't. I don't think Orange Julius uses a raw egg white but all the recipes I found mentioned using one, or egg white powders which I don't have. Today's smoothie is....
Orangn't Glad It's a Smoothie
makes 1 serving
1 frozen banana
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1/2 plain greek yogurt
3 vanilla soy milk ice cubes (about 5-6 tablespoons)
1/2 tablespoon agave nectar
1 large handful of spinach
ice
I bought a large bag, I'm thinking it was a 10lb bag, of oranges at the store a week ago. The little man loves oranges so it was a great deal at only $2.50 for the bag. It took me 8 large oranges to get a cup of juice, I was surprised it took that many. Maybe they weren't very juicy oranges.
Yesterday I was curious about the calorie count of my smoothie, now I'm thinking I will go back to the other smoothies and figure out the calories on those as well, and on all the smoothies from now on.
Calories: 367
(banana 105, yogurt 75, orange juice 112, agave 30, soy milk 25, spinach 20)
Fat: less than 1 gram!!!!
(the soy milk has 3.5 grams in 1 cup, I only used 5-6 tablespoons so it has to be less than 1 gram!)
As I said earlier, the little man loves oranges so of course he loved this smoothie. Since my munchkin (my 8 month old) was also awake he got a chance to try it out and he liked it too.
I have to admit that I have been looking forward to this smoothie since yesterday morning. And because my little sister couldn't understand why I kept putting spinach into my smoothies I left it out of this one...just for you Brannon :) Honestly, out of all the smoothies I have made so far I'm sure this is the one my family would like the most, (a) because it doesn't have spinach, and (b) because it has coffee.
Cup of Joe Smoothie
makes 1 serving
1 frozen banana
3 coffee ice cubes (I'm thinking its about 5-6 tablespoons of coffee)
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
1 1/2 tablespoons Kahlua Coffee Flavored Syrup (DaVinci Gourmet brand)
8 dark chocolate chips
1 serving of protein powder (I used vanilla soy protein today)
water
I was really curious as to how many calories and fat were in this smoothie so I calculated it for you (ok, I calculated it for me, but you know you were curious too!)
Calories: 365
(med banana 105, flavored syrup 0, soy milk 50, protein 170, coffee 0, chocolate 40)
Fat grams: 5...yes that says 5!
(banana 0, flavored syrup 0, soy milk 1.75, protein 1.5, coffee 0, chocolate 1.75)
Just think of how much better this is for you then a Starbucks blended drink...check out these numbers I found in an ABC Action News article
* A 16 ounce Starbucks Double Chocolaty Chip Frappucino will cost you 500 calories and 9 grams of fat.
* A 16 ounce McDonald’s McCafe Frappe Mocha will cost you 560 calories and 24 grams of fat.
Today I was drawing a blank when it came to making my smoothie. I looked through my pantry, my freezer and my fridge and nothing jumped out at me. Well that't not entirely true. I saw the coffee pot and coffee sitting in my pantry and thought a java type of smoothie would be pretty tasty, even though I don't care for coffee at all. But you can't really make a frosty smoothie out of hot coffee so I brewed a pot and plan on using it tomorrow, I'll put it in an ice cube tray as soon as it cools so I have coffee flavored ice cubes...stay tuned.
This mornings smoothie, after lots of opening and closing of my pantry, freezer and fridge is....
Popeye's Blueberry Lemonade
makes 1 serving
1 frozen banana
1/3 cup frozen blueberries
juice from 1 lemon
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
1 large handful of fresh spinach
1 serving protein powder (today's was a vanilla flavored whey protein powder, not too bad)
water or ice to make to desired consistency
As always, put into a blender and blend.
You may be noticing a trend when it comes to my smoothies...I always use a frozen banana and my veggie of choice is always spinach...why? you might ask. Well let me tell you. I like the texture the banana gives to my smoothies. I started freezing them one time when I had tons of them sitting on my counter and noticed they were going brown. Now I always freeze them, my ice maker on my fridge doesn't work so its a perfect way to avoid adding ice to the smoothie. And spinach, well I like adding a veggie to my smoothie so I know that I am getting the required number of servings of veggies a day. I have tried lots of different veggies in the past and spinach is the one that I can taste the least when it comes to my smoothies.
Oh...and of course...the little guy liked this one too.
