Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Easy, Yummy, Groovy Smoothie

Good morning! Tex here to help you start your day with a protein-packed breakfast or snack you can sit and enjoy or take on the run.

On my best days, I'm at the gym every morning before I ever get ready for the day. Since I tend to do a lot of weights, I like to make sure I get plenty of protein for breakfast. However, one can only do so many eggs. And I was getting bored with my Kashi Go Lean. Besides, it's hotter'n blue blazes here in Texas, so I wanted something that would keep me cool too.

So here's what I came up with.

My base is non-fat, plain Greek yogurt. This stuff is super high in protein and so much better than regular yogurt. I typically use 3/4 cup.

Then I add 1/2 to 1 cup of blueberries. Excellent source of antioxidants, with fiber to help fill you up. Because I like the flavor, I often add a peach, unpeeled, just pitted, too.

From there, it's some ice, a splash of unsweetened vanilla almond milk (you can use regular milk), two packets of Splenda (or whatever suits your tastes - you can even use honey or agave nectar, if you prefer), and just a little bit of vanilla extract (maybe 1/8 teaspoon).

Put everything in a blender. Then, last but not least, I add my secret ingredient.

Yep, a handful of spinach. I promise you will not taste it. But what an easy way to get some extra vitamins and iron.

You can see everything layered in the blender.

Now, blend until smooth.

That's it.

Now you're ready to enjoy without any guilt whatsoever. (Yes, those sinking blueberries were my lame attempt at a garnish. If only I'd had some mint leaves. And can you tell from the side I took a sip before taking this pic? :-)

Of course, you can use whatever fruit you like. Bananas, oranges, strawberries.... The sky's the limit.

Do you like to sneak veggies into any of your recipes? If so, what's your favorite idea?

37 comments:

  1. Haha! Now everyone is on the Greek yoghurt kick! It's soooo good for you!

    And I'm totally trying this. YUM.

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    1. Virginia, once I tried Greek yogurt, I never went back. Along with being so good for you, it's more satisfying. Yes, it's more expensive, but so worth it :-)

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  2. Oh, and I've never snuck veggies into anything. I know there's a cookbook out there by Jessica Seinfeld all about that, but I've never been rbave enough to try it.

    If you say you can't taste the spinach, I believe you.

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  3. I am in for this. There is a black bean brownie recipe I really want to try but must get my courage up first!

    Peace, Julie

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    1. Julie, I've heard of black bean brownies, but never tried one. I'd love to see the recipe. Especially since I have a couple of brownie junkies around the house. I wonder if they'd know the difference....

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    2. Okay.... That is just WRONG. Becuase it matches doesn't mean it goes together!!!

      Haha! But Julie, you try it and tell us if it works, okay?

      I'm still giggling. Wow. Sounds awful.

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  4. Spinach.... I may or may not be wincing, imagining.

    And yet, I've done weirder things. Smoothies are the rage up here, and I would guess nationwide from all the commercials. The kids love 'em. And I love that they now have yogurt that's power-packed good for us without all the sugars! And so smoooooooth. I have a farmer heroine coming up who strives to produce milk for the new yogurt enterprises. We have THREE yogurt manufacturers building plants in upstate NY, so that's awesome.

    Keep eating!!!! ;)

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    1. Ruthy, for some reason, I feel like I knew that little factoid about the yogurt manufacturers. How, I don't know. Maybe you should see if they do tours. I'm thinking field trip:-)

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    2. Oh, wouldn't it be fun to tour one of those?? Research!

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    3. Ruthy,
      Have you visited Culture on one of your visits to Brooklyn to your son? It's an organic yogurt place that makes all its own yogurt on site.

      http://www.cultureny.com/

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    4. That would be so much fun... I'll have to see if they're open for tours!

      It's amazingly delicious and different. Which is making me hungry.

      97 degrees right now. I'm a big baby in the heat... And my hair does NOT LOOK GOOD. So sad.

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  5. I never understood what all the hoopla was about over Greek yoghurt and now I understand. :-) I love smoothies so I'll definitely give this recipe a try -- even with the spinach because I trust you -- and I'm brave. And bonus -- I'm actually off my oatmeal kick this summer because it's so hot and this sounds like a good way to start the day. I make smoothies but they're more like a drink, not a meal.

    Sneaking veggies into food? How about tomatoe chocolate cake? Yum - so moist!!!! And zucchini cake.

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    1. Wow, two people trusting me in one day. I hope I don't disappoint.

      Believe it or not, Kav, I've made a chocolate cake with tomatoes. My boys had this book called Thundercake and the recipe was in there. And when they'd read it at school, guess who brought in the thundercake?

      You know, that's not a bad idea. I have some tomatoes I need to use. And my boys love chocolate cake/thundercake. Hmmm...you've just given me a great idea, Kav.

      Thanks.

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    2. That's exactly the recipe I use!!!! LOVE Thundercake by Patricia Polacco. Everyone shoule read it -- own a copy even. Down home goodness, lovely relationship between grandma and granddaughter and it's all about conquering your fears. AND it has a recipe in the back. I used to make a batch and offer it up to the classes I read the book too. Great fun goading some brave soul to try my funny cake but they all loved it. Alas, now with so many food allergies and healthy school policies backing for my library brood is a thing of the past. :-(

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    3. I've never even heard of this! Will have to see if our library has it!!

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    4. I love zucchini bread and cake. And never tried tomato cake. How 'bout I just eat chocolate cake and have tomatoes on the side????

      I love tomatoes. They're so yum.

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  6. Tomato chocolate cake????

    This great post and recipe, and all I can say is tomato chocolate cake??????????????

    LOL! You've left me speechless.

    Yes, I can see using spinach in this. I can even imagine black bean brownies. But tomato in a chocolate cake?? Is that like adding applesauce instead of oil to a recipe? To add moisture?

    Okay, I'll try to move beyond it. {grin}

    Mindy, great recipe! You've got me craving it now. Must go to the grocery! I still haven't gone since vacation, so the cupboard is bare.

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    1. Missy, what's with you and Ruthy today? She's hung up on the spinach and you're hung up on tomatoes in cake.

      Get over it women!

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    2. LOL! I think maybe we're both too attached to butter. :)

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    3. That Barbara Streisand... she's like BUTTAH! (SNL skit, way back, the old Jewish women... loved it!) And I do love butter.

      And oil, real oil in my carrot cake. Who thought up the applesauce gig? Really? That's so not something. Oil in cake is worth an extra mile on the treadmill!

      Okay, back to spinach. I have a thing about spinach and tofu. But I can actually eat spinach. I would prefer death and heaven to tofu.

      But having said that, doesn't the spinach turn the smoothie green? And if not, why not? And could I use carrots, instead? Because I love carrots, high carbs and all. Carrots are so rooted in simplicity! (get it? Rooted???? Hahahahahaha!)

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  7. Hey Mindy, we've left Missy speechless! Thundercake is positively delish! Honest. The tomatoes actually provide enough moisture that you don't need to use milk so if you have a dairy allergy person in your family it's great. And I've never tasted a moister cake. Plus it's so yummy you don't even need to ice it. I sprinkle some chocolate chips over the top right as it comes out of the oven and they melt into gooey goodness and it's ready to eat!

    And if you want to go totally dairyless try tomato soup cake. No eggs even. Just a can of tomato soup, some water and other key ingredient (like cocoa, flour etc.) and it makes a wicked cake too.

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  8. Wow! Kav, will you share the recipe sometime on a Saturday? Or do it on one of my Fridays? I'd love to see this!

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    1. LOL I don't mind doing a thundercake post BUT not until this heatwave breaks. No air conditioning and dying up here. There's no way the oven is going on!!! So Mindy might be faster at it! Bah I hate heat and humidity!!!!!!!

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    2. Okay, so we put Kav on for Thundercake in September, okay? After our Labor Day here so that numbers go back up, school's back in session and vacations are a memory.

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  9. This is what happens when I try to be good and do my writing before I play online. I miss all the fun.:(

    OTOH, I'm about to hit 20k on a book I started a week ago. :)

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  10. Mary, you're doing great on your book!!

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  11. This is off-topic, but I'm making Jan's cafloutis (we're so enjoying saying that, many, many times)

    AND it looks nothing like the picture. It will probably taste okay.

    I hope. She needs to come and make me one. Mine's all lumpy. Probably because I just dumped everything in there together, then poured over the fruit.

    Directions? What directions??

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  12. She did say the picture wasn't of her clafoutis. Here's hoping you're falling under the "doesn't look great but tastes amazing" category.

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  13. Oh - and Virginia, here's the Cherries blog post you asked for.

    http://www.healthywriter.com/index.php/cherries/

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  14. Mindy,

    I never commented on your original post. I've been making high protein smoothies by adding in a scoop of chocolate protein powder. It's only 100 calories and has 19 grams of protein.

    I use the almond milk also or sometimes the unsweetened almond/coconut milk.

    I'm seriously considering buying one of those Nutribullets so I can throw in almonds or walnuts or anything that needs to be ground up.

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