Christmas Present!!

My husband is a wonderful man.  Kind, caring, good father, fears God, many things. Right now he is pretty high up in the good books for the Christmas Present he bought me. I am now the proud owner of a VitaMix!!  Prepare to be Blended!!
My Blender Ninja was doing an okay, job but, there were just a few things it really couldn't handle. Raw veggie items just didn't work. Chunks would be in the drink, not so much a smoothie anymore!  I knew a VitaMix would do all that and more, but the $$$ (gasp)! I had mentioned a couple months ago that a VitaMix would be so much better, but that I would have to save up some money to make that type of a purchase.  The Hubs came through last week and told me that would be my Christmas present!! (Don't worry he bought himself a guitar!)  The Vitamix arrived yesterday. Today I got to play!  SOTD is going to be getting a face lift!!

VitaMix Christening Smoothie

1 banana

1 cup coconut water

1/2 C greek yogurt

1 T goji berries

1 T Bee Pollen

1 T wheat germ

1 T Flax Seed

2 T Hemp Seed

Handful Frozen  Strawberries

Handful Forzen Mango chunks

 1 T honey

Handful fresh spinach

4 Large broccoli flroets (raw!)

Blend away and drink the SMOOTHIE! Can't taste the broccoli. Hubs says "best smoothie to taste".  Not because of the ingredients, dear, but because of the blender did its job!

Immune Boost

Little girl is sick. Puke on the carpet sick.  Since I know today will mean I have my hands in puke (glamorous job that it is) I thought I best boost my immune system. I still have 2 more kids that could potential catch this bug.  Today's smoothie is full of immune boosting benefits and tastes so yum!

 

Immune Boost

1 banana (always a banana!)
1 packed cup of spinach leaves

2 cups orange juice

1/2  cup Greek yogurt

1 T bee pollen

1 T Goji berries

2 T raw honey

handful of frozen strawberries

almond milk to make 4 cups

Except for the banana, everything above is full of immune boosting properties.  Here's hoping it works!

Antioxidant Boost

Wow! Almost a whole month since I posted something. I have been Blending...some. I don't think anything really interesting though. Just basic smoothies. Lately, my creative juices are not going into my smoothies. Today I am creative. 
Last grocery store trip, pomegranates were on sale for $0.99! I bought 2. I juiced one up today, added some blueberries and was wondering what else would go. I thought of my Greek yogurt. A lot of yogurt is used in the middle east right? So the flavor combo should work.

Antioxidant Boost

1 juice pomegranate (or 1 c pom juice)

1 banana

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 c Greek yogurt

1 T Bee Pollen

Enough water to make 4 cups blended!

Yum! As usual the Greek yogurt makes it creamy. The combo works. Maybe this will help me kick the almost-getting-sick I am feeling lately.

Sunbutter Smoothie

I dislike peanut butter! I like peanuts, but peanut butter isn't something I enjoy. Especially sweetened peanut butter and WHY would anyone ruin chocolate by adding peanut butter into the mix?!  Of course with my smoothie blog, people ask me if I make a PB smoothie. No. Yuck. So today I created my version that uses Sunbutter (made from sunflower seed). I like sunbutter, I will use that in a PBJ over peanut butter.  If you happen to be a person that like PB, you can put that in place of the sunbutter.

Sunbutter smoothie
3 T sunbutter
1 large banana
2 T hemp seed
1 T wheat germ
1 T Flax seed
2 c almond milk
 1/2 c greek yogurt

Dragonfruit Smoothie

I came across something interesting in the grocery store the other day, a Dragon-fruit! Definitely not ND grown! It got my interest though. I have never tried one before and I thought it might be interesting to add to a smoothie. I also picked up 1/2 a papaya.  As usual I am behind on my smoothie posts and have 3 to share with you.

Basic Dragon-fruit

1/2 Dragon-fruit

1 banana

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

blend with a splash of almond milk. 

 I didn't make this the normal 4 cups because my husband had already eaten. This particular smoothie was very creamy.

 Tropical Dreams

1/2 papaya

1 banana

1/2 cup frozen mango chunks

1/2 cup frozen pineapple chunks

1 cup almond milk

water to make 4 cups

Suprisingly, both my husband and I didn't care for this as much as we thought we would.

Island Dragon-fruit  

1/2 Dragon-fruit

1 banana

1 c coconut milk (the stuff from a can)

1/2 cup frozen pineapple chunks

1/2 c Greek Yogurt

1 cup almond milk

water to make 4 cups 

Very yummy. Creamy and tropical and makes me wish I could be on a beach.

I have to say the experience with Dragon-fruit was a good one, however I don't think I will be having too many of these smoothies.  It cost $6.50 / lb for the fruit here. I paid about $5 for the 1 I bought.  Fun trial, not practical!

Stawberry Sunrise

Yum! Today was a great smoothie! 

Strawberry Sunrise

2.5 cups Pineapple Orange Juice

handful frozen strawberries

1 cube ginger 

1 T goji berries

5 dried apricots (heat up in 1/2 cup oj to soften)

1 T bee pollen

1/2 C greek yogurt

2 T hemp seed

2 T raw oatmeal

Almond milk to make 4 cups

Blend and enjoy this smoothie. 

I need to make note of my 1 cube of ginger.  I purchase a ginger root from the grocery store. At home I peel it, blend in with a bit of water and freeze it in an ice cube tray. Pop them out of the tray and store them in a zip bag. The keep for a long time and are handy to have to throw in smoothies, curries, or anything else that calls for fresh ginger.  

Back to Blended

I can have bananas in the house again, the fruit flies are gone. The weather changed (6 inches of snow yesterday!) and the flies are dead.  I have started to blend again.  I missed my daily smoothie. In replacement I found myself back at my old breakfast, tea and some type of bread / pastry/ doughnut etc.  I am behind on a couple smoothies so I have 3 to post today.
The first smoothie I made was basic:

Green Blueberry Smoothie

1 banana

handful of mixed greens

1 T wheat germ

1 T ground flax seed

2 T hemp seed

1 cup frozen blueberries 

almond milk to make 4 cups

The second smoothie is:

 Carrot Mango Ginger Smoothie

1 banana

handful of greens

4 cubes of frozen pureed carrot (I made this for baby food and threw it in on a whim, now I will need to make more!)

1 cup frozen mango

1/2 cup Honey Green yogurt

3 shakes of powdered ginger

3 shakes cinnamon

1 cup water

Almond milk to make 4 cups

This was a really yummy smoothie. I will definitely be making this again! Probably add some of my grains next time.

Today's Smoothie is:

Green Apple Crisp Smoothie

1 banana

handful of greens

3/4 cup applesauce

2 T honey

1 T wheat germ

1 T ground flax seed

2 T hemp seed

2 T raw quick oatmeal 

random shake of powdered ginger, cinnamon, all spice, cloves (heavier on the ginger and cinnamon)

1 cup water

almond milk to make 4 cups

If you noticed I am adding water, I am trying to cut back on calories (and cost) of the almond milk. I keep adding some almond milk to get the calcium.