Smoothie Success!

One of my earliest blog posts was about my first three smoothie attempts. I was 1 for 3 and ended up having to eat (instead of drink) what was going to be my first green one:



Failed smoothie, but it tasted good anyway!

To recap, here is the recipe for my one previous success.

Banana-Clementine-Almond Coconut Milk Smoothie

1 peeled banana, cut into 1-inch chunks and frozen
2 clementines, peeled and sectioned
1/2-cup Almond Breeze almond milk-coconut milk blend

Blend until smooth.
(Freezing the banana is not mandatory, but it's the way to go if you want to feel like you are drinking a milkshake.)

Success #2 - Turn it Blue!

Banana-Clementine-Blueberry-Almond Coconut Milk Smoothie

Add a handful of frozen wild blueberries to the above recipe.  Yummy!

OK, pouring it into a blue glass might not have been the best way to photograph it, but it tastes great!

 

Success #3 -  A High-Protein Nutty Surprise!

Vanilla Nut

This is adapted from a recipe called "Chocolate Nut" in The Smoothie Recipe Book.  Besides being more of a vanilla kind of gal, I also cut the  original recipe in half to bring it down to 6 weight watcher points instead of 12.  It's described as "a first-rate, post-workout or breakfast smoothie," so I made it for breakfast after an hour on the treadmill.  Here's my version:

Like something from Dairy Queen!

1 tablespoon of vanilla whey protein (used a "meal replacement shake" powder that I have on hand)

1 banana, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks and frozen

1/4 cup of rolled oats

1 tablespoon of almond butter

1/2 cup of Goya coconut water (purchased in a can in the ethnic food aisle, much less expensive than the trendy varieties found elsewhere in the grocery store)

Blend until smooth. 

I had my doubts about this one.  I was afraid it would come out gritty because of the oats, but it was my smoothest smoothie yet. I loved it!

But What About the Green Stuff?

If you read my first smoothie post, you might recall that one of my objectives was to consume more veggies, and you might have noticed that none of my successes to date are very "vegetably."  I'm using up the gigunda bag of frozen broccoli I had purchased by defrosting about a cup and a half at a time, combining it with some fruit (apples and /or clementines) and/or other veggies (cucumber) and 1/3 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt, and eating it for lunch.  So I am EATING more veggies, just not DRINKING them.  I'll let you know if I try again!