at home with ann

Look! I made a smoothie that isn't green!  It does still have vegetables in it, however, so you can count it as healthy. As I've mentioned before, carrot cake is my favorite cake.  I've taken to buying bags of baby carrots for us to snack on throughout the week, and at one point we had three bags (two opened, how does that happen...) in the fridge.  This was the perfect use for a couple carrots. Carrot Cake Smoothie Based on Oh She Glows 1 banana (frozen works best, but fresh is fine) 1/2-1 cup almond milk (any milk will do) 1 carrot, grated (or 4 baby carrots) A few shakes of Cinnamon Dash of Nutmeg A few drops Vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon chia seeds 1 Tablespoon flaked coconut Ice cubes Combine all ingredients in a blend and run until smooth. If you have a fancy, high speed blender like the Vitamix, you could put the carrots in in chunks, but for a regular blender I would recommend grating first. At some point I'll to try adding spinach for ext...

I've tried to convince you to drink green smoothies before, and I'm not giving up!  They taste bright and refreshing, and on the mornings after a particularly rough night in baby land, they give me energy.  This mix gets it's tropical taste from the combination of banana and coconut oil, as well as the usual suspects of spinach, almond milk, and a handful of ice.  It would also be delicious with the addition of pineapple or mango. Let's go back to the coconut oil, though.  According to Organic Facts.com: The health benefits of coconut oil include hair care, skin care, stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, weight loss, increased immunity, proper digestion and metabolism, relief from kidney problems, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and cancer, dental care, and bone strength. These benefits of coconut oil can be attributed to the presence of lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, and its properties such as antimicrobial, ...

This is the time of year when cherries are on sale at the market.  By "on sale," I mean that you can manage to buy a bag for less than $10.  If they weren't so good, I couldn't bring myself to pay so much for them.  The only problem I've found is that if you don't eat the cherries within 2-3 days, they start to go bad.  And throwing away $8 worth of cherries is not good.  I noticed ours were on the verge yesterday, so I spent a good chunk of the afternoon pitting and slicing them to freeze.  My hands and countertops are stained with cherry juice, but I now have a nice big bag of cherries in the freezer for whenever the mood strikes me. I sometimes joke that I could write a cookbook called "what's about to go bad."  I hate wasting food, so whenever some produce is nearing the end of it's life, I come up with some use for it right away.  Smoothies are great for any fruit that's still ok, but you wouldn't necessarily want to eat on it...

I won't post all my smoothie recipes, but just in case you were feeling hesitant about drinking green goo, this combination is delicious! Strawberry Banana Green Smoothie 1 banana 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt a few frozen (or fresh) strawberries - I used 6 a handful of baby spinach 3/4-1 cup milk a few ice cubes Put all ingredients except ice in the blender.  Blend for a few minutes.  Add ice cubes and blend until they are crushed and the mixture looks smooth and frothy. The sweetness of the banana, strawberry and vanilla yogurt counteracts any spinach flavor- really!

Green smoothies (or Green Monster s) are very trendy.  It's just adding spinach or kale to traditional smoothies to make a vitamin packed, super healthy drink.  In my experience, baby spinach is the best green to work with because it has a mild flavor and blends well.  You don't actually want to feel like you're drinking spinach.  I used peanut butter and banana in this recipe because they are both strong flavors, and that's really all you taste when you drink it.  Also, you get the nutrients from the banana and healthy, filling protein and fat from the peanut butter. Ingredients are simple enough, just banana, peanut butter, milk, spinach, and ice cubes. To start, I put a very ripe banana and a couple tablespoons of peanut butter in the blender along with a few handfuls of baby spinach leaves. Then I added about a cup of milk and blended well until completely combined and bright green!  Finally, I added in a handful of ice cubes and ran the blender ...

This smoothie reminds me of a creamsicle.  It's packed full of nutrients, and would be the perfect refreshing drink for a summer's day.  Or the middle of winter when you have a sore throat.  Also, it's a good use for a bunch of oranges on their last legs. Creamy Orange Smoothie Serves 2 ~2 oranges; segmented, and frozen* 1 banana 1-1 1/2 cups almond milk (any kind of milk or orange juice) 1 Tablespoon wheat germ (optional, ground flax would be good here, too) *It's important to use frozen oranges, otherwise your smoothie will be a weird mushy consistency.  Just peel and segment the oranges and stick them in a bag in the freezer. Add all ingredients to your blender. If you have an ice crush button, I would recommend pulsing it a couple times.  Otherwise, just let it go!  You might need to add a little more milk to get it to the desired consistency.   Drink up!