New Smoothie!!

I rely on smoothies for my morning breakfast most days, I try to make them ahead of time at night so they're ready to go and I can just grab them and go in the morning! Having to be at work at 6am most days it has really helped save me time and kept me healthy in the mornings! I used to go to the local bagel shop or McDonald's or just not eat...that is not okay! Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day and for me it sets how the rest of my meals will go. If I start healthy, I'll usually stay healthy! :)

I've posted before about SMOOTHIES and so when I stumble upon a new one and I like it I'll for sure pass it along to y'all! The other day I was totally craving a mocha frappe, after my Body Blast class the Lifetime Cafe brought in a sample of their mocha smoothie...it was DELISH and made me want one! So I figured that theirs probably had a lot of sugar in it set out to find a recipe I could make at home! I don't know about y'all but I used to be a googler...however, now I'm more of a let's search Pinterest and see what I can find! Well I found a plethora of recipes...I chose one and made it this morning...it's pretty good!

I cannot take credit for the recipe, that's all Catlin over at My chocolate moments.

I've pasted the recipe straight from her blog:

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 banana
• 1/4 cup yogurt
• 1 to 1 and 1/2 TBSP instant coffee
• 1/2 TBSP cocoa powder
• 1/2 TBSP honey
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup milk
• 12-14 cups of ice
• 2 cups leafy greens
• 2 TBSP flaxseed

A note on these ingredients – all of these amounts are approximations and can be easily changed, substituted, removed, increased, or decreased to your liking.  If you like your coffee black then you may not need the honey as an extra sweetener.  If you like your coffee strong, you may want to add more that what I use.  I’m not really sure why I use both yogurt and milk – I’m sure one or the other would be fine (yogurt if you want a thicker, smoothie like consistency, milk if you want a more drinkable shake).
The greens and flaxseed are 100% optional and don’t really effect the taste at all.  I just add them in so I can get a few more nutrients.  The flaxseed can be a bit gritty, but I blend my smoothie on the liquify setting on my blender because I like mine drinkable, so the flaxseed gets pretty ground up.  If you haven’t tried putting greens in your shake, I challenge you to give it a try.  Start with just a little and work your way up to a big ‘ole handful (that’s what I did).  You really can’t taste it (at least, I can’t) and it’s like eating a bowl of salad while having a yummy smoothie snack.

I will probably tweak the recipe to fit me more...I'm not a huge fan of chocolate (let me pick you up off the floor, I know, I'm weird) so it was a little too chocolaty for my taste and I only used 2 teaspoons full of cocoa. Also I may try a little almond milk instead of regular just because I like the taste of almond milk in my smoothies.

Let me know if y'all try this out! It was really good and the flax seed really helped keep me full!

xoxo,
SamanthaDiane

Smoothies!!

In January my church did a 21 day fast to start our year. If I'm being honest, fasting scares me...I mean I love food y'all! I totally get that the idea of fasting is to replace food, social media, whatever you're fasting from with prayer, connection with God and growing closer to Him. It sounds SO wonderful and amazing! Whenever you would be doing whatever you're fasting from you instead replace that time with time with God, however you choose to do so. Like I said fasting scares me, I immediately think I'll be starving myself and oh my goodness I won't be getting nutrients and fueling my body! The whole idea is to fuel your body/mind/self with God and His goodness! There are many types of fasting, there's the Daniel Fast, juice fasting and fasting from sun up to sun down. I decided to do a juice fast... well actually just replace my breakfast with a green smoothie. I had thought of this before, but never could stomach the idea. I mean these things look gah-ross! Pretty much like swamp water with algae! So for 21 days I made a smoothie every morning (really I made it then night before and just gave it a quick mix on my Ninja in the morning!) and used the time I'd normally be making breakfast and eating it to pray on the way to work and to open my Bible app on my Kindle at work when I had a break.
I've since kept my smoothie routine and not only have I grown closer to God during my prayer time, but it's helped me in my quest to lose weight and get healthy!! (Win/win!)  I figured I'd share one of my recipes with y'all! I've seen a million on Pinterest and have adapted my own recipe by switching things up and trying new ideas!

This morning's smoothie was as follows:

2 BIG handfuls of baby spinach
1/2 large avocado
frozen mixed fruit (I just pour in a bout a 1/2 - 1 cup)*
1/2 cup of low fat yogurt**
1 kiwi
1 cup of water

* this is all I had, I really like frozen tropical fruit better
** I'm planning on trying greek yogurt (has more protein) but I just have been chicken to try it!



All the ingredients...minus the seltzer water, ignore that!
 

Layer the ingredients staring with the spinach, I push it down with a spoon!

 

Add the fruit and yogurt ( I just eyeball the yogurt)                 


                                             




Blend it all up!
 

Doesn't look yummy but it totally is!!

 

 

 





I've tried kale and spinach and even some romaine lettuce! I've also tried apples (which unless you enjoy chewing your smoothies, I don't suggest). Instead of water sometimes I use unsweetened almond milk...it's actually very good and I NEVER thought I'd use it! I've started using avocado instead of banana a couple days a week and the smoothness that it makes is crazy good!

 

I got a Ninja for Christmas and I am OBSESSED with it!! It's seriously awesome!!It blends everything together and makes it so smooth and delicious!!  ** I am not a spokesperson for Ninja and received nothing for telling y'all how awesome it is!**

Do y'all drink smoothies at all? If so what do you make? If not, I am telling you to try it!! It's so good and satisfying!!

ps... I have NO idea what's going on with my pictures, well actually it's probably because I'm still figuring everything out! :) So sorry, but please chalk it up to my newness! :)

xoxo,

SamanthaDiane