Showing posts with label Meatless Monday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meatless Monday. Show all posts

Monday, June 7, 2021

Tastes like Blueberry Pie Smoothie

Earlier this spring, I was preparing to make a blueberry smoothie. I gathered all the usual ingredients but I just couldn't get excited about blending them all together. I was in a smoothie rut and I'd been there for a while. All winter, it seemed like I was making the same rotation of smoothies, week after week after week...

You get me, right?

I asked myself how I could tweak this old standby, the blueberry smoothie, into something fresh and exciting. And then I had a thought. 

Wouldn't it be great if it tasted like blueberry pie? Blueberry pie, you say? Tell me more...


Friday, June 21, 2019

Orange Rhubarb Anti-inflammatory Smoothie

Another rhubarb smoothie recipe? We are almost at the end of rhubarb season and I wanted to use up the rhubarb remaining in the garden. I loved my Strawberry Rhubarb Smoothie recipe so much that I wanted to try something different. I searched for other fruits that might be good with rhubarb and found a lot of recipes using the natural sweetness of oranges to complement the tartness of the rhubarb.

And so my Orange Rhubarb Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie was born.



Friday, May 24, 2019

Strawberry Rhubarb Smoothie--A Seasonal Treat with Anti-Inflammatory Powers

Growing up near my grandma's farm, I learned a lot about unusual plants and using them for food. My grandma made all kinds of interesting treats. She'd send us outside to pick gooseberries for pie. We had a red currant bush in our yard and she would come over to pick the currants to make jam for us. We also had a rhubarb plant, from which she would take stalks to make rhubarb pie.

I didn't like rhubarb pie. While the pie was a custard, pudding-like consistency, the flavor was tart and had an odd mouthfeel. My dad loved rhubarb pie and since none of us would eat it, there was plenty for him.

My husband and his father also love rhubarb. I tried rhubarb in many different forms--pies, bread pudding, cake-- but was never able to feel the love for the ruby red plant.

Until now.



Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Adventurous Smoothies with Green Blender

As the mom of 2 teenage boys, I struggle to get them to eat anything healthy. Fruits, maybe, but veggies? I hear this complaint from all the parents I see in my clinic, so I know I'm not alone here. When the boys were little, I used to make fruit smoothies for them, calling them "fruit shakes", and in an effort to improve our nutrition, I've recently started making them again. It's been fun getting creative with ingredients and there are so many resources on the internet!

Recently GreenBlender approached me to see if I wanted to test their subscription service, offering to send me a box. Coincidence? I didn't hesitate to say yes!


GreenBlender is a smoothie delivery service company based in NYC. They send all the ingredients, pre-portioned, so that you can make healthy smoothies at home. GB uses locally sourced, organic produce and the ingredients are 100% vegan. Each week you get all the ingredients to make 5 different smoothies (enough to make 10 portions). The website has a ton of recipes and ideas to make your smoothies just perfect!

My GreenBlender box came via FedEx. I was excited to open it and see what was inside! I received the "St Patrick's Day Smoothie" box, and I was pleased to see that everything was cold when I opened the box.

Adventurous Smoothies with Green Blender

The first smoothie I made was the Mint Chocolate Shamrock. I would never have thought to put fresh mint into a smoothie, but there it was. They also used green leaf lettuce from Gotham Greens, which is a company that grows all its produce in pestide-free, ecologically sustainable, 100% clean energy greenhouses. I've been buying this lettuce locally at Whole Foods and just love it. I was excited to see GG included in this box! It was easy to put all the ingredients in the blender because they were all premeasured. The only thing I did differently was to add kefir in place of the water that the recipe called for. We aren't vegan and my athletic son needs protein. The kefir made the smoothie more creamy and both Matthew and I gave this one a thumbs up.

Adventurous Smoothies with Green Blender
Pre-blend
Adventurous Smoothies with Green Blender
The Mint Chocolate Shamrock
Adventurous Smoothies with Green Blender
Pre-gymnastics meet
Adventurous Smoothies with Green Blender
He came in 1st out of 15 boys--could it be the smoothie? We thought so!
The Luck of the Eye-rish smoothie was orange, using orange, carrots, and goji berries, and with the addition of the kefir, tasted like a dreamsicle. I think this was Matthew's favorite smoothie.

Adventurous Smoothies with Green Blender
Luck of the Eye-Rish pre blend
He also enjoyed the Lepre-clean, which contained cucumber, apple, honeydew, and ginger as well as the Emerald Green smoothie, which contained kale, pear, kiwi, and pineapple.

Adventurous Smoothies with Green Blender
Lepre-clean pre blend
Adventurous Smoothies with Green Blender
Lepre-Clean
Adventurous Smoothies with Green Blender
Emerald Green pre blend
I didn't want to leave my oldest son out, and since he's allergic to dairy, I made the Irish Coffee smoothie as the recipe called for. This smoothie contained collard greens, pear, grapes, oats, green coffee, and coconut milk. We both thought it was pretty tasty, but I would have preferred it with the kefir. Tom would have liked more coffee flavor--we've never tasted green coffee, but you wouldn't have known there was coffee in this one.

Adventurous Smoothies with Green Blender
Irish Coffee pre blend
Adventurous Smoothies with Green Blender
Irish Coffee
I really liked the GreenBlender smoothies, as did my sons, and found it a great way to try smoothies with ingredients that I would never have tried before. Luckily all of us are pretty adventurous when it comes to food, and so we didn't feel the need to leave out any ingredients, except the nuts which both boys are allergic to. There were some interesting ingredients that I had never heard of like camu camu and chlorella, which was as green as you might think! I thought these smoothies were a great way to get veggies into our diets. Adding kefir or yogurt is my recommendation if you are not vegan. I liked that everything was already measured out so I could quickly whip these up in the morning before school and work. But I should also note that there is a little prep work before you blend everything together. Obviously the fruits and veggies wouldn't be their freshest if they came pre-peeled and chopped, so you do need to do that yourself.

After making all these yummy smoothies, I realized that I need a better blender if I want to continue to make creative smoothies! My old Osterizer really moaned and groaned while trying to blend everything. Tom's smoothie, the Irish Coffee which contained the oats, was a little "chewy" and not as smooth as we would have liked, and this is when I told my husband that I want a Ninja blender for Mother's Day.

Do you want to try your own GreenBlender Smoothies? Click on any of the GreenBlender links or use the code LONGWAYHOME to get 20% off your first order!

Do you make smoothies? And do you put veggies in your smoothies? Any fun recipes you want to share? What blender would you recommend I buy?

I was given a box of GreenBlender smoothie ingredients in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

I'm linking this post with DebRuns for Wednesday Word. Today's word is adventurous!











I'm also linking up with Confessions of a Mother Runner and Miss Whisk for Meatless Mondays!