Banana Date Smoothie

With this unseasonably warm weather we've been experiencing lately in New England, I've been craving refreshing smoothies. However, I'm not quite ready for berry-flavored smoothies yet. Thankfully there are a gazillion other smoothie combinations out there though! So when I stumbled upon this banana date smoothie the other day from Steph's Bite by Bite, I immediately pinned it. And since then, it's been on my mind quite a bit (don't get jealous, Mike!!). And this past Tuesday I finally got around to making it. And then I made another one on Wednesday. Annnnd, you guessed it. I made another one today, Thursday. Uh huh. It's gooood. 

As I mentioned earlier, I first saw this recipe on the lovely blog, Steph's Bite by Bite. The proportions and ingredients listed below are what I used and are just slightly modified from the original recipe. This makes one serving.

Ingredients:

-1 medium to large banana, frozen

-1/4 cup dry regular oats

-3 pitted dates, chopped/sliced

-1/2 cup milk (I used organic 1%)

Instructions:

Place all ingredients in a blender. Blend until everything's mixed together and fairly smooth.

Of note, the original recipe does call for a few ice cubes. Mine turned out plenty cold (for my liking) with just the frozen banana and cold milk. But feel free to add ice cubes if you'd like! It may "bulk" up the smoothie a bit too, if you add the ice.

A trick to make this easier? Slice your bananas before freezing them. If you have a super duper fancy blender you may be able to just throw a whole frozen banana in there, but my blender isn't that great so it works better for me if I slice the bananas before I freeze them. I also chopped up the dates into smaller pieces before adding them to the blender.

On one of the past three days I made this smoothie I was on the run, going from one thing to another. So, I put it in a handy dandy little to-go cup that works great for smoothies and shakes!

Another picture of ingredients in the blender; this was smoothie day #3.

If you need a reminder about how good dates are for you, read all about them here. I looove dates! If you're a regular reader, you already know this. I've mentioned my obsession with dates when I've baked with them (recently with maple date scones and a little while back with maple date bars). And I feel like every time I make something with dates, I talk about how obsessed with them I am. Guess that really just confirms the obsession!!

After blending...bubbles!

Yep, I drank my smoothie out of a wine glass. :)

If you love smoothies, especially healthy ones, go make this one! Deeeelicious.

Bananoramaberry Smoothie

Greetings, friends! It definitely feels like summer here in Boston, and you know what summer makes me think of? Fun, cool drinks like smoothies! I made this delicious, healthy smoothie last week, and I'm not going to lie....I drank it so quickly you'd barely know I ever made it! Oops. It was just so good that I couldn't help it. :)

This made about 12 ounces or so for me, so it could easily be shared between two people too. I was selfish though and kept it for myself!

Ingredients:

-1/2 cup frozen banana (equals approx. one medium banana)

-1/2 cup frozen blueberries

-one 6 oz. container cherry flavored yogurt

-1 cup almond milk

Place all ingredients in your blender and blend away! You can certainly use any kind of yogurt you'd like. I happened to choose cherry, and it lent some great flavor to the smoothie. It also lent some of the pretty "purply" color, I think, although that's probably also due to the blueberries. You could also use regular or soy milk too, depending on your preference.

The smoothie coordinates well with my petunias!

Like my Dogfish Head beer glass? :)

Yum yum yum! Love it. I make different flavored smoothies all the time. Hopefully I will share more of them with you in the future! What are some of your favorite smoothie combinations or flavors? Do share!! :)

Cinnamon Bun Smoothie

I ♥ smoothies. You all know about my love affair with the original green monster smoothie...I make at least a couple of those monsters each week and I don't think I'll ever get sick of them! I've even started to eat them out of a bowl sometimes...green monster "soup" perhaps? :) I topped this bowl with some granola for an added crunch and sweetness.

In addition to the green monster, I've had fun experimenting with all other flavors of smoothies as well, but sadly, I have shared very few of these with you on the blog! I think it's about time I changed that. The only other one I think I've shared is the delightful Yum Yam Smoothie, that Jenn and I created together last fall. Delicious!

Sometimes I make up my own smoothie recipes (it's really hard to mess up a smoothie!), and other times I like to follow a recipe that some other creative person has developed. This cinnamon bun smoothie was created by The Happy Herbivore, and I just couldn't resist trying it. Cinnamon bun in smoothie form?! Yes, please.

Recipe, as adapted from The Happy Herbivore (makes 1 serving):

-1 banana, cold 

-1 cup milk (non-dairy if you'd like your smoothie to be vegan, I used regular skim milk)

-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

-1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

-1/2 tsp. maple syrup

-1 tsp. cinnamon bun flavored coffee creamer (this was a special Barbershop addition!)

Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend away! Then, ENJOY. :) 

A couple points of note for you... The banana I used was medium in size, and I left it in the freezer for about an hour or so before using it in my smoothie, so it was only slightly frozen. I think that if you didn't already have a cold banana, you could easily use one that's at room temp...but you may then need to add ice to your smoothie. Also, this is a rather sweet smoothie, but for my tastes, it was not too sweet. It really did have a noticeable cinnamon bun flavor! I will absolutely be making this smoothie again...and again...and probably again. ;-)

I had fun taking some pictures outside on my porch, as you can see here. I only wish I had some real, homemade, ooey gooey cinnamon buns to use as a backdrop in these pictures!!

Be back again soon. :)

Yum Yam Smoothie ;-)

Yum Yam Smoothie! I know, it's a bit of a silly name, but the words I've used to describe this smoothie are very appropriate! I almost called it Yummy Yammy Smoothie, which would have been even sillier, wouldn't you agree? :)

My lovely friend Jenn and I had a fun "fall fest" this past weekend where we just soaked up all the amazing sights, sounds, and tastes that come with fall! We began the day with these delicious "yam" (or, sweet potato!) smoothies for which I'm about to share the recipe... Originally, we had intended to make pumpkin smoothies, but neither the store Jenn went to, nor the store I went to, had canned pumpkin! That is tragic, really. :-( I went to a different store today, and they were out too... I don't know what I'll do if I can't find canned pumpkin this fall!

But anyway, back to the delicious smoothie that we did end up making. The lack of pumpkin was actually serendipitous; if we hadn't tried this smoothie with the yams, we would have never known how yummy they can be too!

This recipe served the two of us (in big, tall glasses pictured below!):

-2 cups almond milk

-1 and 1/2 frozen bananas

-1 can (15 oz.) cut yams, drained

-3 to 4 Tbsp. (approx.) of the syrup from the canned yams

-dash of vanilla extract

-dash of cinnamon

-dash of nutmeg

-handful of ice

Blend all of the ingredients, and voila, you have yourself a tasty fall-flavored smoothie! 

This truly was amazing. I am a bit of a big dork when it comes to the fall and how excited I get about it, but really, this was so delicious. I love the light orange color. It almost fools you because it looks like a creamsicle! We put another dash of cinnamon and nutmeg on top of the smoothie before sipping too. It was so refreshing and obviously incredibly healthy too, thanks to the almond milk, sweet potatoes, and bananas! Did you know that cinnamon has some great health benefits too? Check them out here. I actually put a dash of cinnamon in my coffee each morning, which is also quite delicious...just fyi. :)

We also went to a huuuge apple orchard, Russell Orchards, about 45 minutes outside of Boston in Ipswich, MA. It was great! It was definitely the biggest orchard to which I've ever been. They also have a winery, but sadly, Jenn and I were not impressed with the wines we tasted. BUT, they had the best cider donuts I've ever had. No joke! They were absolutely delicious...they were soft, doughy, and had just the right amount of cider flavor. They weren't covered in cinnamon sugar either; they were perfect as is! See?

My next mission is going to be to make my own cider donuts at home... So stay tuned for that! I also have a few other recipes I've made in recent weeks that are just waiting on deck to share with you.

Happy almost autumn, all!