Simple Chocolate Berry Oat Shake
Hi. I’ll spare you the long apology for why I haven’t blogged since (I’m afraid to check how long it’s been.) In brief, I’ve been stranded in a desolate place called college, where there is little to no opportunity for ventures into the unexplored world of baked, cooked, or blended nutriment. If you regret not seeing any fun recipes on this site for the past millennium or so, imagine how I must have felt having to eat the distinctively uncreative food available in my isolated confinement.
Overall, I actually had a pretty good first year of college, aside from estrangement from my blender. But that’s boring and I won’t get into it right now. Are you ready for an ice cold summer refreshment smooth as the most decadent of ice creams yet packed with hearty grains and splashed with the splendid kiss of tart berries? Here is your (5-ingredients only!) recipe.
Simple Chocolate Berry Oat Shake
serves one
Ingredients:
- 8 fresh strawberries
- 1 Weight Watchers brand (or similar) chocolate fudge ice cream bar
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 1 tbs fruit preserves (I used Whole Foods 365 brand Fruits of the Forest flavor spread)
- 1 individual packet dry instant oatmeal (I used Quaker lower sugar maple and brown sugar)
Directions:
Wash strawberries, remove stems and leaves, and chop each into three or four large pieces (to ease blending.) If desired, reserve one strawberry for decoration.
Combine strawberries, ice cream bar, water and fruit preserves in blender. Blend until smooth.
Open oatmeal packet and pour dry oatmeal into blender. Blend for 8-16 seconds (longer blending leads to smoother texture, but I like some grainy chunks in my shakes.)
Pour smoothie into glass and serve cold.
Summer Harvest Smoothie
It has been a bountiful summer as usual! Plums glisten in the produce aisle and strawberries tempt and tease from their little plastic baskets. I decided to combine these two flavors – plus a few more – in an unusual summer smoothie celebrating the harvest with frozen and dried fruits.
Summer Harvest Smoothie
serves one
Ingredients:
- 1 frozen banana
- 1 cup plain almond milk
- 1 container Chobani brand plum flavor Greek yogurt
- 1 packet strawberries and cream flavored instant oatmeal
- 4-8 frozen strawberries
- 1 single-serving box of Sun Maid brand raisins
Directions:
Place all ingredients in blender except oatmeal and raisins. Blend until smooth. Add oatmeal and raisins and blend for five additional seconds. Pour smoothie into a glass. Enjoy!
The Orange Julius for Adventurers!
In 1926, Los Angelesian Julius Freed opened an orange juice stand. Three years later, Freed’s real estate broker Bill Hamlin improved upon his recipe to create a version of the orange drink that was less acidic. It became so popular that by 1964, the “Orange Julius” was named the official drink of the World’s Fair in New York. Dairy Queen saw the beverage gaining a following in the libation kingdom, and purchased it in 1987. Now this icy concoction of orange juice, milk, powdered egg whites, and vanilla flavoring is sold in Dairy Queen outlets from coast to coast.
(Image above from Wikipedia)
Looking at that ingredient list, it’s easy to see why the Orange Julius is so widely liked: it’s boring. I mean, I’m sure it has some taste to it, since there were probably oranges involved in that juice at some point, but most of the other ingredients are designed to soften the edge of that citrus flavor and create a sweetly simple drink even tastebuds accustomed to the most boring of American fast food could handle. And that’s all right for some. Others like to be a bit more adventurous…
I wasn’t thinking about an Orange Julius when I made this smoothie. In fact, I’ve never even tasted one, so I’m not sure I can fairly compare it with what I came up with. All I know is, I took one sip of this ice-cold blend and the iconic drink came to mind. I wondered if I had accidentally created some variation on their recipe… a variation for those who crave a little more excitement, who relish a rich, novel taste and perhaps don’t relish powdered egg whites in their flavorful libations. Is it an improvement on the classic? Dare to taste and decide.
Click here for the full recipe: Orange Julius Plus Smoothie
Orange Julius Information Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Julius
A Bunny’s Dream
When my mom was a baby, she had a cute, wiggly pink nose like a bunny’s (according to what I’ve been told – I wasn’t there!) As a result, she was nicknamed Bunny. As she got older and developed other interests, she subsequently garnered more and more nicknames, each reflecting her current animal interest at the time. But the name Bunny endured throughout all those time periods, and even today her family members call her Bunny in alternation with her real name.
It’s no surprise that my mom was somewhat bunny-like in her youth, since her mom is practically famous for her carrot cake recipe. Besides her chocolate swirl cake, it is one of her most-requested cakes for birthdays and occasions. If I was a bunny, I’d sure be glad to have a mom that was so good at making carrot cake!
This carrot cake smoothie would be the perfect treat for a carrot-chomping bunny who wanted a sweet, refreshing libation during the heat of summer. It’s a bit of a sugar rush – probably not good for hyperactive animals who would be bouncing off the walls anyway! I might suggest replacing the vanilla almond milk with plain almond milk and maybe a touch of vanilla or agave, and letting the fresh/frozen banana, tangy pineapple, and sweet navel orange sweeten the smoothie without the help of too much added sugar.
But aside from that, this smoothie was really splendid: a rich, sweet body made of blended fruit and creamy almond milk that reminds me of cake frosting (only more interesting) is emblazoned with delightful chunks of carrot cake and embellished with a topping of coconut, cranberries, and an orange slice just for style. Slurp it up it as a “guilty” breakfast treat or sip your sinfully scrumptious dessert in the alfalfa garden, watching the bunnies hopping around in the summer evening and pitying them because all they get are boring plain carrots.
Hop to it! Make this recipe now – you deserve a treat.
Fruity Carrot Cake Smoothie
serves one
Ingredients:
for smoothie
- 1 banana, fresh or frozen
- 1 single-serving carton Silk brand vanilla almond milk
- 1/2 cup pineapple chunks, fresh or frozen
- 1 medium-large navel orange (reserve a segment for topping if desired)
- 2 Weight Watchers brand Carrot Crème Cakes
- ice cubes (use more if you used fresh fruit, and less if you used frozen fruit)
for topping
- 1 tbs sweetened flaked coconut
- 1 tbs dried cranberries
- 1 segment of orange, if desired
Directions:
Place banana, almond milk, pineapple, orange (except segment reserved for topping) and ice cubes in blender. Blend until smooth.
Break one of the Carrot Crème cakes into several pieces and drop them into smoothie. Blend for about ten seconds.
Break the second cake into pieces and blend only for a second or two to distribute the big cake-y chunks throughout the smoothie.
Pour smoothie into desired serving glass. For topping: cut a slit in the center of one orange segment, and use the slit to arrange it at the edge of the glass. Sprinkle coconut and cranberry on surface of smoothie.
Pop a straw in this scrumptious sweet drink, and slurp it all up!
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Tropical Fruit & Crème Swirl Smoothie
The most amazing things in the world are also often the most elusive. For instance, I was just watching the show Blue Planet with my little brother (we’re both biology nerds and I for one could watch echinoderms for hours), and the episode we watched was on the abyss, where many of the species are unknown to science. The abyss is home to the creatures that are the stuff of legend even today, such as the giant squid, which has never been seen alive. Most people – especially those who don’t habitually watch nature programs – are never really exposed to such fascinating creatures as the glittering bioluminescent firefly squid and the chambered nautilus. But as science and technology advance, even the distance of 4000 meters and the elusive nature of many of these creatures cannot keep them forever obscured from the lens of science and even the fascinated eyes of the everyday public.
I visited a nearby aquarium on a class field trip today, and discovered they had installed a new exhibit dedicated to the little-known, yet captivating world of abyssal life. Things that had previously only lived in textbooks and on the television screen for me were now available before my eyes (and at my fingertips as I got to touch a moon jelly.) Fantastical creatures such as spiny crabs and giant isopods (sea roaches) were brought up from the depths of their natural home to serve as ambassadors in educating us surface-dwellers about their elusive relatives deep in the sea. It was both sad and exciting for me to see this – shy creatures usually prefer to remain that way, but their presence likely served a noble purpose in helping to make the public care about them, and to make information about them less elusive to the scientific world.
This post deals with a smoothie-making technique that eluded me for some time, much like the giant squid continues to evade human capture. But I’m sure this smoothie tastes much sweeter that a 60-foot-long cephalopod!
For years I have dreamt of making some sort of swirled smoothie – a drinkable work of art with two different colors of flavorful libations swirled together in some sort of marbelized effect. But all my attempts at creating this mouthwatering masterpiece have failed, as the two flavors always wanted to just blend into one single-colored, homogenous mush. However, recently I was able to make a significant stride towards accomplishing my swirled-smoothie dream with this Tropical Fruit & Crème Swirl Smoothie. While the swirl was not perfect, the two different-colored smoothies did stay relatively separate:
In terms of taste this was a total success. The two flavors balanced one another in perfect harmony: the colorful swirl of tart tropical fruits tastes delicious when paired with smooth, sweet vanilla/banana crème. I added cream cheese to the crème smoothie, which added just a subtle, yet delightful, tang, as well as a smidge more protein and calcium.
Enjoy this artistic smoothie with your eyes for a moment before devouring it with your mouth! And feel good about eating this yummy work of art, for it contains several servings of fruit and is a good source of fiber, protein, calcium, vitamins, and minerals. Beautiful inside and out!
Tropical Fruit & Crème Swirl Smoothie
serves one
Ingredients:
for crème swirl
- 1 banana
- 1/4 cup plain almond milk
- 2 Laughing Cow brand Creamy Swiss cheese wedges
- 1/2 cup Greek vanilla frozen yogurt (I used Oikos)
for tropical fruit swirl
- 1 whole nectarine, cut into rough pieces
- 2-3 fresh strawberries, with leaves removed, halved
- 1 cup frozen fruit of choice (I used mango and pineapple, in keeping with the tropical theme)
- 1/4 cup plain almond milk
Directions:
First, make the crème portion of the smoothie: Place 1/4 cup almond milk, banana, Laughing Cow, and frozen yogurt in blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into desired serving glass. Place in freezer while you make the…
Tropical fruit portion: Place nectarine, strawberries, frozen fruit, and 1/4 cup almond milk in blender. (Reserve one strawberry for topping if desired.) Blend until smooth.
Remove crème portion of the smoothie from freezer. Pour tropical fruit portion gently onto crème portion and swirl in with a spoon. Top with additional strawberry slices if desired. Enjoy!
Fancy PB&J Smoothie
Though I miss being on spring break in Las Vegas, it’s also nice to relax at home and make my usual Saturday morning smoothie. Though I didn’t have any smoothies in Vegas, this smoothie I made today is inspired by an experience my family had there.
It was hard for our family to agree on somewhere to eat dinner. Most of the restaurants in our hotel were overpriced and didn’t offer menu choices everyone was happy with. We went to the Sugar Factory our first night at the hotel. That was pretty much a disaster since the whole restaurant was basically a bar full of overexcited and slightly intoxicated tourists and underdressed bartender ladies. The music was also blasting really loud and we couldn’t hear each other speak. I wondered how the waiters and waitresses working there avoided permanent hearing damage! The veggie burger there was quite good, but it was not worth risking permanent deafness. So on our second night, my parents and I wandered around the hotel, searching for somewhere else to get dinner. My little brother was up in the room with a headache, so we were looking for someplace that would give us take-out boxes to bring back. My brother had requested a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So when we saw a cute little pizza and sandwich shop called JJ’s Boulangerie, we walked right in.
The menu did have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich called the “PB and JJ’s”, but it was served on a cinnamon raisin roll, and we knew that simply wouldn’t do. My brother’s a very traditional kid when it comes to food and wanted a plain old regular pb&j on two plain, non-fancy slices of bread.
So my mom asked the older ladies making sandwiches if they had any regular bread. They didn’t seem to speak English very well, and it took a few tries before they understood what she was saying. Then they got flustered and warned my mom very seriously, “we have toast but it is with egg.” My mom did not understand their words due to a combination of the loud music playing, their accent, and the words having pretty much no logical meaning. Was she thinking to spread peanut butter and jelly on some sort of toast with scrambled eggs dish? The lady serving us seemed annoyed, but she repeated her words several times. My parents and I were still kind of perplexed, so the one lady serving us ordered her assistant to fetch a piece of bread from the kitchen and show us what the cause of her anguish was. The assistant returned to show us a slice of yellow egg bread.
With the mystery solved, we readily agreed for the sandwich to be made on that bread, as that is one of the acceptable “plain” types of bread my brother would eat a sandwich on any day. We took the finished sandwich and all the rest of our dinners up to the room to eat with my brother. But apparently the gourmet chefs working at JJ’s Boulangerie were above making anything as ordinary as a classic peanut butter and jelly. When my brother unwrapped his sandwich, we found it was made with three pieces of egg bread. the bottom slice had a fistful of peanut butter and real peanuts concentrated in the center, then there was a slice on top of that with a glop of grape jelly in the center, and finally that was topped with the final slice of bread. The sandwich was made as if it was a culinary sin for peanut butter to touch jelly, when the whole point of a pb&j sandwich is the lovely mingling of those two flavors. I couldn’t blame my little brother for only eating half the sandwich; for one thing due to its elaborate construction it probably had about twice the calories of a regular pb&j. And for another, when I asked him, “how’s your sandwich?” he replied, “um… iffy.” It really was a weird sandwich. Why couldn’t the sandwich ladies just make something plain and boring for once?
That sandwich may have been “iffy”, but this smoothie sure isn’t. I didn’t exactly base it on the weird “PB & JJ’s” sandwich, but as I was drinking it I realized the medley of grape flavor with smooth peanut butter and crunchy peanuts was similar to the ingredients in that sandwich. The additional flavors of banana, peach, and white chocolate create a delicious, flavorful and rich smoothie. I used white chocolate peanut butter because I was afraid regular peanut butter would be too salty, but I think regular peanut butter would be just as good if you don’t want a smoothie that’s too sweet.
Fancy PB&J Smoothie
Ingredients:
- 1 banana
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tbls Peanut Butter & Co. brand White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter, separated
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 10 frozen purple grapes (I froze my own grapes. You could probably also use fresh, but the smoothie wouldn’t be as cold.)
- 1 Weight Watcher’s brand peach flavor frozen yogurt bar
- 1 tbl roasted and salted peanuts
Directions:
Place banana, milk, 1 tablespoon only of the white chocolate peanut butter, the vanilla, grapes, and fro-yo bar in blender. Blend until smooth, about one minute. Pour smoothie into a glass and pop it in the fridge to chill. Meanwhile, place the remaining tablespoon of white chocolate peanut butter on a microwave-safe plate and microwave for ten seconds or so, just long enough that it is easier to work with. Take smoothie out of the fridge and spoon the white chocolate peanut butter onto the surface of it, letting it sink in. This adds delicious texture and richness to the smoothie. Sprinkle the peanuts on top.
Get ready for the most gourmet smoothie you have ever tasted!
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Chocolate Cinnavanilla Thin Mint Smoothie
It’s that time of year again… Girl Scout Cookie Season! You can barely walk out of the house without being asked by some cute child with soulful eyes to buy a box of cookies. And it’s nearly impossible to refuse.
It becomes a little more obnoxious and less cute when the cute child is swapped out with a pushy adult family member who wants her Girl Scout to get the most sales in her troop and “helps” by selling cookies without the child even being there. I’ve never been a Girl Scout, so I don’t know if this is allowed or not, but it certainly is annoying to my mom when some lady predictably badgers her into buying Girl Scout cookies, no matter how many times she tries to decline the offer. Last year, my mom came home with a box of lemon cookies of some kind, and nobody touched them. But this year is quite different…
My mom got a box of Thin Mints from the badgering lady this time around. Those cookies are the most popular Girl Scout Cookie ever, and I can see why. The crunchy chocolate mint cookie is covered with a smooth chocolate coating… what’s not to like? Personally, I tend to prefer something a little more interesting like a Samoa with all those different flavors, but that doesn’t stop me from liking the simple, classic Thin Mints too. That said, I was kind of concerned I wouldn’t get my share when I saw the rate at which the male half of my family was consuming those cookies last night. My brother had a reasonable portion for dessert, and my dad kept sneaking into the kitchen to grab a handful. And another. And another. I know what happens to boxes of Oreos when my dad knows we have them in the house. I’ve heard my brother lamenting a box too new to be empty enough times to be well aware of the predation faced by cookies in our pantry. And I did not want my dad eating all the Thin Mints before I got a chance to use them in a smoothie shake I was planning.
So I craftily pinched four from those remaining in the box last night while my dad was watching t.v. and hid them in the cupboard. Those were my cookies, and I was determined they would be safe from cookie thieves! Today I was relieved to find them still intact where I left them, and proceeded to make this smoothie shake.
I call it a smoothie shake because it is both a smoothie and a shake. It is technically healthy enough to be a smoothie, what with the banana, almondmilk, and high-calcium pudding. Yet it seems to be a indulgent as a shake, with the chocolate vanilla cinnamon flavor and of course the crunchy Thin Mint pieces. I put green apple in the smoothie, but could hardly taste it at all.
The liquid part of this smoothie was incredibly boring at first, but I added a pinch of cinnamon and mixed it in with my spoon and it literally transformed the flavor from “eh” to “oooh!” So I say add cinnamon and maybe some nutmeg too.
Chocolate Cinnavanilla Thin Mint Smoothie
Ingredients:
- 1 banana
- a little less than half of 1 Granny Smith apple
- 1 Silk brand single-serve carton of vanilla almondmilk
- 1 Snack Pack brand pudding cup, cinnamon roll flavor
- 1 tbsp Hershey’s cocoa powder
- 5-6 ice cubes
- 4 Thin Mints
- a pinch or so of cinnamon
Directions:
Pour all ingredients in blender except Thin Mints. (The cinnamon can be added before or after blending, it’s your choice.) Blend for a minute or until ice is crushed. Add Thin Mints, breaking some in half, some into quarters. Blend for just a few more seconds. Pour into a glass and enjoy this unconventional way of consuming Girl Scout Cookies!
This post was published in the Santa Monica Observer newspaper the week of February 21, 2013. The Observer website is www.smobserved.com.
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Caramel Apple Chocolate Pretzel Adventure
Those who know me well, know that I like each one of my smoothies to be an adventure. I don’t generally go for a smooth, monotonous smoothie with one or two flavors involved. I like to throw together as many unique flavors as possible, and I usually demand that my smoothies have a texture, something chunky or crunchy floating around to keep me awake.
This smoothie fits the bill! It combines the flavors of caramel, apple, and pear with salty pretzel and decadent chocolate. The chocolate pieces, chopped nuts, and of course the delicious chocolate covered pretzels kept my jaws active as I drank this smoothie creation.
Caramel Apple Chocolate Pretzel Adventure Smoothie
Ingredients:
- 1 banana
- about half a Honeycrisp apple, chopped
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 Jello pudding, Turtle Sundae flavor
- 1 tsp vanilla
- a dash of cinnamon
- 5-6 ice cubes
- 1 Snackwell’s brand 100 calorie pack of chocolate covered pretzels (I couldn’t find any non-diet-y brand, so I bought this. I was afraid this would be bad since it’s “diet food,” but it was actually good.)
Directions:
Pour all ingredients in blender, except the topping on the Jello pudding (it’s like a parfait with pudding and a chocolate and nut topping) and the pretzels. Blend for a minute or two. Add the topping and the pretzels. (For the pretzels, I wanted a hierarchy of different sizes of pieces for texture, so I used a sharp knife to chop some of them into four pieces, some into two, and I left some whole.) Blend for a few more seconds. Chill and prepare to embark on an especially yummy adventure!
Divine Peach Carrot Smoothie with White Chocolate Peanut Butter
First off, you just have to see this pic of my cat Artemis lounging like a queen in an old, cluttered toy box:
I just had a smoothie this morning that was fit for a queen (before setting off to clean up the beach for two hours: not a very “queenly” activity. But it helped the environment, so it was worth it!)
The smoothie I had used carrot juice instead of milk to help use up the bottle of carrot juice I bought yesterday to make “carrot cake” scones. There wasn’t too much carrot flavor in the smoothie, just enough to complement the peach, apricot and pineapple flavors that were the main focus, along with the too-good-to-be-true white chocolate peanut butter. That stuff is the best! If I ever had to make a smoothie for a king or queen, I would make one like this. It reminded me of some kind of fancy peach/ carrot cake with white chocolate, that would be served on a royal table at a banquet. Here is my recipe:
Divine Peach Carrot White Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie
Ingredients:
- 1 banana
- 1/2 cup Bolthouse Farms 100% carrot juice
- 1 Yoplait Greek peach flavored yogurt
- 1 tbsp apricot pineapple jam
- 1 tbsp Peanut Butter & Co. brand White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Yasso Greek frozen yogurt bar, blueberry flavor (I couldn’t taste this at all in the smoothie. But it probably helped balance the flavors.)
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into a royal goblet and toast to the kingdom’s wealth!
Chocolate Fruit Cookie Dough Smoothie
Our home is currently being invaded by ants. I don’t know why they think it’s ant season now, but they’re marching dutifully throughout all the rooms in our house. My parents use 409 spray liberally to dispose of the tiny creatures. I don’t normally kill ants or any other bug, although I’m creeped out by finding creepy-crawlies in my home. It’s just my policy to not kill living animals, as a rule. I did, at the suggestion of my mom, spray and kill one ant this morning, however. My heart went out to the poor thing… I’m just too soft to kill ants! I let the other two I’d seen skitter away. Sometimes I think it’s unfair that we humans decide certain animals are gross or inconvenient to our comfortable lives, so we shamelessly kill them. But at the same time, ants are vermin, they’d eat all our food and crawl all over us (eugggh!) if we just let them go about their business in our homes. They really should, for their own sake and ours, just stick to gathering what they can find outside. That way no one gets hurt/feels guilty.
This morning I found solace from the ant situation in the form of a cold, chocolatey smoothie. The texture of this smoothie was perfect, not too thick or thin. The taste was perfect and intricate, mostly chocolate with a layer of fruit underneath, and of course some cookie dough to add to the interest level. YES it had chocolate cookie dough in it and YES I had it in the morning. The cookie dough is vegan so that makes it healthy, right? 🙂
But seriously, this smoothie has so many health benefits to it I didn’t have to feel guilty adding the cookie dough. The almondmilk delivers vitamins, minerals, calcium, even an extra gram of fiber for good measure. And the greek frozen yogurt is of course a source of protein. The cookie dough isn’t unhealthy, it just doesn’t exactly add much in the way of health benefits.
So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and indulge in this
Chocolate Fruit Cookie Dough Smoothie
Ingredients:
- 1 banana
- 10 grapes
- 1 single serve container Silk brand dark chocolate flavor almondmilk
- 1 Yasso brand blueberry Greek frozen yogurt bar (I do not recommend eating this plain; it’s kind of tasteless in my opinion. But in the smoothie it was great!)
- 1/4 cup Eat Pastry brand chocoholic chip vegan cookie dough
Directions:
Place banana, grapes, almondmilk, and frozen yogurt bar in blender. (The frozen yogurt bar was kind of hard for me to get off the stick; I had to use a knife and eventually my fingers to pry that stubborn wooden stick out of the bar. It may pay off to thaw the bar for one minute before trying to get the stick out, I suppose.) Blend these ingredients for a minute or so. Then add the cookie dough in several clumps. Blend for one or two seconds, then stop blending immediately and Pour smoothie into desired glass. (I used a mug.)
Enjoy!
Come to think of it, this is a smoothie those ants would probably like. It’s got sweet chocolate and fruit. I bet they’re jealous. Eat your heart out, ants! (Well, drink your heart out.)
True Healthy Me 