Summertime and Smoothies

Summer time is truly one of the best times to create some delicious, nutritious, healthy & COOL smoothies! We're in the middle of a heat wave here on the East Coast so I've been attempting to stay cool with some of my favorite cool treats. When a Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich isn't what I go for, I tend to run to the blender and have found quite a few smoothie recipes that I've loved!

Here are a few I've tried lately! I try to give credit to the "source" of my recipe when I can but to be honest I often will copy a recipe and put it aside to try later, always forgetting to put where I got it. I've gotten a bit better with it putting the original source when I copy them for myself!

This first one is one of my all time faves! I don't have the original source but I just recently saw one similar on the Food Network's Healthy Eats page. Mine is a little different (oddly enough it adds more chocolate.. lol) but very similar. 

Chocolate Covered Banana in a Glass
Serves: 1

• 1 medium banana, frozen
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1/4 cup fat free vanilla Greek yogurt
• 1 1/2  tablespoons chocolate syrup (ok, so maybe it's not the healthiest but honest it doesn't kill ya)

Place ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. 

Optional: You can add 1 tablespoon all natural peanut butter (I use creamy but have accidentally purchased and used chunky and it works fine, just a little more lumpy) 

I took Ina's Orange Banana Smoothie from the Food Network and switched it up a little for my liking. I took out the strawberries (something about little tiny strawberry seeds that freak me out) but I'm sure it would be wonderful if you don't mind the seeds to leave them in! Click on the link to get the full original recipe, with the strawberries. You'll also notice she uses fresh, ripened bananas. I prefer using frozen bananas to get a colder, thicker smoothie texture. To get the creamier texture I also use 1/4 cup of Greek Yogurt.

My Version of The Orange Banana Smoothie

Serves 3

• 1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice (4 oranges)
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice (I use organic lime juice)
• 1 medium frozen banana
• 1/4 Cup fat free vanilla Greek yogurt

Place ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

This last one is from the incredible smoothie website and you can view it in it's entirety with nutritional information HERE. Unfortunately they don't list fibers on their smoothies so it's kind of hard if you are counting Points® but I'm sure you could figure it out with just the ingredients themselves. I haven't tried this one yet but I'm dying to get the blueberries to do so! I think they're just about ready to come in locally so I can get them fresh, freeze them a bit to keep my smoothie thicker and colder, then use them!

Banana-Papaya-Blueberry Smoothie Recipe

• 2 organic bananas, peeled
• 1 cup papaya, cubed
• 1 cup wild frozen blueberries (or use fresh)
• 4 to 6 ounces of filtered water

 Blend until smooth.

One of my favorite "smoothie" websites is Incredible Smoothies! They also have a newsletter you can sign up for and they truly do take smoothies to the next level quite often! Everything from tasty and delicious to functional, detoxing smoothies! Check them out!

Wish me luck on my journey to "eating clean" and  healthy! 
And please feel free to comment and share ideas for trying to live and eat "clean"!

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Check out my Daily Menu Food Log for a quick glance at what I'm eating to get where I'm at, which is a healthier & therefore thinner ME! While I don't always keep it up to date.. I do give you some different ideas of what might help you change up your daily menu!


Don't forget to check out my newest Book Blog, where I give book reviews on recent books I've read. If you're a reader you'll want to check this out!

WE CAN DO THIS, TOGETHER
ONE DAY AT A TIME!

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Who Else Helps me get healthy?
These are just a few of the people online that inspire me along with AssistU....

1.
Check out the Fab Fatties - tons of ideas, comic relief & great give-aways!

2. Joe Gigantino - Fitness Trainer
This is the guy that really set me on the path to physical fitness - Sign up for his FREE newsletter!



3.

4. BWJEN - Another WW Buddy & A 'bookworm' too!?



5.

5.

6.Sean Anderson the formerly 500lb man!
Diary of A Winning Loser - Sean is an inspiration to anyone trying to get healthy!


*Note I am not affiliated nor endorsed by Weight Watchers® at all, in any way. I highly recommend their program and cannot say enough GOOD about it, but I also have decided that they were my "stepping stone" to making a change in my lifestyle. Any mention of Weight Watchers®, their program or their term of "points®" does not mean they have approved, seen, or endorsed anything on my blogs.

Also, if at any time Points® are mentioned it is always with the assumption that you will analyze the recipes, foods, ingredients and figure the points out specifically for your consumption of any product, as ingredients may vary by brand, size, etc. and Points® is a registered trademark of the Weight Watchers® company.