OJ & Yogurt Creamsicles

Creamsicles
1 1/2 c. vanilla yogurt
3/4 c. orange juice

I actually created these on a whim after reading a few smoothie and popsicle recipes and trying to get an idea of what sort of ingredients are used to help create the “creamsicle” flavor.

While I was mixing the yogurt and OJ, I noticed that it really smelled like creamsicle/cream soda, so I was optimistic for the results.

They came out tasting pretty close to actual creamsicles, and even my husband (who isn’t fond of yogurt) thought they were pretty good, with just one simple request to add some vanilla extract next time. I’ll be doing that.  Goober ate about 1/3 of one. Given that he’s never had a popsicle and he’s not a yogurt fan, I call that a win.

The only thing I want to try to fix is that some mild separation occurred during freezing, with the top of the popsicles being creamier, and it got progressively more ice-shard-like as you got to the bottom. Still a yummy treat (will be fantastic in summer!), but if anyone has tips on how to avoid the separation, I’d love them! My husband’s offered solution is liquid nitrogen. Not very realistic!

The Bloody Peary Smoothie

Because I love bad puns, I’m dubbing this the “Bloody Peary” smoothie because it uses pears and blood oranges. This was pretty much the result of having some blood oranges that I really needed to use up before they spoiled. Since blood orange has a pretty strong taste, I wanted milder fruits in with it.

Bloody Peary Smoothie

Yields: Approx. 3 c.

1 banana
1 pear
2 blood oranges
1/2 c. yogurt
1/2 c. orange juice

Although I think that the mixed berry smoothie is still my current favorite, this one is a close second. The blood orange taste is still strong, and this smoothie has the best texture so far. It blended the most easily as well, probably because all of the ingredients were really soft (with the “hardest” ingredient probably being the blood oranges). The hardest part of preparation for this was skinning the oranges.

Mixed Berry Smoothie

This smoothie is my favorite thus far, and has received accolades from Goober as well (although he really hates the sound of the blender). I bought some frozen fruits this weekend to help me have a variety of fruit on hand for smoothies, particularly the fruits that only I will eat, and will thus not get consumed fast enough if I buy them in bulk. As a bonus, since the fruit is frozen, my smoothie comes out pretty cold when all is said and done.

Mixed Berry Smoothie

1 c. frozen mixed berries (this has blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries)
1 banana
1 apple
1/2 c. yogurt (still using my french vanilla yogurt, almost finished with my 32 oz though!)

This smoothie is delicious, and the longest part of the preparation was just waiting for it to blend! I did it this morning in maybe 10-15 minutes!

Chicken & Kale Soup

With my first delivery of our bi-weekly veggies and fruit from Boston Organics the week before last, I decided to try my hand at making a soup in the crock pot.

The great thing about soup is that you can just kind of “wing it” and so wing it I did. Here’s what I used to make this soup:

• 1.4 lbs chicken breast
• 1/2 of my bunch of kale (which I would estimate was probably 2/3-1 c. chopped.) I shredded this by hand.
• 3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 10 rainbow potatoes
• 2 chopped onions
• 2 boxes of chicken broth (I used Nature’s Promise, which is the Stop & Shop “organic” brand, and had a better list of ingredients – and was cheaper – than Swanson)
• Celery Salt – I just sprinkled it over the broth
• 1 Tbsp. Black Pepper

I dumped all of this into the crock pot at 10am and left it on low until dinner time at around 5pm. The carrots and the purple potatoes were still crisper than I would normally have them in soup, so I left the leftovers running in the crock pot for another 1 1/2 hours. Next time I’ll probably start it earlier, or turn it up to high for the last 30-60 minutes.

I also plan to halve the recipe next time. The soup was great, but after a week, even with eating leftovers, we had about 2 servings’ worth that got tossed. However, it provided for lots of eating that week. At dinner, my husband and I had 2 bowls, Goober had a small serving, I brought a bowl to work one day, and my mother-in-law had a bowl when she visited. I think husband may have had a bowl sometime during the week aside from the initial dinner as well. This one is definitely a repeat…just on a slightly smaller scale!

Green Smoothie: Kale & Strawberries

I was a bit nervous about my first attempt at a “green smoothie”, since my smoothie with oranges in it had turned out so pulpy, but since I had some kale that wasn’t going to last much longer, I decided to give it a go.  It came out pretty tasty, though next time, I will thin it out with either some water (one recipe I saw recommended thinning with coconut water) or some additional yogurt.

~1/2 c. Kale (I didn’t measure exactly, I used about 3 of the leaves we had), strip them from their stalk
1 banana
1/2 c. yogurt
12 strawberries

You can see above about how much it made – 1.5-2 cups (12-16oz).

Once it was blended and poured, it was a bit too thick, so I added 1/4 c. milk to the mix after the fact. It helped, but since it wasn’t blended in directly with everything, it was still too think in some spots.

I’m pretty visual and tactile when it comes to appealing foods, so it was a bit to get over the look of the smoothie. I mean…it’s a greenish/brown. I expected it to taste very leafy. Surprisingly, what I tasted wasn’t the kale, but the strawberries.

A Pink Smoothie

I once again made another experimental smoothie – I’m really starting to dig this! This smoothie is slightly sweet, but not overpoweringly so. It’s not pulpy, and it even got Goober’s approval!

1/2 c. yogurt (I used Stonyfield french vanilla)
1 apple, peeled and cored (used McIntosh)
1 pear, peeled and cored
1 banana (peeled of course!)
12 strawberries

This yielded about 3 cups of smoothie for me, which is currently sitting in the fridge to be brought to work tomorrow, along with my homemade soup, which I will post about later this week!

And, today I have come to the conclusion that it’s time to get a new blender. I want to try some green smoothies, but given how pulpy my tropical smoothie came out due to the orange, I don’t dare try kale in our ancient blender. Anyone have any great (but reasonably priced!) blenders to recommend?

Tropical Smoothie

I’ve been on a smoothie kick lately, so today I experimented without a ready made recipe and liked the results I got. I wound up with a smoothie that was slightly orange flavored, not too overpowering.

1 c. orange juice
1/2 c. Yogurt (I used vanilla)
1 banana
1 orange
1/2 c. pineapple chunks

This makes about 3 1/2 cups. For me this is about 2 servings.

If you don’t like pulp, you may not want to modify this recipe to omit the orange.