I saw this smoothie at Food.com and was kind of intrigued by the blueberry/green tea combination, wondering just what that would taste like. I had plenty of green tea on hand, some blueberries in my freezer, and vanilla yogurt in my fridge, so I didn’t have to buy a single thing to make this, which was nice! You do have to plan ahead a little before you make it though, because it works best if you brew the tea the night before and refrigerate it so it’s chilled in the morning.
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Recently, I’ve been posting recipes for sweet treats, so here’s a healthier recipe to balance that out! 🙂 I try to be good about eating my veggies and I eat raw veggies with dip every once in a while, but my favorite way to eat veggies is when they’re roasted. I just love them that way! They’re so easy to make—just cube or chop the veggies into bite-sized pieces, coat with an olive oil/balsamic vinegar/herb mixture, spread them out on a large sheet pan, and roast in your oven.
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Beets were never on my list of favorite foods as a kid, but I’ve grown to like them. And I especially like that they are so healthy and good for you. I make recipes with beets every so often–probably not as often as I should–and I had the perfect opportunity to make a beet recipe when I received a complimentary package of Gefen’s Vacuum-Packed Beets, which are organic and also pre-peeled, making them very handy and convenient to use.
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Now that it’s the new year, I know a lot of people who are trying to eat healthy and exercise away all that holiday food. And if you’re trying to get into a healthy routine, drinking lots of water is always a good idea. I actually made this particular pitcher of water at the end of last summer with some fresh mint I was growing in a large pot and some home-grown cucumbers my friend Mary gave me from her garden. I didn’t have a chance to post it back then but now, since it’s winter, you can just buy your cucumbers (use organic if you can) and fresh mint is usually available in the produce section at many stores, too. The cucumber and mint lightly flavor the water in a soothing, refreshing way. If you like naturally-flavored water, you’ll want to try this out!
CUCUMBER-MINT WATER by NancyC
Makes 8 servings
- 8 cups water
- 1 medium cucumber, peeled or unpeeled and thinly sliced
- 6 to 8 large or 12 to 16 small fresh mint leaves
Put water in a gallon-size pitcher. Add sliced cucumbers and mint leaves and stir everything together. Place in your refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours to chill. When ready to serve, add some ice to the pitcher or pour over ice in your glassware. The water usually keeps for several days if kept chilled in the refrigerator.
If you don’t have mint, you can just make cucumber water–that has a nice flavor, too. Mint by itself is also good in water.
I think water tastes so much better when it’s flavored with natural ingredients. Do you like to flavor your water too?
Linked to Inspire Me Monday at Create with Joy.
It’s really been warm lately, so I’ve been making lots of smoothies–they just taste so good on a hot day! One fruit that I really love but haven’t used that much in smoothies is honeydew melon. They’ve always been a little challenging for me to cut because I don’t have the greatest cutlery (watermelon is the same problem, but I usually don’t buy a whole watermelon; I buy the ones that are already cut). But my melon-cutting problems were over when I received two samples from the Gunter Wilhelm™ Executive Chef™ Cutlery Collection. I received an 8″ Chef Knife and a 3.5″ Paring Knife to try out, and I decided to put them to the melon test!
I bought quite a large honeydew melon, which would have been really hard to cut with my old knives. I used the 8″ Chef Knife to cut the melon in half and it worked like a dream! It cut so smoothly and was really easy to handle. The Paring Knife worked great for cutting the melon into smaller chunks. I read that these knives have an ergonomic handle which is especially nice when you have recipes that require a lot of chopping. And this cutlery is made with high-carbon stainless steel that won’t wear out–in fact, it has a lifetime warranty.
So I decided to use my chunks of honeydew melon in a smoothie with some frozen blueberries, and it tasted great! The frozen blueberries make the smoothie nice and cool, and there’s some banana and yogurt in this that make it creamy. Here’s the recipe…
BLUEBERRY-HONEYDEW SMOOTHIE by NancyCreative
Makes 2 (8-ounce) servings
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
- 1 cup honeydew melon (cut melon into small chunks–you can substitute cantaloupe if you want)
- 1/2 medium or large size banana, peeled and sliced
- 1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
- 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon honey
- Optional: 1/2 Tablespoon ground flaxseed
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth (if you want extra fiber, add the ground flaxseed into the blender, too). Pour into two glasses and serve immediately. Makes 2 (8-ounce) servings.
Cutting and chopping fruits and veggies is so much easier with this cutlery. Do you have a favorite set of knives you like to use, or have you ever tried the Gunter Wilhelm™ brand?
Linked to Full Plate Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things.
NancyC 