Double the pleasure

So I've been beaten with the sick stick repeatedly the last week and finally lost the fight last night. I decided to make a healthy, fruity smoothie for breakfast to soothe my sore throat.  And then later I was feeling a little perkier and made one the tastes more like dessert!  I have a new bullet like blender that is perfect for making smoothies for one person and quite quickly too!

Feeling green smoothie

1/2 a small avocado

1 kiwifruit peeled

1/2 a large banana

1/3 cup frozen strawberries

1 T flaxseed oil

1/2 c - 3/4 c hempmilk

Blend and sip.

The smoothie is naturally sweet and refreshing yet still creamy with the avocado and hempmilk.

Holiday smoothie

1/2 c eggnog*

1 1/2 bananas

1 heaping T peanut butter

1/4 rice krispies cereal

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

ice cubes

Blend and sip slowly.

*Use soy eggnog if you are lactose-intolerant.

The smoothie is delicious, sweet and creamy.  You get hints of banana, peanut butter and eggnog under the chocolate flavor; like a holiday surprise! ;-)

A date with chocolate

I remember when my mom first wanted me to try dates. I was like "eww, yuck what are those wrinkly brown things?!" But after some persuasion I tried and one.. and then another one.. and "ohh these are kinda good!" maybe just one more.  Eating dates is almost like sticky brown sugar in a more solidified food form. Its satisfies the sweet tooth and the desire to chew.  It's like health food store candy. ;-) They are basically pure sugar so pace yourself and don't eat too many at a time or you'll have a sugar crash.  Medjool dates are my favorite because they are the largest, most moist dates and supposedly at one time reserved only for Morrocan royalty. This may be why medjool dates are the priciest, so for this recipe I used smaller organic deglet dates.

A date with chocolate (smoothie)

~serving up pleasure for two

mmmmm...nutty, sweet, sensational and chewy?

1 1/2 Large frozen banana

4-5 finely chopped/sliced dates*

1/3 cup soy yogurt

1 T almond butter

1/2 t cinnamon

1 t maple syrup

3/4 cup chocolate soymilk

1 T ground flaxseed

handful of ice cubes

*I thinly sliced my dates before tossing in the blender and consequently there were small chewy bits in the smoothie. I loved it! But if you are not too keen on anything you can't suck through a straw, put the dates in a food processor before transferring to the blender.

TIPS:

~When freezing bananas for smoothies first cut each up into 2-3 inch pieces before putting in a sealed bag/container.  Large pieces of frozen bananas can be hard to break up (even for the blender!) I usually estimate about 4 pieces equals one large banana.

~If you are using maple syrup in a recipe, NEVER ever use imitation or artificial maple syrup.  That is unacceptable.  If you don't have pure maple syrup, just leave it out of the recipe or use honey or agave nectar.

~This recipe makes enough for two large glasses so please share!

Combine all ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into two chilled glasses and serve with spoons. Enjoy!

Substitutions for:

chocolate soymilk~chocolate hempmilk, chocolate almond milk or chocolate dairy milk

almond butter~peanut butter

maple syrup~no need, just make it without.