Orange Banana Protein Smoothie

This is my favorite smoothie, and my go-to when I want something quick and fresh.  It's fast and easy, and I love knowing that it's got whole fruit and no added juice. I make this one for my kids a lot and they love it.  And it reminds me of an old fashioned Orange Julius.

Because you are starting with whole oranges, you don't need to add any extra juice or other liquid to this.  It's great because you get all the fiber and vitamins from the fruit, not just the juice. You can however add a splash of milk or cream (or almond milk) if you want it a little creamier. 

I am making this for four kids, so this recipe makes four small servings, or two large glasses. You could cut this in half or thirds if you want a serving for one.

Ingredients:

• 3 whole oranges

• 2 frozen bananas

• 1/2 cup protein powder

• 1 Tablespoon honey

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

• Peel and quarter oranges. I cut off the ends, and then cut down the sides with a sharp knife. So I end up with a whole orange with no skin. Then I cut into quarters.

• Put the oranges in the blender first, and then all the other ingredients, in high powered blender (I use my Vitamix). Start out pulsing slowly so the oranges release their juice. Once you have some liquid in the bottom, then you can turn the blender up to high to puree the whole thing.

You could use fresh bananas, I just like frozen bananas because it makes the smoothie cold. I buy extra bananas, let them get ripe, then peel and break into pieces and freeze. Then I always have bananas in the freezer for smoothies. 

For protein powder I prefer a pure whey powder - with no added fillers or sweeteners.  This is the brand I buy.  It's just whey, nothing else.  It has 15 grams of protein per 1/4 cup, so it  really gives a nice protein boost in the morning. 

Homemade Honey Lemonade Recipe. And a Cocktail - Because You Earned It.

Summer is not the same without lemonade. Squeezing dozens of lemons isn't something I'm going to do every day - but every now and then, it's so worth it. This is the best homemade lemonade, and the basis for one of my favorite simple summer cocktails. 

It's not quite summer yet, but we sure have had some lovely spring weather around here.  The kind of weather that makes you think of cold, refreshing lemonade!

One of my kids has recently decided that she doesn't want to drink much. It's a whole long story about night wetting, and really trying to stay dry, and her making the connection about drinking = wetting, and so refusing to drink.  But refusing to drink much also leads to some other problematic stopped up type bathroom issues which aren't too fun for a little kid (which actually contribute to wetting), which I don't need to go into any more than that (because bathroom stuff = TMI on a food page!).

So anyway, long story made even longer... I have been trying to get creative about coming up with things that she really wants to drink.  And she LOVES lemonade.  But store bought lemonade has so much sugar!  Even the good brands, and the organic brands, it's just so much processed sugar. And it gets expensive after a while. And most recipes you read call for cups and cups of white sugar too.

I wanted to come up with my own that didn't have as much highly processed white sugar in it - so I created this recipe that is sweetened mostly with honey.  Of course it's still sugar in some form, but at least it's not so much of the white stuff. I did try this with all honey, but in order to get the right balance of sweetness with the lemons I personally thought it ended up with too strong of a honey flavor for a child's palette.  So I balanced it out with a little organic sugar. 

Ingredients:

• 5-6 cups of water (or more)

• 1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 pounds of medium lemons)

• 1 cup of honey

• 1/2 cup raw or organic sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

In a small saucepan, combine honey, sugar, salt, and 1 cup of water.

Don't let the salt worry you - it does not taste salty.  Just a little salt brings out the flavor in everything -it's the secret ingredient in a lot of sweet treats. 

Let this simmer until all the sugar and honey are dissolved and well combined. You're basically making a honey simple syrup here. 

Once you get that going, squeeze your lemons.  

After you've got a few lemons squeezed, put a few of the squeezed out halves in your pot of simmering syrup.  This will give your syrup an extra little kick of lemon flavor.  

Watch that pot carefully, honey can boil over really quickly! Just keep it on very low so the heat can help extract that lemon flavor, while you work on squeezing the rest of your lemons.  

Take the syrup off the stove, strain out the lemons, and add 1 1/2 cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice. 

Now - STOP!

What you have is an amazing and wonderful lemon honey syrup mixture.  

This right here is the basis for a fabulous cocktail!  So set aside a quarter cup or so of this mixture and save it for later.  Mix a tablespoon of this with an ounce of your favorite bourbon or other liquor, shake with ice, pour into a glass and top with a splash of soda (We make ours in a SodaStream, and we love it!).  It's a fabulous cocktail and you surely earned it after squeezing all those lemons!

Cheers!

Or for something a little different - you can use that lemon syrup mixture to make an awesome lemon soda! Just mix to your liking with sparkling water for a super refreshing and slightly more sophisticated thirst quencher, without alcohol. 

OK. Back to the lemonade...

After you've set aside a bit for yourself, you should have about 3 cups or so of the lemon honey syrup mixture.  You'll notice that this is not a pure yellow color like most lemonade, because the combination of the honey and the organic sugar are going to give it a more golden color.  I personally think that looks really pretty! 

Pour this in a big pitcher or jar and add 4 or more cups of cold water - this is the part that is really up to your personal taste. If you want a very strong and sweet lemonade, add less water.  If you want it more diluted then add more water.  

For my kids I serve it pretty diluted and they still love it - it helps get them hydrated and actually isn't all that much sugar when you do the math (a cup and a half of honey + sugar, diluted across 6-8 cups of water). 

It's so refreshing over ice! Enjoy!

How to Make Almond Milk

I've been making my own almond milk for a while now. I love having it in my morning coffee - it gives the milkiness I like from putting milk in my coffee, and just the right amount of sweetness, but somehow seems lighter on the stomach.  I also love using it in my kid's smoothies. 

When I made it the first time I was completely blown away at how easy it was.  I couldn't believe I'd been holding off on making nut milk, for some reason thinking it would be too much work.  So wrong! 

As with anything I do, of course I have to tinker with it.  I might start by following somebody else's recipe, but I tweak and change until I've figured out the way that works for me. You can google around and you'll find plenty of recipes for homemade almond milk, the variety is quite surprising actually, given how simple it is.  So what we have here is the method I've been using that's working well for me. One of my goals when messing with a recipe is to figure out how much I can simplify the process, while still getting the best possible flavor.  I try to cut out any unnecessary steps and just get it down to the most efficient process possible.  I've also experimented with different amounts of water, and different combinations of sweetness and flavor. One of the things I have learned for sure is that having a great blender makes a HUGE difference in how creamy your milk will be.  I use my Vitamix to make my almond milk.  Once you try homemade almond milk made in a high powered blender like this, you will never want to go back to store bought. 

So now I'm sharing with you my recipe - I think it's about as easy as you can get, and the flavor is great. 

What you'll need to make about a quart of almond milk:

• 1 cup of raw almonds

• Dates, or other sweetener (I'm using 2 medjool dates. If you use smaller dates you might want more. Or you can use honey, or any other natural sweetener you like)

• About 4 cups of water, maybe slightly more

• Other flavorings as desired (vanilla, cinnamon)

• A high powered blender

• A nut milk bag or some cheesecloth and a strainer

• A glass bottle or other storage container.

Note that I have tried doubling this to make more than a quart at a time, but my blender doesn't quite hold enough to allow for the doubled recipe and still have room to really blend it up.  So one quart at a time it is.  But it's so easy, that it's really not a problem to do this a couple times a week. 

How to make almond milk:

Measure out 1 cup of almonds.  Put them directly in your blender container and fill with water up to the 5 cup line.  This will end up being just a little over 4 cups of water.

Let soak overnight.  The next day the almonds will have swelled a little and the water will look a little murky.  Some people strain them at this point and start over with fresh water.  I've tried it both ways and I think switching the water is not necessary.  It maybe gets you a slightly whiter milk, but the flavor is the same so why not skip that step.  This is why I just start out soaking right in my blender - no need to dirty another vessel, no need to drain or do anything else at this point.

Drop in your dates and/or any other sweetener or flavoring you like.  Some people like vanilla, some also add a little cinnamon.  Some do honey instead. It's really all about personal taste and I've found that the dates alone give me just enough of a clean sweetness, so I like keeping it simple.  Don't forget to take the pits out of the dates! 

Blend it all up on high power.  I like to let it go for a minute or two, to really get the almonds as pulverized as possible and get every bit of flavor out of them. 

When it's as blended as you think you can get it, get your straining setup ready.  I bought a nut milk bag which makes it so easy.  I just set my bag down in a bowl.  

But before I got the bag I would set a strainer over the bowl and line it with a couple layers of cheesecloth.  Both methods work just as good, the nut milk bag just makes the process a little easier and faster. 

Pour everything from your blender into your strainer. 

Gather it up and let it start to drain. 

I hang my bag from a cabinet knob, so it easily drains right into my bowl.  With the nut milk bag you can let it drain for just a few minutes and then squeeze the rest out.  The mesh is fine enough that you can squeeze pretty hard and none of the pulp gets through.  This satisfies my need for instant gratification - I can't stand waiting for it to strain.  

If you're using a strainer and cheesecloth you'll want to just walk away and let it drip for a while, maybe a couple hours - if you do too much squeezing with the cheesecloth you will start to get some pulp coming through. 

And that's it! Pour milk into a jar, chill, and enjoy! The first time I made it I couldn't believe how easy it was, and also how creamy and milky it was.  If you like store bought almond milk, you're going to absolutely love this!  It will separate as it sits in the fridge, so you'll just need to give it a good shake before you pour some. 

Gold Rush Cocktail

This is my current favorite cocktail - it's just perfect at the end of a long day with the kids, when I feel like I want something a little more special than just a glass of wine. 

This seems like a high end bar cocktail, but it's super easy to make. It's similar to a whiskey sour, but with honey. Or, think Hot Toddy, but not hot!

A "Gold Rush" Cocktail - for two:

• 2 ounces lemon juice (or we're using a combo of lemon, orange, and grapefruit)
• 2 ounces honey syrup (just equal parts honey and water, melted together and then cooled)
• 4 ounces whisky (the one in the picture was Rye)

This is enough for two drinks. If you want to just do a little math, you could double or quadruple or even more, and mix up a pitcher of this and put it in your fridge. It's super quick to make if you already have your juice and syrup ready - I do those and just keep them in jam jars in the fridge. 

I like to shake it up in a cocktail shaker with a little ice, and then pour over more ice in a glass. If you want to feel a little more fancy, get some molds for making a big ball of ice. These are also nice because your ice doesn't melt and water down your drink as  fast.  Or you could shake it will with ice and pour in a martini glass. 

Cheers!

Tummy Soothing Smoothie

I've got a couple of kids home sick today, and one of them asked for a smoothie.  I was hesitant to oblige him, because the last thing I need right now is somebody losing their berry smoothie all over my white couch. But he did need to get a little something in his stomach.

So I thought for a moment about what are some of the classic things we are taught are good for upset tummies, and realized that I could make a smoothie out of those.  Here is a very simple tummy soothing smoothie. It's not the tastiest smoothie I've ever made, but really it's not bad, and hopefully is just the thing that a little tummy needs. 

Tummy Soothing Smoothie

• 1 cup organic apple juice
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• a handful of ice cubes

Put everything in a high powered blender and process until the oats are all blended in. If you let it sit for a few minutes the oats will absorb a little of the liquid and thicken up the smoothie a bit. 

pineapple, orange & banana green smoothie

This is a bright and fresh tasting green smoothie to start off our day with a little extra energy.  I think half my kitchen freezer is full of frozen fruit.  Plenty of smoothie recipes call for fresh fruit, but I just like it better with frozen.  I buy extra bananas and just let them ripen on the counter, then break into pieces and freeze.  I also recently had a glut of oranges that we weren't going to get to, so I peeled and cut them into chunks and froze, and I've been using those in smoothies. 

I try to avoid using juice in my smoothies.  It just adds a lot of sugar without all the other nutrients from the fruit.  Instead I prefer to whole fruits and then add other liquid as needed.  In this one today I used my homemade almond milk. 

Ingredients are approximate.  This is a big smoothie - enough for me and four kids - so if you're just making it for yourself I would probably cut this down by at least half.  

• 1 cup frozen pineapple
• 2 frozen bananas
• 1 cup frozen orange chunks
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 2 cups almond milk
• 3 kale leaves
• 3 tablespoons honey (or to taste)

Blend in a high speed blender until totally smooth. 

Cold fighting smoothie

I've got a little one with the sniffles and a cough today, so I blended this up for an afternoon snack. Hopefully it will help her feel better. 

Strawberry Banana Orange Smoothie

The measurements are very approximate.

• a cup or so of Homemade almond milk
• a cup of orange juice
• a frozen banana
• a few slices of frozen oranges
• a handful of frozen strawberries
• about a half cup of plain yogurt
• about a tablespoon of grass fed gelatin
• about a teaspoon of raw honey

Blend until smooth, adding extra liquid if needed, or a little more frozen fruit if it's not thick enough. 

Your new favorite holiday cocktail

I'll keep this one short and sweet, so you can get to drinking.  Because this is going to be your new favorite holiday cocktail.  Mostly because it tastes so good.  But also because it's so easy to make.  Just equal parts chocolate milk, eggnog, and Kahlua.  You really should use good (real) eggnog - not that 'nog flavored' stuff, and I always recommend you try to get a chocolate milk without high fructose corn syrup. 

If you want precise measurements, here's what I've been doing: 

• 2 ounces good eggnog
• 2 ounces chocolate milk
• 2 ounces Kahlúa (if you're feeling a little less bold, just 1 ounce)
• 1 ice cube

You can thank me later.