Peach Mango Smoothie

Once peaches come into season, I buy them every time I go to the grocery store.  Every. Time.  I haven't made peach ice cream yet (my all time favorite homemade ice cream), but it's coming soon!  I think my love for peaches was amplified by the ice cream supper my church had every 4th of July growing up.  Everyone made homemade ice cream and set up the machines outside so you could walk around and sample lots of flavors.  I was ALWAYS on the hunt for peach.  FBC Smithfield makes some mean ice cream!

This week I had some peaches that were on the verge of going bad, so I decided to make some smoothies with them.  Specifically, a mango peach smoothie.  Yum.

Ingredients

1 cup peaches

1 cup mango

1 banana

1/4 cup orange juice

Ice (5-8 cubes depending on how you like yours!)

Just pile the ingredients in your blender, and blend away!

What do you look forward to every spring/summer?

Healthy Smoothie - Oatmeal, Spinach & Berries

If you've been following along at home, you know I'm a sucker for a good smoothie.  This week I decided to add a few ingredients to one of my favorite mixtures of fruit to make it healthier, and loved what I ended up with.  Adding oats and spinach to the already delicious list of ingredients makes this a fantastic breakfast! I was SO full after drinking mine!

All you need is:

1 medium banana
5-6 strawberries
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup yogurt (I used strawberry Chobani)
1/4 cup oats (I used Old Fashioned Quaker Oats)
1-1.5 cups baby spinach
1/2 cup water (or more)

Then just fill your blender and blend until smooth!  I gave it a little longer than usual to make sure the oats were pulverized.  :)

Even husband liked it!

Have fun switching out the fruit you use - I don't think you'll come up with a bad combination.

Interested in other cool treats?  Check out a few of my frozen yogurt recipes - Blackberry Honey Frozen Yogurt and Strawberry Banana Fro Yo!

Enjoy!

Strawberry Banana Frozen Yogurt

If you can't tell, I've been on an ice cream kick lately.  Last week I was trying to use my bananas as quickly as possible, so I decided to try another variation of the Blackberry-Honey Frozen Yogurt - this time using Bananas and Strawberry Chobani - classic.

The best part about this (besides its thick and creamy texture) is that it only has three ingredients.  No need to keep lots of items on hand to whip this up!

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas, mashed
3 6oz Strawberry Chobani yogurts
14oz Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk

Directions

Peel and smash bananas.

In a medium bowl, combine smashed bananas, Chobani, and Eagle Brand milk.  Stir until mixture is smooth, cover, and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.  The cold mixture will freeze better in your ice cream maker.

Once the mixture has chilled, pour into your ice cream maker and let it spin for 45 minutes to 1 hour according to the manufacturer's instructions.

So simple!  Check out some of my other ice cream recipes!

Bananas Foster Ice Cream
Chocolate Ice Cream
Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches
Blackberry Honey Frozen Yogurt

Bananas Foster Ice Cream

This weekend I realized I have an entire bunch of bananas that was so ripe it wasn't going to make it another day.  With Nemo, the blizzard that hit Boston this weekend, bearing down on us, I knew I wouldn't be able to go buy the necessary ingredients to make banana bread, so I put my thinking cap on.  As I looked around the kitchen, I remembered I'd bought some caramel to top the snow cream I was going to make, and knew exactly what to do.  Bananas Foster Ice Cream.

My little experiment was a smashing success...and now you've got another use for your "on the way out" bananas!

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup caramel
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

Peel and smash bananas - the more "smushed" they are, the better!

In a medium bowl, combine heavy cream, skim milk, caramel, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Stir until smooth, then add smashed bananas.

Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.  The cold mixture will freeze better in your ice cream maker.

Once the mixture has chilled, pour into your ice cream maker and let it spin for 45 minutes to 1 hour according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Doesn't that look amazing?  If you can keep yourself from eating it all immediately, transfer into a Tupperware container and freeze until you're ready to enjoy!

Enjoy!

Berry Banana Smoothie

The past week has been brutally cold here in Boston.  Even through we dodged a snowy bullet earlier this week (we were supposed to get 5"...coast was due for 12", and we just got a dusting), we have not dodged the "arctic air".  Being from the South, I'm not a huge fan of walking around in the single digits, but have gotten used to it to some extent.  Unless it's windy.  Nothing helps if it's 5 degrees and windy.

That being said, I still love having something cold at the end of the evening.  This weekend I made some Blueberry-Honey Frozen Yogurt, which was delicious.  But alas, since you can't shouldn't have ice cream every night, I like to change it up with smoothies and parfaits from time to time.  They are definitely yummier than a Popsicle...and much better for you!

Here's one of my favorite combinations - a Berry Banana Smoothie.

All you'll need is...

6-7 large frozen strawberries (about 1.5 cups)
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 banana
1/2 cup skim milk
3 ounces (1/2 single serving cup) blueberry Chobani (stir before adding)

Add all ingredients to your blender and blend until smooth!

This recipe makes two medium sized smoothies with 170 calories in each.  I like using frozen fruit because it acts as the ice.  More fruit is a good thing!

It's a great way to end a night!