Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie

This smoothie is more my style!

The recipe calls for:
1 cup coffee
1 cup fat-free vanilla greek yogurt
1 tbs flax & chia seed blend
4 tbs natural peanut butter
1 frozen banana

-- Blend all the ingredients together and ENJOY! This recipe is two servings.

I used natural chunky peanut butter because it's all I had. If you only have regular greek yogurt just add a little vanilla extract for flavor. Also, if you don't want to use coffee, you can add ice or fat-free milk instead.


UPDATE: I kept half of this for the next morning and it was a little thick I guess from sitting overnight. So I just added a little milk and shaked my smoothie cup.

Some Healthy Food/Recipes

I don't get to do food shopping often because I can't bring my son Parker into stores yet, but on Friday I had a chance to go. I love food shopping. I wish I had more advance notice that I was able to go, I would've had a better list put together, but I got a lot of healthy food and organic food for my son.

 

flax/chia seed blend, ground chicken, organic quinoa, frozen veggies/steamables, organic bananas, organic green beans, frozen fruit, greek yogurts, organic apples, mushrooms, black bean organic pasta, zucchini & weight watchers string cheese

 

 

Here are some QUICK & healthy meals I made this week:

 



whole wheat penne with an avocado sauce I made which
was avocado, a little parm cheese, olive oil & pepper.

mushroom/spinach omelette with one ww string cheese
inspiration by a readers dinner the other night.







Another recipe was something my mom made in the crock pot. I wasn't feeeling well on Saturday and my parents came over so they brought dinner. It is a 3 point Weight Watcher chicken recipe.

See link for recipe!

This was breakfast this morning. A blueberry, strawberry smoothie. It was a bit sweet for my taste, but it was still good. I am going to try another kind tomorrow!

 

 

The recipe calls for:

1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1 tbs chia/flax seed blend
1/2 cup 1% milk
5.3oz fat-free blueberry greek yogurt

Total: 290 calories

Next time I am not going to use a flavored yogurt and try water, not milk. This should help make it less sweet and not as thick. To cut more calories use fat-free milk instead. I would've but I didn't have it on hand. The non-flavored greek yogurt is also less calories. Banana smoothie is next!

Product of the Week

I haven't posted anything since my son was born in June, but now I am back at it!

Let's start it off with a healthy, low calorie product I recommend...

I love chocolate and I love ice cream, but I don't love this baby weight.  This is a treat that satisfies my cravings and it's only 100 calories! :)  They also have ones with nuts on it and also dark chocolate covered frozen stawberries.  Try them out!

The Start of Clean Eating

Goodbye processed foods, hello fresh healthy food!

I've come to realize I need to start consuming less sodium during this pregnancy.  I am going to mainly do clean eating.  Yesterday I stocked up on fresh fruits and vegetables and I am excited to start putting even better foods into my body and for my little baby boy.  Other great foods to eat are whole grains like quinoa, healthy fats like avocados and salt-free assorted nuts.  All which are now in my pantry/fridge.  I ate a lot of vegetables already but adding fruits and other things I am not used to eating will be great for me and help my body out in the long run.  As a former vegetarian I am not a huge meat eater but I bought some fresh beef, low in sodium and a great protein for the baby.  I need to broaden my tastes for at least the next few months.  I also want to find some great recipes with quinoa.

So far I made a yummy fruit salad I can have for the whole week, bring it to work and have for a healthy snack.

I am starting to try to do some DIY crafts more, need to be more of a crafty mom for baby Parker...

Easter Egg Decoration

Mason Jar turned into a Decorative Q-Tip holder

Product of the Week

Another great on the go breakfast or snack!

 

Starbucks Strawberry Smoothie

 

This drink has 16g of protein, 7g of fiber, vitamins, iron, a whole banana and is only 290 calories and 1g of fat for the non-fat milk option.  I haven't been to Starbucks for over 4 months since I am pregnant, it was nice to step foot in one again.  I missed it.  This may be sad but it made me feel like me.  I used to go there daily for coffee.  Obviously I couldn't get coffee because of the caffeine, but this is a great substitute and I finally get to use my christmas giftcards.  The baby needs mommy to eat a lot of protein so this is a great source.  I asked my doctor and made sure protein powder was okay to have before getting this.

 

Product of the Week

  

This smoothie is only 100 calories and requires no blender or added ingredients.  The directions say to heat it in the microwave for a little, but I just let it sit out for a little and it's good to drink.  These are a good source of vitamin C and very easy for people on the go.  They taste great.  The only downfall I saw was you can't really use a straw, more so a spoon since the packaging isn't deep enough.

 

I do like the Yoplait smoothies better but this is another smoothie option that is easier to just grab and go.

Healthy Food Myth

A lot of people think that eating healthy is so expensive, but really it's not.  You go to a fast food restaurant and it's over $6 for a combo meal and that is just ONE meal.  So fast food being unhealthy isn't the only negative.

In this picture there is a bran/multi-gran muffin, apples, a bag of lettuce/veggies and a sweet potato.  

All this was only $4.85 and it makes up:

1 breakfast

2 snacks

a few lunches or dinner sides (salad)

1 side for dinner

Good Choices - Smoothies

Instead of ice cream last night I decided to have something similar that would feed my craving, but that was healthy and had a lot of good things for my body in it.  I posted about this last year when it started to get warmer out, but now I finally got a smoothie drink holder so I can travel with it and not just drink it at home.  This has 1 cup of skim milk, a bag of the frozen Yoplait smoothie mix and a touch of water.  Remember they are located in the frozen desserts section at the grocery store and there are many flavors to choose from.  There are a couple new flavors this year:  Greek Mixed Berry, Greek Strawberry Banana Orange & Chocolate Strawberry in addition to Chocolate Banana (pictured), Triple Berry, Strawberry Banana, Strawberry Mango Pineapple & Blueberry Pomegranate.  There's a smoothie for everyone!

Other things that could be added to them to make it your own are: fat free peanut butter for some more protein or protein powder, brewed coffee for an on the go breakfast, any additional fruit of your choice or Nutella for a treat.  You could also use less milk and more water to have it be an even lighter drink.  With the skim milk it is 130 calories a serving or about 280-300 calories for the whole blended mixture.  I think next time I want to try less milk, maybe 3/4 cup and then 1/4 cup of water instead or I may add just a 1/2 cup of milk and a 1/2 cup of brewed espresso so I can save some money on my morning coffee! :)

Creamy Avocado Sauce

The recipe calls for:

1 box of whole wheat pasta

1 larger sized avocado

1/2 of a lemon, the juice only

3 tbs olive oil

4 garlic cloves

salt & pepper

-- Bring water to a boil and cook the pasta per the box.  Approximately 8 minutes.

-- In a food processor blend the olive oil, lemon juice and garlic cloves.  I used a chopper because that's all I have.

-- Add the avocado and some salt to the food processor.  Blend until smooth and creamy.

-- Pour on top of the pasta, mix well and top with some pepper.

-- Serve immediately.

Other options for this recipe can be to add 1/4 cup of fresh basil to the food processor.  I love basil, but wanted to leave it out this time because my fiance it's a fan.  Next time I will definitely add the basil and serve this sauce over some healthy spaghetti squash instead of pasta.

Avocado doesn't reheat well so it's best to eat it fresh the day of making the recipe.

Craving Ice Cream?

A great substitute to a pint of Ben & Jerry's or buying a tub of ice cream is something I started doing years ago.  Shoprite has there own brand of cool whip.  There is a fat-free kind that when you freeze it tastes like you're eating ice cream.  You could use any brand of cool whip & even use light or the regular kind, all better than the  1,000 calorie pints people buy.  And we all know when we buy them it's very hard to not eat the whole thing in one sitting, myself included.  Sometimes you need to splurge, but with summer right around the corner this is a great way to enjoy ice cream more frequently & to stay cool.





Some toppings you can add are fruit, granola or one of those 100 packs of cookies crumbled up.  You can also just use sprinkles or chocolate syrup since the "ice cream" itself isn't very high in calories or high in weight watcher points.



Graham Cracker Ice Cream Sandwich:

-- Break one graham cracker in half.  Any kind of your choice, regular/cinnamon/chocolate.  They also have light options at Shoprite.  I prefer the chocolate Shoprite brand.
-- Add a spoonful of the fat-free cool whip to one of the halves & put the other half on top.
-- Wrap the sandwich in saran wrap & place them in the freezer until frozen.  It's a great treat!

Mission Complete

I finally found the Yoplait Smoothies at Shoprite after looking down every frozen aisle and then having to ask for help. They are by the frozen desserts. Right now they are on sale for $2.50. And BONUS!!! the calories include skim milk already. I can't wait to try them!

Its Smoothie Kind Of Weather!

The weather is becoming warmer and warmer out, what's better then a nice cold tasty beverage? I was watching this weeks Biggest Loser episode and they were promoting Yoplait Smoothies. They look and sound delicious! And it can't hurt that they are very healthy for you. Each packet has 2 serving sizes and each serving size ranges from 110-120 calories. All you need to do is add a little milk of your choice and blend! (Non-Fat preferably)

There are four different kinds on their website: Blueberry Pomegranate, Triple Berry, Strawberry Banana & Strawberry Mango Pineapple, but on the Biggest Loser they also had Chocolate Banana. I will be looking in the grocery store tonight!