Breakfast Smoothie: the good, bad & the dirty

Ok so my title is slightly misleading. There is only good that can come of a delicious smoothie but there is also some dirty. It’s been awhile since I made a smoothie and now I’ve got the hubby liking them too, but my blender is one of the hardest appliance to clean if food is left to sit for too long. I’ll tell you how to clean it, but first let’s get it dirty. 

This recipe is easy and one you can make in minutes. It’s food and a Tip Tuesday. 

Simple smoothie with berries, milk, & yogurt makes for a dirty blender.
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My recipes are simple and usually include the same four ingredients: milk (we use 2%), fresh or frozen bananas (tip: buy overripe bananas at the produce market at a discount, slice and freeze into little baggies for later), a handful of mixed berries (we like blueberries, strawberries and blackberries), yogurt (your favorite flavor, but I like strawberry or vanilla). Blend until smooth. As you can tell I don’t measure.

Now that you’ve made a delicious smoothie it’s time to clean up with these three items: tap water, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 squirt of dish detergent.

Baking soda, water, and dish detergent. Blend.
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Fill your blender halfway with water and add the other two items and give it a whirl. Rinse with clean water and set aside to dry. Now, I usually clean my blender this way when I’m in a hurry and don’t have time to scrub.

Rinse blender with tap water and it’s all clean.
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Snack Attack

Not all snacks are created alike. There’s snacks that attack back like chocolate (trust I am a fan), chips (greasy, but I eat them too) and I could go on. But the purpose of this post is to tell you about the healthy foods I’ve been snacking since I’ve been pregnant.

I’ve always eaten healthy (and unhealthy) throughout my life. As a child my mother always made sure we had fresh fruit in the house. During strawberry and peach season we’d always go to the produce stand and within days we’d devour the juicy fruit.

It wasn’t strange for my mom to pick my sister and I up for school and have some oranges or other healthy goodies. So eating clean has been apart of my entire life. Now don’t get me wrong there have been times when I’ve downed a bag (yup, a bag) of mini Reese’s cups in an afternoon (the shame).

But unlike the crazy cravings of other preggo monsters out there I think I’ve eaten pretty healthy. I don’t have weird cravings and can usually be found snacking on fresh, sweet fruit, which brings me to my first healthy snack — strawberries.

Sweet Treats

• Strawberries. I’ve eaten them and I just can’t stop. I’ve made several trips to a local produce stand that I’ve become a fan of and stop quite frequently. Usually at the top of my list along with other fruits and veggies are strawberries. I can’t resist them. I just eat them cold and plain. The sweeter the better. I’ve even learned a tip to finding the sweet ones. I got this tip from my boss who got it from a farmer so you know it’s true. OK, here goes, if the top part of the strawberry closest to the stem is concaved then it’s probably not that sweet, but if it’s raised (hallelujah) then you’ve got a sweetie.

Now this is how I prefer my strawberries. Cold and plain. The sweeter the better.

• Edamame. I was introduced to edamame or green soybeans at a sushi restaurant a few years ago. I had them steamed and lightly salted and that’s the way I prefer. Once I started eating them I did a little research and realized edamame is the “perfect” source of fiber, protein, vitamin C and vitamin A and iron.
• Rice cakes. I like the mini caramel kind offered at Aldi. It gives me the sweet that I crave without the calories of say chocolate.
• Fruit pouches. I tried these pouches on a whim. I figured if children like them then they can’t be that bad. The pouches are essentially blended fruit and kind of tastes like applesauce. It’s been years since I ate applesauce. These pouches from Aldi are all natural and are only 60 calories. I’ve never been a calorie counter, but if you are then that’s not too bad for a snack, right?. The best part is it has a top and the pouch can be resealed.

 

The fruit blend pouches taste just like applesauce. It’s low in calories and is all natural.

• Fruit and nut bars. The Aldi (are you seeing a pattern here) version is similar to the popular KIND bars and I think with less salt. I don’t eat a lot of salt normally so when something is salty, I tend to taste it upfront. A friend of mine gave me a KIND bar recently with dark chocolate and I found it a little salty for my taste. It was delish, don’t get me wrong and maybe I’m used to the cheapy Aldi version. It was the only KIND bar I’ve tasted so maybe I’m discriminating. I like the cranberry + almond fruit bar. It’s gluten free for those of you out there whose body can’t process it or you are gluten free for other reasons.

I think the common denominator is sweet. I like sweet and all of these healthy snacks have that in common, well except for edamame. If you’ve tried any of these snacks (Aldi version or otherwise), or haven’t let me know. If you take a snapshot of your favorite healthy snack, share it with us on instagram, facebook, and twitter.