Smoothie Love

In addition to my fondness for juicing nearly everything under the sun, I've continued to make delicious smoothies a few time a week for breakfast.  Over time, I've cut back on the sweetness of my smoothies.

This smoothie is not as sweet as some of my other favorites, but I think it's still really good.  Because it is lower in banana and sweetened almond milk, it also has less calories and is more stabilizing for blood sugar.  Here's today's smoothie!

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 cup cold water

1 handful spinach

1/2 cup frozen fruit

1/2 of a frozen banana

1 tsp chia {optional}

1 tsp flax {optional}

1 or 2 tsp raw honey {optional}

A few other tasty treats I've been enjoying lately....

Green grapes {I need to buy some additional storage containers, but this seems to be working in the meantime}

Strawberries

Noosa yoghurt!  This stuff is sooooo delicious!  It's pricy, but the containers are a little bit larger than your standard yogurt. My favorite is strawberry rhubarb.  Local folks: I've seen this sold at the HyVee in Rochester as well as Fareway in Stewartville.  

How about you?
What have you been gobbling on lately?

Food Star of the Week

2013 is off to a good start.

One big personal goal for this year is to budget extremely carefully, and make a good dent in my college and seminary student loans.  If I pinch every penny, I could have them halfway paid by the end of the year!

For the last 4 years, I've been making my monthly payments, and that's been going okay.  But I don't really want to do that for 11 more years.  I want to get them paid off soon so I can start saving for things like furniture!  (Thankfully, the house I've been renting for the last 3.5 years is furnished).

Part of my budgeting plan requires eating in most of the time and really limiting my spending at restaurants and coffee shops and Kwik Trip.  This is a little tricky as I LOVE eating out, but maybe I'll really love eating in, too!

I want to share my food discoveries and budgeting adventures with you.  Every week I'll feature a new food star!  To be a food star, the food item needs to be relatively inexpensive and healthy.  It also needs to be something that can be easily incorporated into your diet.  

This week......



SPINACH!

I've been eating it constantly lately. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner today! It's so healthy and not too expensive if you buy a big bag of it. I bought organic this time, but sometimes I don't.

I like to saute it with a little olive oil and red pepper flakes. SO tasty and it literally takes 2 minutes.

Another yummy-yum: add it to your noodles and pasta! So easy, nutritious (although brown rice would be better), and not too pricey.









It's also so, so, so good in my morning smoothies.

Just google: Green Monster. You'll get a host or recipes for morning breakfast smoothies featuring spinach, kale, and other greens.

How about you?  What's your "Food Star" this week?  Have you been eating a bunch of a particular food?  I'd love to hear your recommendations!