Good morning, all. Welcome to my weekend series, Smoothie Saturdays! Just like my Fitness Fridays series I'll be sharing how I make my delicious and healthy smoothies every other week. I am so excited for this series because it revolves around my favorite past time, eating. 😄
As I'm slowly adopting healthier habits, I find that I still crave nourishment that tastes good. I love eating fruits, and where I live, mango is where it's at! Us Virgin Islanders love our mango, and I'm constantly craving anything mango-flavored. But even though mango season isn't for another few months, I recently got the idea to make healthy smoothies to supplement my junk food cravings. Instead of eating processed sweets I decided that eating fruits or blending them into smoothies would be a much better replacement.
Either I got my fruits from the freezer aisle at the store or from someone who had picked them for my family to eat. Because I'm still experimenting with different smoothie combinations, my base is quite simple: fruit, a bowl of spinach and some honey for sweetness.
What made starting these smoothies especially awesome was getting to finally use the NutriBullet that my aunt purchased a long time ago but never got around to using. This machine is WAY better than a regular blender because it's so quick and compact, and it pre-portions your smoothies with the different cup sizes that come with it.
What I also love about the NutriBullet is that it comes with handles that can be screwed onto the cup and lids for storage. The set actually didn't come with a spout attachment for drinking, so I ordered two from online for about $6. I didn't take a picture of all of the parts but this is what the entire set looks like.
To make each "smoothie session" run smoothly, I like to portion out all the fruits that I buy into sandwich bags and store them in the freezer.
All of the fruits in the picture above that you may not be able to see include pineapple, watermelon, cherries, banana, apple and avocado. Every time I make a smoothie, the very first ingredient that I add is a huge helping of spinach. I never do a smoothie without adding greens or vegetables because it would defeat the purpose of making healthy smoothies. Then I add at least a cup of water because as I add the fruits, I don't want the mixture to become too thick.
I give the spinach a blend by itself to make room for the fruit. I always love watching the vibrant green come through as it blends! 😍
After blending the spinach I add my fruit. Pictured here is a mixture of mango, mixed berries and a whole diced apple. Lastly, I drizzle some honey for a little added sweetness and blend that all together. Look at that color now!
And my smoothie is done! This process takes me less than ten minutes to complete and the cleanup is even better. Another advantage of using my NutriBullet instead of a regular blender is that I don't have to transfer the smoothie into a smaller cup because it's already in a cup. I just screw on the drinking spout and store it in the fridge. I like to either drink my smoothie from the spout or from this cute little mason jar cup my sister gave me. Every smoothie lasts me about three days and I usually drink it with my breakfast or as a snack.
I began experiencing the benefits of these smoothies almost immediately! Let's just say my digestive system really needed the nutrients. They also gave me more energy and kept me fuller longer, which made me feel less hunger between meals. It's a great way to get my daily helping of fruit in a much more convenient way.
As spring approaches and brings other fruits into season, I'll be looking forward to coming up with even more yummy and healthy concoctions. I hope this post gave you some inspiration to create your own healthy smoothies, and feel free to share what ingredients you use to make your own smoothies.
Thanks for reading and I'll be back with another recipe on the next Smoothie Saturdays. Have a great weekend everyone!
If you're a beginner cook like me you know how daunting it is to sometimes take on a new recipe. I personally aspire to become a great cook like my grandmother, who knows that the only reason I'm a spoiled foodie is because of her. I'm starting to take notes and ask questions whenever she cooks one of her many delicious meals because if there's one thing that I want to take with me once I leave St. Thomas, it's the food that I grew up with and continue to eat from her. My grandmother is probably the only person in the world who can make even meatloaf something to drool over. I will get there eventually but in the meantime, I'm a certified noob. This is going to be a short post but I really wanted to share this recipe with you all because it's just so good!
I have many recipes saved but I honestly haven't used many of them due to many different reasons. Because I'm usually so busy these days I rely on using ingredients that I already have at home. So when I came across this Pomegranate Chicken Wings recipe video on the Tastemade Facebook page, I jumped at the chance to make it. I chose this recipe because not only was it extremely easy to make, but I had most of the ingredients at home. What I did not have on the other hand was Pomegranate juice, but I knew where to buy it. I also did not have chicken wings but I was not going to buy any because I had a bag of frozen chicken breasts in my freezer. It was all about working with what I had. Here is the link to the original recipe.
I tried the recipe for the first time a few weeks ago using the only technique I've been using since I started cooking: baking the chicken. I'll admit that I always relied on baking my chicken instead of cooking it on the stovetop because I was terrified that it wouldn't be cooked through. Yes, that sounds very reasonable... 😶
I quickly learned that baking the chicken breasts wasn't the best way to prepare it because although the finished product tasted amazing, the chicken was a little tough. I knew that next time I would have to conquer my fears and cook the chicken on the stovetop. So last week I tried the recipe again. I like to let my chicken marinate for a long time so I took a large zip lock bag and added the ingredients into it along with the cubed chicken breasts. I used about four breasts.
The ingredients required baking powder, paprika, ginger powder, cumin, salt,
and pepper, but I didn't have cumin so I just rolled with it. The next morning I took my marinated chicken out if the fridge and cooked it on the stovetop until I was sure it was cooked through. In the meantime, I made the glaze and added a little brown sugar to enhance the flavor.
When everything was finished I combined the chicken into the glaze and served it with some Jasmine Rice, one of my favorites.
This meal was so easy to make despite not having the exact ingredients, and it was just yummy! I definitely plan to do this recipe again very soon, and this time I'll make sure to get chicken wings (and cumin) so that I can follow the recipe as it was intended. I hope you'll try this recipe because it's so simple yet SO delicious. Thanks for reading!
