Cherry-Mango Smoothie

I love smoothies and so do my kids. They're so easy and good! 

You don't really have to measure, you can use any type of fruit that you have on hand (canned, fresh, or frozen) and any combination, you can use any liquid of your choosing (from milk to kefir to juice or even water), you can sweeten to taste, and you can make them thin enough to drink or thick enough to scoop like ice cream!

I buy frozen fruit in bulk at our local Cash-n-Carry and sometimes at Sam's. I also freeze or can anything that I'm given or can grow from my own yard. We were blessed with blackberries this year from our bushes and were given some delicious blueberries. Someone else later gave us some frozen apples from their freezer. We were blessed!

For this tasty combination;

3 cups frozen sour cherries

1 1/2 cups frozen mango

1/2 to 3/4 cup cane sugar (or white)

2 1/2 cups kefir (or other)

Whirl in your blender!

Pardon me while I slurp!

Banana-Avocado-Mango Smoothies

Believe it or not, you can't taste the avocados, but they do give it a smooth and creamy texture that is really a nice treat. I haven't frozen any of this but I bet it would make a nice and smooth pudding type pop!

2 ripe avocados
3 small very ripe bananas
2 cups frozen mango chunks
1/3 cup cane sugar (adjust to taste)
1 quart of kefir (yogurt, buttermilk, or milk)

Blend well and serve.
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Fermented Cherry Syrup

Finally! A ferment that I can get the kids to eat!

Who could turn down cherries?!?!

The recipe for these, is in Nourishing Traditions.

Very easy, slightly sweet but tart too.

I put them on top of their yogurt smoothies - next to try a little with crepes or pancakes!

Yummy!

Homemade Fruity Yogurt...

I won't hardly pay big bucks for fruity yogurt- (I only buy it if I can get it almost free with coupons!)

But that doesn't mean we don't eat it!

It's so easy to make your own and much more frugal. I make my own homemade plain yogurt for starters, which saves money too, since I can make a gallon of it for $2.49 which is what I pay for milk at Aldi these days.

I sweeten with a little cane sugar and add thawed, slightly crushed fruit from the freezer.

I can make this for about $1.20 a quart...and when I start getting enough fruit from my berry bushes- it will take it down to around .70 per quart! (milk+sugar)

I usually make a couple of quarts at a time. Sometimes I freeze some for 'pops' or whirl it with some ice for smoothies. But it's great to have it ready for a quick-healthy-frugal-snack!

Or even breakfast!

Apple Pie Smoothies....

2 cups plain yogurt
2 cups applesauce
3/4 cup cane sugar
dash of nutmeg
1 t cinnamon
1 T lemon juice
3 cups ice

Whirl in a blender. Garnish with dash of cinnamon or nutmeg.

*I used homemade yogurt and homemade applesauce. Your sugar may need to be adjusted based on the applesauce you use.

Banana Split Yogurt Smoothie...

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (I used Creamy Top Stonyfield, mmmm)
2 bananas
2 cups frozen cherries
1 1/2 t vanilla
2 cups milk
2/3 cup cane sugar
1 to 2 cups ice
Whirl in blender.

Optional toppings:
chocolate syrup, chopped pecans, dried flaked coconut

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This yummy treat WORKS FOR ME!

My "love" of blenders...

I don't know why exactly, but I seem to have some sort of predisposition towards wrecking blenders! Could it be that I push them too hard? Could it be that they are too small for a crew of 8 and I cram them too full? Is it me, am I cursed? ;-) ...I mean...I've only wrecked like say 3 or 4 in the last year and half or so....

Well, I think I've fallen in love with these beautiful machines and I think we're gonna be best buds for a (hopefully) long, long time!

You see- these Dual Wave Blenders have the best of ALL WORLDS!

They have 2 sets of blades to blend with! Woo hoo! Extra blending means a less likely chance of me burning it up!

And they hold a whole TEN CUPS!!! No more running it twice or giving everyone just a half cup or so! Woo hoo! - Anyone want a refill?

And my personal favorite part that I'm getting quite spoiled to is the single serve blending cups!

Yes! Can you see them in the bottom pic below? This comes with 2 of those single serve cups and they both are sitting on the blender in the pic. You see 'em? They are so cool! Here's why- you can blend one serving (great for us busy moms who want a healthy and light breakfast and sometimes need it 'to go') and turn it upside down, unscrew the blade thingy, then cap it, turn it back upright and it has a flip up lid so its truly 'good to go'! (No mess!)

I just wanted to share my excitement with you and hope you think they are as cool as I do.

Coconut Milk and Fruit Slush

Since reading Nourishing Traditions and some of Kimi's writings at the Nourishing Gourmet , I've been looking for exciting ways to use coconut milk! Tonight I found one that worked for the whole crew!

I used it instead of yogurt in our slushie/smoothie drink!

Here's what I tossed in but you can wing these with whatever's on hand!
-one can of coconut milk
-one mango, peeled and sliced
-1 1/2 cups of blueberries
-3/4 cup cranberries
-juice of half a lemon
-cane sugar to sweeten to taste
-ice and water to desired consistency

So rich and creamy! WOW! Everyone loved them!

Coconut Rice- for breakfast

Slow-cooked brown rice with a dollop of coconut oil, sweetened with cane sugar, and topped with coconut.

*(Often I will put water on to boil, dump in my rice, cover and turn off heat and allow the rice to slow cook overnight. Then in the morning I add a little butter, milk, or water if necessary and reheat.)

Smoothie:

1 1/2 cups approx. frozen peaches

1 fresh mango

1 ripe banana

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

1/4 cup cream

3/4 cup ice

sweeten to taste with honey

Cherry-Berry Cream-Dream

This tasty treat was our snack today.

2 -cups whole milk

2 -cups strawberries

1 -cup blueberries

1 -cup sour cherries

1/2 cup cane sugar or preferred sweetener

Whirl in a blender, but leave a bit of chunky fruit for extra fun!

Double Berry Smoothie

Kids (and some adults too) can be finicky about the seeds in blackberries. This is one way to make them irresistible!
-1 pint of blueberries
-1 cup blackberries
-2 cups rice milk (or any other liquid of your choice)
-1 cup fresh spinach (a great idea from Laura!-I didn't get caught!)
-sweeten to taste (I used about 1/2 cup of cane sugar)
-1 to 2 cups of ice

Whirl in blender or smoothie maker and your kids will think you've been to Sonic!

Blueberry-Dew

- 1/2 honeydew melon
-2 cups blueberries
-ice
-(milk or yogurt opt. if you want it more like a smoothie texture, we just like it as a fruit slush)
-sweetened to taste with cane sugar and/or brown sugar

Whirl in your blender or smoothie maker!

Smoothies and slushies are a great way to get those fruit (and sometimes veggie) servings in everyday!

BUBBLE YUM BERRY SMOOTHIE

1 16oz bag frozen strawberries

1 mango

1 banana, very ripe or from the freezer

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

1/2 cup cane sugar

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups Cranberry-Grape juice

Whirl and serve! Tastes like Grape Bubble Yum!

STRAWBERRY-MANGO SLUSH

2 MANGOES (peel and remove seed)

1 16 OZ TUB OF STRAWBERRIES (remove tops)

4 cups of ice

1 cup of cold water

1 cup of juice or milk

3/4 cup of sweetener of choice (I used half honey and half white sugar.)

Blend until smooth.

Serves 8 to 10.

Another Frugal Lunch- from "cooking school"

This lunch had lots of helpers!
6 to be exact!

Some peeled potatoes for potato salad, the little ones chopped pickles for it, some sliced carrots into 'sticks', while I made Hummus for the bagel sandwiches.
Then they all worked together to make the smoothie!
This total meal cost was about:$4.75. To feed 7!


Their smoothie recipe:
1 very big apple
1 mango
3 very ripe bananas
8 oz of strawberries
3/4 cup my homemade yogurt
1/2 can pineapple and juice
2 cups of ice
3/4 cup sugar

Potato Salad:
8 potatoes (or amount just right for your family), peeled, chopped, boiled

3 boiled eggs (boil them with the pototoes for one less dirty pot)
3/4 cup chopped dill pickles (or enough to your liking, we like a lot)
3/4 cup Mayo like Hellman's
1/2 to 3/4 cup Mayo or salad dressing like Miracle Whip**
1/8 to 1/4 cup of mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Hummus:
I used Tammy's recipe at: http://tammysrecipes.com/hummus Her recipe was better than my old one! Except I did not have tahini but it was very good!

Cranberry Plus Smoothie

This smoothie had fresh pineapple, fresh cranberries, apple juice, a banana, a mango, kiwi, and yogurt and a dab of honey. Yummy!

I didn't measure but it worked out to be a great combination!

Strawberry-Kiwi Smoothie

STRAWBERRY-KIWI SMOOTHIES: 3 peeled kiwi, 4 cups of frozen strawberries, 8oz of plain yogurt, 1 cup of milk, approx. 3/4 cup of sugar to taste Blend in smoothie maker or blender until smooth. MAKES 6-8 SERVINGS.

*Sorry I lost the pic, I'll try to get another!

Berry-Banana Smoothie

You caught me, just before I give it a whirl!
This smoothie is a cinch and SO good!

Strawberries (1 16oz bag, frozen $1.29DGM), blueberries ($1.50), banana (from the freezer, pennies), yogurt (homemade, .50?), sugar or other sweetener, milk(or juice or water), and ice to the top.

($3.75?) Makes 8 full servings or 12 small.
(NOTE: I often make these, serve the kids (6 of them) a regular-sized portion and freeze the rest for popsicles.)

Light and Fluffy Orange Smoothie Treat

This was a unique smoothie that I made SORTA like a recipe from a whipped cream container.

I use about 3 cups of peach-orange juice (or just orange).
2 cups of ice
1 cup of whipped cream
1 naval orange peeled and quartered
1/4 cup of sugar

And blended! Served in a glass with a straw and topped with whipped cream---a dream!

Read on for what I did with the leftovers......

Leftover Smoothies and other things

With the leftover orange juice smoothies, these 'pops' were made. 3 had whipped cream and the other 3 did not.

I never just throw out my leftover smoothies!

The 3 that you see with sticks are made from 2 different things as you can see by color. I had leftover blueberry juice that I drained off a can of blueberries from breakfast muffins (never just throw stuff away!), that was the bottoms of these and the tops were some peach-orange juice that I got for a clearance price of .94 a carton! (normally 2.99)

My kids, including my teenager, really love these pops! I nearly never buy fancy store-bought things like this so my kids think I have really invented something!