Tuesday, February 25, 2014

"Try It Tuesday" Smoothie Edition

I recently purchased a NutriBullet food extractor to make smoother, healthier smoothies. 
I really like the convenience of a smoothie for breakfast and the most recent attempts in my blender had turned out clumpy and chunky and I ended up wasting more than I enjoyed.
(When I grow up, I'd like to upgrade to the Vitamix.)

Before I made my purchase, I scoured the internet (Pinterest) and found a plethora of healthy smoothie recipes, but most of them were higher in calories than I would want. Sure, they are chock full of fruits and veggies, but 500+ calories for a snack? No thank you.

Being on a 1200 calorie a day diet, I usually try not to go over 300 calories for breakfast, so I decided that I needed to create healthy, tasty smoothies UNDER 300 calories for the calories conscious out there.

With that, I would like to present to you:

Ok, let's address the immediate issue at hand: it looks like YUCK!! It has a handful of baby spinach, but the gorgeous, strawberry pink color is in there somewhere. What you really need to be concerned about is the taste. So let me reassure you,
THIS STUFF IS AMAZING!!

This is actually my first "green" smoothie and I was a little reluctant to add spinach to a perfectly good smoothie, but as long as you keep a 50:50 (fruit to veggie) ratio, you really DO NOT taste the spinach.
Trust me.
Here's what you will need:
Handful of baby spinach (about 1 cup)
1/4 c. Fat Free Cottage Cheese
3/4 c. Frozen Strawberries
1 1/2 tsp. flax seed (whole, not milled)
1 tsp. honey
1/2 scoop of Light Cake Batter Muscle Milk Protein Powder
1/2 c. unsweetened vanilla almond milk
All the ingredients minus the strawberries and almond milk.
Put all the ingredients into your Nutribullet (or blender or Vitamix if you're cool like that!) and process until smooth.

You will end up with a delicious breakfast or snack that is PACKED with nutrients, vitamins, protein and fiber that will keep you full for hours!  The cake batter protein powder really does gives the shake a sweet, cheesecake taste, but if you don't have this flavor, you can use vanilla protein powder and it will still be delicious.

Oh yeah, and there's 212 calories. 
BOOM!
Enjoy!