My Favorite Breakfast Smoothie

When I say this is my favorite breakfast smoothie, I mean that it's been my favorite breakfast smoothie for a couple weeks now. When it comes to smoothies and juices, I definitely go through phases. But that's the fun part! I love discovering new combinations and recipes. Sometimes it's a hit or miss. You have to make sure you have the right amount of each thing, or else it can throw the flavors and consistency off balance. Smoothie/juice making is an art. And I suck at art.

But anyway, here is one of my favorite smoothies.

Ingredients:

• One banana (the sweeter you want it, the riper the banana should be)
• 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk (more or less, up to you)
• 1 cup of frozen blueberries (more or less, up to you)
• Ginger (about a teaspoon, don't go overboard—this is a very strong flavor)

There really aren't any steps to this smoothie recipe (which is one of the reasons I love it.) The only ingredient you have to prep is the ginger. I used a regular potato peeler to shave off a few slices of ginger root. My banana was super, SUPER ripe, so it kind of messed up the usual taste of this smoothie and made it sweeter than I would have liked. Basically, just play around with the ingredients until you get the perfect mix according to your taste buds ;)

Some benefits of the ingredients:

• Blueberries are great antioxidants! If you can use fresh ones even better, but frozen berries help give your smoothie that ice cold factor.
• Ginger is great for energizing, so this makes an awesome addition to any breakfast smoothie or juice.
• Almond milk, especially the unsweetened kind, is definitely better to use than regular milk. 

What are some of your favorite smoothie combinations?

Homemade No-Bake Bars! Healthy AND Delicious

I've been wanting to make these for such a long time! I'm glad I finally did because now I'm hooked. The best part is you can experiment with different ingredients and different flavors, and basically create your own concoctions. They were super easy to make and I love the fact that they're no-bake (which means less chances of screwing it up...) Healthy, vegan, delicious, simple. What's not to love?

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup of pitted dates

1 cup of almond/cashew mix

1 cup of coconut flakes (unsweetened)

1/2 tablespoon of vanilla extract

Tip: If you want the bars to be less gooey, reduce the dates to about just a cup. If you want them to be less sweet, opt out of the vanilla extract.

1. Combine the nuts and coconut into your food processor and mix well until it looks kind of like the

photo below.

2. I soaked the dates in warm water for about five minutes, just to make sure they weren't too dry when it came time to chop them up in the Nutri Bullet. If you're using a similar food processor, they only need to be roughly chopped—about a few seconds should do. Take the gooey mix over to the bowl of mixed nuts and coconut and blend well. (Optional: add the vanilla extract to give it a sweeter taste.) 

3. Now you want to spread out the mix onto a tray with wax paper (just because it makes it easier to spread out and it won't stick to the paper when it's time to cut them into separate pieces.) Try to make sure that it's evenly spread out and not too thin, but not too thick either. 

4. Place in the fridge for about an hour or two. Since my bars were on the gooier side, I waited about two hours before cutting them up. Once they're ready, cut them up in whatever size you want! 

There you have it! A simple alternative to granola bars. The perfect snack or even dessert if you're trying to stay away from processed sugars, etc. Feel free to play around with ingredients! You basically just need one dry ingredient (such as nuts), one "wet" ingredient to make sure they stick (dates, prunes, etc.) and then any add-ons for flavor (such as the coconut flakes.) Check out this list for some inspiration: Homemade Larabars

"Breakfast Zinger" Juice Recipe

I got a juicer for Christmas (the Omega 8006 Juicer) and I've been experimenting with different juice recipes ever since. Juicing is certainly "in" right now, but buying them from the store is just too expensive for me. However, it is time consuming if you're making a big batch of juice and if it has more than just a couple ingredients. But if you're trying to live a healthier lifestyle (and not spend half your paycheck at Whole Foods), it's definitely worth it to get some type of juicer.

This time around I made a juice called the "Breakfast Zinger." It includes beets, carrots, lemons, apples and ginger. Definitely has that "zing" to it. I used this original recipe but changed it up a bit. If you hate the taste of ginger then I recommend omitting it, BUT keep in mind that ginger is great for energy and has a ton of health benefits.

Black Bean Brownies

Before you say "ew" or "wtf" let me just tell you that you cannot taste the beans in this. They taste just like any other brownies, except maybe even more delicious because they come out a bit more dense and gooey. It's also one of the easiest recipes I have ever encountered and the clean up was AWESOME. The only ingredients you need? A box of brownie mix and a can of black beans. Yep. The total cost? $4. Double yep.

Ingredients:
Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix (I got it on sale for $2.99, but you can pretty much use any brownie mix)
Can of black beans (make sure they're plain and don't have any seasoning…)
Water

1. Open up your can of beans and rinse them out. I pressed some of the excess liquid out of the can first and then put the beans into a separate bowl. Rinse the beans a couple more times until they don't have much of that liquidy brown bean juice left. Then rinse out the can and pour the beans back in. Fill the can up with water.

2. At this point you want to puree the beans, leaving you with a gooey/liquid mixture of beans. You can use pretty much anything for this step, but it's obviously easier if you use something like a magic bullet or what I used, an electric mixer.

3. Now, pour your brownie mix into a larger separate bowl. Pour the bean puree in the same bowl and with a spatula mix together. Don't over mix! This step shouldn't take more than about 2 minutes, if even that.

4. Grease your pan if it's non-stick and pour the brownie mixture in, spreading evenly. Your oven should be preheated to the temperature noted on the brownie mix box (the mix I used said 325 degrees.) You're going to want to leave it in the oven for less time than what it says on the box. In my case, I cooked the brownies for about 30 minutes and they came out perfect. With brownies you usually want to take them out when they're still gooey (even if you think they're not ready) because as they cool they harden up a bit.

(note: I'm impatient, as always, and forgot to take a picture before digging in.)

That's it! Quick and easy. They're not exactly the "healthiest" brownies, but substituting beans for the oil and eggs certainly gives it a better rep. It's also added protein! Hopefully you're used to eating beans so these brownies don't give you some intense gas, haha. But seriously, watch out for that.