Cool Mint Freshie

First of all....

Let me REASSURE you that this has NOTHING to do with TOOTHPASTE....

And...EVERYTHING to do with COOLING DOWN!

Having a bit of a heat wave here today in TORONTO today...

 

But ya gotta carry on.

There's 5K to RUN and BASEBALL to be played!!

So after a day of EXTREMENESS in the SWEAT department.....

It's time to go home....put your feet up and chill....

LITERALLY...

 

And what could be more THRIST- QUENCHING than a handful of snack mix?

OK...SERIOUSLY...I needed a handful....just cause ....

Cause ....THEY ARE SOOOO GOOD!

But...back to Smoothie making......

WATERMELON is always a winner on a HOT day!
GOTTA have it!

 

Doesn't the "Blender Shot" cool you down just by LOOKING at it?

By the way....ONE of these was NOT enough for a day like today, so I made another!

If it's crazy HOT, just DOUBLE the recipe.

Cool Mint Freshie

(1 medium serving)

 

1 cup chopped watermeon

1/4 cup raspberries

1/4 cup frozen blueberries

4-5 mint leaves

handful of ice

 

#BrownSmoothie

OK...

It's a done deal.

I've decided..... 

THIS is IT!

THIS is the ONE.

THIS is THE #BrownSmoothie !

 

 

GO ON...

Take a taste of this INVIGORATING ELIXIR...

 

My Brown Smoothie

(1 large serving)

 

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup bananas (frozen or fresh)

1 orange

4 strawberries(frozen or fresh)

handful spinach

1/4 cup water

handful of ice

1 Tbsp hempseed

Raw Umber Recharger

Making Smoothies is FUN! 

What can I say...

EXCITEMENT is everywhere...

Ya just have to find it!

 

For ME....

It's as simple as making a new #BrownSmoothie that I LOVE.

And HERE it is.....

 

 

 Raw Umber Recharger
(one medium serving)
 

1/2 cup frozen mango

1/4 cup frozen blueberries

1/4 frozen cherries

1/2 cup almond milk

big handful spinach

Brown Zap

Some days I just don't FEEL like a coffee in the afternoon...

I know that sounds CRAZY to some of you....and frankly it does to me as well...

You see...I love COFFEE just as MUCH as I love SMOOTHIES!

 

Anyway...yesterday I decided that I would allow some CACAO NIBS to give me that much needed JOLT of ENERGY.

 

I love sprinkling extra nibs on top for a GARNISH.

They add a nice little CRUNCH.

   

By the way...when I made this I blended everything EXCEPT the spinach & nibs.

Then I poured out a cup for my daughter and she had a lovely #PinkSmoothie.

Right away I added the GREENS & CAFFINE for myself, blended those in and YUM YUM... I had a lovely #BrownSmoothie! Happiness for all!! 

 

 

 

 Brown Zap

(1 large serving)

 

3 pineapple rings plus 1/4 cup juice from can

3/4 cup frozen raspberries

3/4 frozen bananas

3 ice cubes
1/2 cup water

1 Tbsp cacao nibs

handful spinach

 

Scrumptiously Smooth and Healthy Freezer Fudge Bites

These are SOOOO Good!!!

I was about to have my afternoon coffee when I realized that I had NO baked goods...EEK!!!
Even my stash of frozen cookies was all GONE!

Sure... I've got boxes of store bought cookies in the cupboard for an EXTREME emergency but...really...I just DON'T LIKE store bought cookies...

So...I decided to look around the house and see what I had on hand and SLAP together some sort of no-bake deal....

We'll... we all know that I ALWAYS have BANANAS in the freezer.
So...I started with those. Broke apart about a 1/2 cup and threw them in a bowl and mashed them up!

Then I added QUICK COOK OATS...
Simple enough, right?
Added a couple Tbsp of MILK to soak up the oats....

 

BOM:

(banana, oats, milk)

Then I melted 1 cup of milk CHOCOLATE CHIPS and plopped it on top of

the oats mixture...

Can you say MOUTH-WATERING???

Stir it all up...

 

(doesn't look quite as mouth-watering here...BUT WAIT!!!)

Then you've got a couple of CHOICES...

You can either take little SPOONFULS and plop then on a plate lined with parchment paper and top them with a chocolate chip and then freeze them...

Or you can PRESS all of it in a loaf pan lined with parchment paper and cut it into little squares after its set in the freezer.
I prefer them in drop form as they seem to be smoother in texture...

 

Here they are...my little DELICACIES:

  Scrumptiously Smooth and Healthy Freezer Fudge Bites

(makes a bunch)

1/2 cup mashed frozen banana

A tiny bit less than 1 cup of quick cook oats

2 Tbsp milk

1 cup melted milk chocolate chips

Mash frozen bananas in a bowl.
Add oats and milk and combine with fork.
Stir in melted chocolate
Shape into balls & top with chocolate chip on top of parchment lined tray
Freeze for 15 min
Remove from parchment and store in container in freezer or just eat them all!!


Store in freezer and serve to your friends as soon as they walk in the door!!

Oh...and by the way...KIDS LOVE THEM!!
A nice alternative from JUST chocolate...
Great to have the GOODNESS of bananas and oats.

Mixing it in the Woods

What is summer without a little JAUNT to the cottage?
Or in my case...CABIN...
Well....there I was ...
Enjoying my week in the woods....

And yes... Big "V"  came with me!

Made a couple of SMOOTHIES...and SLUSHIES...wouldn't ya know....

They weren't BROWN...but hey...I was ROUGHING it...
Limited ingredients ya know....
Leafy greens don't keep so well in a COOLER...

So there I was....
TREKKING through the TREES
TRAIPSING through the TIMBERS
FORAGING in the FOREST...

So...I ask you:
What's a RAMBLE in the BUSH without a campfire? 

And...what's a CAMPFIRE without hot dogs, green beans, and giant marshmallows?

Hot Dog:

Green Beans:

Giant Marshmallows:

So here are my three favorite concoctions of the week...

A winner with all ages:

 Berry Minty

(two medium servings)

juice from half a lemon

1/4 cup fresh blueberries

1/4 cup fresh raspberries

1/4 cup fresh strawberries 

 3 mint leaves

1 cup of ice

Kiddos #1 choice:

Easy Peasy Lemon Freezy

(2 servings)

A lot of ice cubes

Juice from one small lemon

Maple syrup (to taste)

A couple of mint leaves if you have (ours unfortunately did not survive the cooler situation)

(blend and add ice to get the consistency you like)

The one who's name made everyone laugh:

Triple Berry Slush Pot

(2 medium servings)

Frozen banana

Frozen blueberries

Frozen raspberries

A few fresh strawberries

2 Tbsp Hemp seed

Tsp lemon juice

sorry...I didn't measure...just threw in what I had....how wrong can you go?

Keep on Savoring Summer!!

Cherry Peary

I have a friend...
Her name is Carrie...
When she was on vacation...

She asked me to help pick her cherries...

I had no idea that a backyard in Toronto could house sooooo many cherries on ONE tree.

Me and my girls picked THREE of these giant Dollarama bowls FULL of Carrie's cherries!!!

Carrie's cherries:
A Toronto DELICACY...

Blender Shot:
...cookies and milk....yum yum....

Smoothie shot:
MILD in flavor, CREAMY in texture...

Cherry Peary

(makes 1 serving)

1/4 cup sour cherries 

1 frozen pear

3/4 cup almond milk
2 Tbsp plain Greek yogourt

2  pinches of cinnamon

3 ginger snap cookies

(add fresh grated ginger if you want it more spicy)

Subtle Summer Sipper

Here's one thing that I have recently figured out:
STRAWBERRIES do not create a vibrant addition to a smoothie...
especially when paired with BABY KALE.

Or...it could just be my "RATIO ISSUE"

Needless to say....I am left with a wonderfully mouthwatering smoothie that is NOT brown..
BUT...at least there was a BROWN date in there...

Pre-Blend:

 

...just wrap me up in that icy cold kale on a hot summer day...

Post- Blend:

Ta Da!

Subtle Summer Sipper

1/2 cup crushed pineapple

1 orange

1/2 cup frozen bananas

1/2 cup frozen strawberries

handful frozen baby kale

2 Tbsp hemp seed

1 date

4 ice cubes

Watermelon Mint Refresher

 

Watermelon is SO good for you!

 

It's like... number TWO on the "Top Ten most ALKALINE foods you can consume" list!!!

CUCUMBERS and MANGOS are also very alkalizing.

 

I was instantly ENERGIZED by this creation!

The smell alone was an AWAKENING to the senses.

 

 

Before:

A RAINBOW of colours in this brew.....

 

 

After:
 

...makes a tasty BROWN treat!

 

Watermelon Mint Refresher

(1 large smoothie)

1 cup watermelon chopped

1/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1 small cucumber (about 1/2 cup)

5 mint leaves

1 cup frozen mango

 

 

Spinach Razaroo

 

I thought for sure the UNION of raspberries and spinach would produce a nice rich hue of CHOCOLATE brown (remember my green and red makes brown theory?)

My ratios must have been a bit off...
as I seem to have created a lovely shade of "GROWN".

Not grown in the traditional sense of the pronunciation.
Nope.
What I'm getting at here is a NEW word.
SAME spelling - new SOUND - NEW meaning.

This smoothie is not really GREEN... not really BROWN...
It is sort of a mix of the two...
So... if you put GR...EEN & BR...OWN together....
You get: GR...OWN
It's like you are saying OW!! in the middle of it all...

GR...OW!..N...

 

So...here we go...

 

Before:

 

 

I can't get enough of FROSTED fruit images...
Are you with me?

 

After:
 

 
 

Spinach Razaroo

(makes 1 medium serving)

 

1 cup Almond milk

big handful spinach

1 cup frozen raspberries

2 medjool dates (3 if you want it sweeter)

1 Tbsp Hempseed

 

(You can add a few ice cubes if you want it colder)

Ruby's Berry Blaster

I know...
I know...

I STARTED the blog because of my love of #BrownSmoothies...
I said there was going to be a lot of Brown ACTION....

BUT....

My 11yr old just created a super yummy summer smoothie:
The BERRY BLASTER!

Her name is RUBY, so it's even more exciting that it turned out RED!
I HAD to post it! For three reasons......

1. Because it's DELISH!
2. Because she SHARES my love of the Smoothie & is amazingly CREATIVE!
3. Because I've decided to have a GUEST recipe each month....

So here it is...
The FIRST of many:

"GASTRINOMICAL GUEST GALLIMAUFRY"

 

 

Ruby's Berry Blaster:

 

Throw it all in,

How it lands nobody knows,

Once you take a taste,

You'll be happy from your head to your toes....

 

Blend it all up!

This one takes a while as all the fruit is FROZEN except for the orange.


It's BERRYTASTIC!

  

Ruby's Berry Blast

(makes 1 large or 2 smaller servings)

 

1/2 cup frozen strawberries

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

1/2 cup frozen blackberries

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 cup frozen mango

1 orange peeled and cut up

A big splurt of maple syrup

1 1/2 cups water (or you can do half water, half orange juice)

 

*NOTE: If you want more of a slushie, use less liquid.

Start with 1/2 cup and see how thick you want it. Either way it is FAB!