{recipe} Spinach Smoothie

Weekly Test Recipes - week 31!

I have been loving smoothies every once in a while since I bought my blender last spring.  Recently I came across a smoothie tutorial on Our Best Bites.  If you like smoothies, check it out.  If you like food at all, check out Our Best Bites.  I have a lot of future test recipes bookmarked from them.  Anywho, in this smoothie tutorial, they mention adding spinach to your smoothies as an easy and sneaky way to get lots of good nutrients into a tasty treat.  I like smoothies, and I like spinach, so I decided to test it out!  The recipe below is the one I tested out, but if you visit their site you can see there are countless ingredient combinations to discover.

SNEAKY SPINACH SMOOTHIE (OurBestBites)

1/2 c. orange juice
4 oz. yogurt (I like Activia light, and used peach this time)
1/2 c. strawberries (I used frozen)
1 frozen banana
1 handful baby spinach

Place orange juice and yogurt in blender and mix until combined.  Add strawberries and pulse ice-crush button until smooth.  Add banana and spinach and puree until smooth. 

Makes 1 smoothie.

This is seriously sooo good.  And, other than the slight color change, you can't even tell there's spinach! 

A couple days later I made one with strawberries, cantaloupe, OJ, peach yogurt, banana, spinach, and flax seed. It was also very yummy, but I didn't like it as much with the cantaloupe in there.  Go make your own smoothie today!  They are a refreshing and healthy snack or breakfast on a summer day!

Rating: EXCELLENT

{recipe} Smoothie with a Twist

Weekly Test Recipes - Week 26! (The year is half over - GASP!)

I've fallen away from my smoothie addiction in recent weeks.  But this week we had an abundance of fresh fruit in the fridge and needed to get rid of some of the strawberries before they went bad.  On a whim, I decided to throw in some extras and use up some veggies in the fridge as well.  Similar to V8 fruit juice.  It was so good and I couldn't even taste the veggies.

SMOOTHIE WITH A TWIST* (one serving)
6 oz. yogurt of choice (I used strawberry banana this time, but usually use vanilla. Peach is good too. Any kind really!)

splash of orange juice
splash of lemon juice
1 ripe banana, sliced (freeze it first to add thickness)
handful fresh strawberries (I used 6 medium ones)
3-4 chunks fresh pineapple
*5 baby carrots (gasp, I know!)
1 Tbsp. flax seed  (optional)

Place yogurt and juices in blender and blend until mixed.  Add other ingredients a little at a time, blending between additions, until mixed.  Serve immediately. (I ended up adding a few ice cubes to this smoothie to add thickness.  If you use frozen fruit, ice won't be necessary.)  I've heard of adding spinach to smoothies as well, and have such a recipe bookmarked to try in the near future.

{recipe} Creamy Caramel Flan

Weekly Test Recipes: Week 18!! (Playing catch-up this week...)

This first recipe for the week was part of my Cinco de Mayo celebration.  I decided to make a Mexican-style dessert, and this is what I came up with:

CREAMY CARAMEL FLAN (allrecipes)

3/4 cup white sugar
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
5 eggs
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, cook sugar, stirring, until golden. Pour into a 10 inch round baking dish, tilting to coat bottom and sides. Set aside.  In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated. Beat in condensed and evaporated milk and vanilla until smooth. Pour into caramel coated pan. Line a roasting pan with a damp kitchen towel. Place baking dish on towel, inside roasting pan, and place roasting pan on oven rack. Fill roasting pan with boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the baking dish.  Bake in preheated oven 50 to 60 minutes, until center is just set. Cool one hour on wire rack, then chill in refrigerator 8 hours or overnight. To unmold, run a knife around edges of pan and invert on a rimmed serving platter.

This was good, but nothing compared to cheesecake.  The jello-ish consistency bothered me a bit, and the eggy-custardy taste.  Just not as sweet as I expected.  Overall, I would probably rate this GOOD, but I probably won't ever make it again.


*************************************************
CRANBERRY REFRESHER

1 1/4 c. cranberry juice
scant 1/2 c. orange juice
1 c. fresh raspberries (I used frozen)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice

Pour the cranberry juice and orange juice into a blender and process gently until combined.  Add the raspberries and lemon juice, and mix until smooth.  Pour into glasses and garnish with slices and spirals of fresh lemon or orange.  Serve immediately.

This was nice a refreshing.  I rate it EXCELLENT.

{recipe} Peach & Orange Milkshake

ANNOUNCEMENT: 
A couple months ago I bought a blender.  And since then I have become a smoothie connoisseur. I recently bought a new cookbook: 100 Best Smoothies and Juices because of this fact.  When I buy a cookbook or get a new magazine in the mail, the first thing I do is look through everything and bookmark all the recipes I think I'd like to try.  So I hereby announce that I will be doing a Smoothie of the Week feature each week here on Crafteroonie!  I'm very excited :)  Hopefully I'll be adventurous enough to test some new fruits or interesting combinations.

Unfortunately, the first smoothie I tried from the book was a flop.  Read about it HERE.  This week's smoothie was much more successful:

PEACH & ORANGE MILKSHAKE (Smoothie book)

scant 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. peach yogurt
scant 1/2 c. orange juice
1 c. canned peach slices, drained (or use fresh)
6 ice cubes, crushed

Pour the milk, yogurt, and orange juice into a blender and blend gently until combined.  Add the peach slices and ice cubes, and blend until smooth.  Pour into chilled glasses and serve.  Makes 2 servings.

I think peaches are my favorite fruit.  It's rare to come across a bad one.  When they make an appearance at the grocery stores during those later summer months, they are hard to pass up!  (Watermelon is a close second favorite of mine, but it lost out of first place due to the fact that it's too easy to find a flavorless one.  And those darn seeds!) So this smoothie/milkshake was right up my alley.  It's hard to consider it a milkshake without the ice cream...am I the only one who thinks this way??  This was pretty GOOD.  Nice strooong peach flavor.  Very refreshing!

{recipe failure} Apple Celery Smoothie

Test Recipes Week 16! (continued)

When I made the PW's Chicken Salad this week, I needed a way to use up the leftover celery.  I'm not a huge fan, other than the crunch it adds to salads (chicken salad, tuna ring-noodle salad, etc.)  And I really can't stand it when it's mushy (like in soup...bleh).  A couple weeks ago I bought a new recipe book - 100 Best Smoothies & Juices, and while looking through it I came across a recipe with celery as one of the ingredients.  I decided to test it out:

APPLE & CELERY REVITALIZER (Smoothie Book)

1 sweet apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1 c. chopped celery
1 1/4 c. milk
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt

Place apple, celery, and milk in food processor or blender and blend away until smooth.  Add a pinch of salt and sugar if desired.  Pour into chilled glasses and serve.  Makes 2 servings.

Bleh.  Bleh, bleh, bleh.  My dislike for celery was not cured with this drink - I could not even finish it.  Thank goodness I only made half a recipe.  Maybe I just hoped too much that the milk and apple would sweeten things up and mask the taste of the celery a bit.  Not so, I could barely taste anything other than celery.  I'll just have to eat Ants on a Log to use the rest up.  I will never make this again.  Sorry celery-lovers out there, I rated this BAD.