Pineapple Strawberry Smoothie

I've been incorporating fruit smoothies into my breakfast routine this week.  I randomly bought a pineapple last week at the co-op and managed to acquire a bunch fo strawberries over the weekend.  Combined with Cascade Farms Low Fat Yogurt, flax seeds and bee pollen it makes for a great start to the day.

PINEAPPLE STRAWBERRY SMOOTHIE

1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup halved strawberries
1/2 - 3/4 cup chopped pineapple
1 Tbsp flax seeds
1 tsp bee pollen
filtered water

Add first 5 ingredients and desired amount of water to blender and process.  Add more or less water to achieve desired consistency.

Breakfast Fruit Smoothies

I have never really been a fruit eater.  It's not my style.  But last summer, at the peak of blueberry season I froze a bunch to use throughout winter.  Well, it's March and I never made that mid-winter blueberry betty I was talking about and I figured I should probably use up these berries before it's blueberry season again (I have hoarding tendecies, I know).

In the interest of health and gluten-free breakfast alternatives, I have decided to explore the smoothie.

I also don't eat bananas.  They literally make me gag.  I can't do it.  But, I discovered that a frozen banana in a smoothie is definitely palatable!  I wasn't sure how it would go so I bought a single banana for this experiment.  I also bought some containers of greek yogurt to use as well.

BANANA BERRY SMOOTHIE

1 frozen banana
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup frozen blackberries
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1 Tbsp flax seeds
1 Tbsp vanilla agave

The berry proportions are approximate.  Combine it all in a blender and enjoy!

YOGURT BERRY SMOOTHIE

1 small container greek yogurt (I used a vanilla flavored yogurt because that's all they had that day at the co-op, in general I'm not really a big vanilla fan)
1/2 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 cup frozen blackberries
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1 Tbsp flax seeds
Water to thin

Green Smoothie

While I didn't do formal New Years Resolutions for 2010, I am making it a goal to incorporate a fresh squeezed vegetable juice into my diet daily and have been doing pretty well so far.

Last night after a Power Hour class at my gym (a mix of cardio and weight intervals) I made myself a green drink.  I was hungry and knew this was going to be my dinner so I decided to blend it with avocado to make a heartier meal.

FOR THE JUICE:
1/2 bunch red chard
3 stalks celery
5 radishes
3 fennel stalks
3 handfuls arugula
1/2 lemon

FOR THE SMOOTHIE
combine the juice with
1/2 avocado
1 Tbsp Fiesta Mole

The result is a creamy enough smoothie to eat with a spoon. 

A warning: the chard makes the juice kind of a weird brown color.  It looks strange and earthy but tastes great.  I had to supplement with a few gluten-free crackers and some almonds but it was really yummy!