Chocolate Banana Almond Smoothie

This is my new favorite breakfast lately!  I kind of made it up and have been adjusting a little as I go.  My newest addition is the spinach.  You don't even taste it (proof- my son didn't) and it only changes the color a little. 

I thought I was doing great with this smoothie until I entered the recipe into Spark People.  There are quite a few more calories and fat than I expected.  Now I know that I will only drink half of this smoothie from now on.  My son can drink the rest. 

1 banana

3/4 cup (about) lowfat/fat-free yogurt or kefir

4 cubes of ice

1 ounce almonds

1 tbsp milled flax seeds or chia seeds

1 tsp dark chocolate cocoa powder

1 tbsp chocolate chips

1 handful of baby spinach

Nutrition Facts

(this is just an estimate)
1 Serving

Amount Per Serving

Calories 496.6
Total Fat 25.1 g
Saturated Fat 6.7 g
Cholesterol 11.0 mg
Sodium 147.3 mg
Potassium 1,242.6 mg
Total Carbohydrate 58.5 g
Dietary Fiber 10.0 g
Sugars 36.0 g
Protein 19.2 g

PBandJ - Updated Healthier Version

We love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at our house.  I have done my best trying to make them a little healthier by using fresh all natural peanut butter, reduced sugar jelly and whole wheat bread.  The biggest problem in this sandwich was the jelly.  Even with "reduced sugar" it still wasn't great. 

I found this idea in my new favorite book, The Eat-Clean Diet for Family and Kids by Tosca Reno.  This is a terrific book if you are looking to improve the diet of your family. 

Instead of plain peanut butter, I decided to make some of the healthy peanut butter dip (minus the chocolate chips) I made a couple weeks ago and use that on the sandwich.  It was perfect!  AND instead of the "reduced sugar" jelly I just used some sliced strawberries....no sugar at ALL!  I thought it turned out very yummy and so did my son.  It made a quick lunch after his baseball game today.

I am sharing this post at Souper Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen, Make it From Scratch and Tasty Tuesday at City Wife, Country Life so come check out all of the wonderful soup, salad and sandwich recipes that others are sharing.   

Ranch Chicken Salad Sandwich

I didn't think my son would ever eat chicken salad, but I found a way to make it that he loves.  As I have said before, he will eat ranch dressing on just about anything.  I decided to make some chicken salad using the homemade healthy and clean ranch dressing recipe I tried a couple weeks ago.  Total success!

This makes a lot of chicken salad so you may want to half it.  You will also have some ranch dressing left over to use elsewhere. 

Ingredients

4 small chicken breasts, cooked and chopped

3 ribs of celery, chopped
2 cups of grapes, cut in half
1/2 cup of pecans, chopped
2 cups of ranch dressing (recipe below)

Mix all ingredients until well combined. 

Healthy and Clean Ranch Dressing

1 1/2 cups of low fat buttermilk

3/4 cup of plain nonfat greek style yogurt

1 1/4 tsp onion powder

1 tsp dried dill

2 1/2 tsp dried parsley

2 1/2 tsp dried chives

2 1/2 tsp salt

I have linked this recipe to Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum and Food on Fridays. Come check out all of the fabulous recipes that have been posted.

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt

My son and husband get to feeling a little neglected at times because I don't buy ice creaWem often.  I thought that I we could try some frozen yogurt.  Little did I know that this stuff is EXPENSIVE!  I couldn't believe it was at least $3 for a little bucket of frozen yogurt.  Well, I am always on the lookout for new ways to use my homemade yogurt so this provided me the perfect opportunity to use a batch.  I bought an ice cream maker and made my first batch of vanilla frozen yogurt.  I wasn't sure I liked it at first because it was so tangy, but I quickly grew to love it.  I chose to just make a simple batch of vanilla, that way we could flavor it individually. 

The problem with this little treat is that we have it in our heads that it is healthy because it is yogurt.  It is, but there is still quite a bit of sugar that you add.  I have made it several ways; with all sugar, with half sugar and half Splenda and with all Splenda.  I enjoyed all of them.  I think next time I may substitute some honey for some of the sugar. 

The possibilities are endless with this new ice cream machine and all of the different flavor combinations and ingredients that I can use.  AND, at a fraction of the price it costs to buy the store bought.  I figure it costs about $3 to make 1/2 gallon of homemade frozen yogurt.   How can it be better?  I can't wait to experiment! 

3 cups of plain yogurt

3/4 cup of sugar

1 tbsp of vanilla

Mix all ingredients well until the sugar disolves.  Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.  Freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions.  Simple as that!

We like to top our frozen yogurt with a little vanilla agave nectar and fruit or mini chocolate chips.  Enjoy!

Healthy and Clean Ranch Dressing

My son loves ranch dressing and will dip just about anything in it.  I found this recipe on The Gracious Pantry while I was seaching for information on Clean Eating and healthy recipes.  I am baby-stepping my way into Clean Eating.  My family is not really excited about it, but I am going to push forward anyway.  I have tried another recipe that I found for healthy homemade ranch dressing and we didn't like it at all.  This one turned out really good. 

I made some to dip broccoli in on our way to Texas tomorrow.  I have spent most of the day preparing food for our 550 mile trip and some for the week while we stay at my brother's.  I am determined to not stop at McDonald's tomorrow like we usually do.  I made chicken salad using this dip as the combining agent today and will make pita sandwiches with it (recipe coming soon). 

I will let you know how the trip goes and how our healthy eating on the road goes.  I am a little nervous, but I plan on doing my best to eat the right food most of the time. 

Check out The Gracious Pantry for more great recipes.

Healthy and Clean Ranch Dressing

(Makes about 8 tablespoons)

5 tablespoons low fat buttermilk
3 tablespoons nonfat plain Greek yogurt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste

Directions

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl until well blended.

Nutritional Content

1 serving = 2 tablespoonds

Calories: 10
Total Fat: 2 gm
Saturated Fats: 0 gm
Trans Fats: 0 gm
Cholesterol: 0 gm
Sodium: 55 mg
Carbohydrates: 1 gm
Dietary fiber: 0 gm
Sugars: 1 gm
Protein: 1 gm


This post has been linked up to:

Food Revolution Friday @ Notes from the Cookie Jar

Fight Back Friday @ Food Renegade

Healthy Peanut Butter Dip

This makes a perfectly healthy mid-afternoon snack for the kiddos and for us, also.  I got the recipe from Meal Makeover Moms' Kitchen.    I added a tsp of vanilla agave nectar to sweeten it a little. 

We ate the dip with apples as you can see but I was thinking that it could go on our waffles in the morning, also.  Cameron wants to eat it with bananas.  YUM!


Healthy Peanut Butter Dip

1/2 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt (I used some of my homemade yogurt)
½ cup creamy peanut butter
¼ cup mini chocolate chips
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla agave nectar

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and serve with apples, celery, pretzels or anything else you can think of that will go well with peanut butter.

Homemade Yogurt Made in a Crockpot

This is my favorite new recipe.  I have made around 10 batches of homemade yogurt in the past couple months. I found the recipe at A Year of Slowcooking.  Who knew it was so easy?  I didn't really eat a lot of yogurt to begin with but I saw this and knew that I had to try it.  Now I eat it almost every day in one way or another. I make smoothies.  I eat it with a variety of fruit with a squirt of amaretto agave nectar. I add it to my blueberry muffin batter.  I have put it in soup.  My newest passion is homemade frozen yogurt.  YUM!   

I used whole milk in my first batch, because I read that you should start here when you are new at making yogurt.  I then went to 2% and now I only use 1%.  It worked equally well with all of them.  You aren't supposed to use ultra-pasteurized milk, but I accidently bought some organic milk that I didn't realize was ultra-pasteurized.  By the time I realized what I had done I decided to go ahead and give it a try.  I had no hope of it turning out.  But, it did!  I was shocked! 

So, this is how I make the yogurt. The only three ingredients you need are a carton of plain yogurt that has active live cultures, some fat free powdered milk and half a gallon of milk (not ultra-pasteurized).  This is the yogurt I have used as a starter.

The two tools you need to make your yogurt is a thermometer and a crockpot.  This is my crockpot that I use.

I pour the milk into the crockpot.  Turn it onto low and heat for 2 hours.  I then turn the crockpot off and let it cool to about 120-130 degrees.  This is very important!  If it is too hot the live bacteria will die.  If it is too cold the bacteria will not grow.  I check the temperature with a candy thermometer.  Once it is cooled to the correct temperature, I take the yogurt starter that has been brought to room temperature and mix it with 1/2 cup of powdered milk.  The milk is supposed to thicken the yogurt.  I then add two ladles full of the warmed milk from the crockpot to the yogurt mixture.  Mix well.  Then, I gently mix in the yogurt/milk mixture into the rest of the warm milk in the crockpot.  I put the lid on the crockpot and then cover the crockpot with about five blankets.  I leave it like that for about 24 hours.  AND THEN!  I have homemade yogurt!

I usually put my milk in the pot around 6:00.  Let it heat until 8:00.  It cools in about 2 hours to the correct temperature.  I add the yogurt and powdered milk and then I cover it before I go to bed.  When I get home from work the next evening the yogurt is ready. 

There are many methods online for making yogurt.  Some involve putting the yogurt mixture in a cooler with warm blankets.  Some involve setting the pot on a heating pad.  I didn't put this much effort into mine and it turns out perfect every time!  The only time mine did not turn out was when I forgot about my milk heating in the first stage.  It cooked for about 4 minutes.  Way too long!  I had to dump it out and start over again. 

So some people ask:  Why would you make your own yogurt when you can just go buy it at the store?  There are several reasons.  First of all, I know what is in my yogurt.  There are no preservatives, chemicals or sugar.  Next, it is super cheap.  One carton costs around $1 each at the store.  I make about 8 cups of fresh yogurt with very little effort and about $2.  Why wouldn't you make your own? 

Note:  This yogurt is not super thick.  If I want thicker yogurt I strain it in a coffee filter over a bowl. 

I have let it strain for 2 days and it turns into the consistency of softened cream cheese.  This worked very well in my fruit tart I made. 

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!


I am posting this at Make It From Scratch.  Come check out the other posts!