Protein Drink-a-ganza

Pumpkin pie protein shake

1 cup milk (cow, soy, or almond)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1/4 pumpkin puree 
1/4 cup vanilla yogurt or frozen light cool whip 
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (add more according to preference)
1/2 cup crushed ice or 6 ice cubes 

Blend in blender (add the puree and cool whip closest to the blade so it doesn't get stuck at the top). 


Raspberry Banana Avocado Smoothie
 
 1 c frozen raspberries
1 avocado
1 frozen banana, optional*
1 c  plain yogurt
honey / Stevia / sugar / whatever sweetener you like
milk, optional
* Peel and cut the bananas into chunks (5-6 or even small pieces if you're in a hurry), place in a baggie and then freeze.

If you like your smoothies thinner than use half milk/ half yogurt. Blend all ingredients in your blender. Add sweetener to taste. I add about 1 tablespoon of honey. Yields one large serving or two smaller ones.

Blueberry Smoothie
1 c milk
6 oz vanilla yogurt
1 c blueberries
1 T flaxseed oil
1 cup ice

Place milk, yogurt, and the fresh blueberries into the blender with the ice, blend until mostly smooth, then add flaxseed oil.


Cantaloupe Smoothie

10 large romaine lettuce leaves
2 c chopped cantaloupe slices
1 c frozen strawberries
6 ice cubes

Place everything in the blender and blend until smooth. (I promise you can't taste the lettuce, but it gives a nice natural energy boost!)


The Green Monster

1 frozen sliced banana
1 Tablespoon peanut butter
1/2 c Vanilla Greek yogurt
1 cup Unsweetened almond milk (or other kind of milk)
4 cups baby spinach (or more, or less)

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. (yum yum yum! This is one of my fav's)

Spinach Smoothie

From my friend Cass.

Don't knock it til you try it.

Take about 4 big handfuls of spinach, blend them down w/a little cup of diced peaches in juice (Also refill the empty peaches cup w/water and throw that in)
Then when the spinach is totally pureed, Add about 1/2 a banana, and a handful of frozen mango, couple of ice cubes, and let 'er rip!
It's all a really beautiful, vibrant green color, and amazingly, it tastes NOTHING like spinach. All you can taste is yummy peachy/nana/mango goodness. Adding berries is yummy too, but be ready for the color of your smoothie to take a definite nosedive---it looks pretty gross. But it still tastes so yummy.

Nutritional Jazz: (without the berries)164 cal; .7 g fat; 529 g Potassium; 42 g carb; 73% vitamin A; 25% vitamin b6; 81% vitamin c; 8% vitamin E; 4% calcium; 10% copper; 20% folate; 8% iron; 12% magnesium; 19% manganese.

Light Frappuccino

like Starbucks. mm mm mm!
from laaloosh.com

Ingredients
2 T instant coffee granules (regular or decaf)
2 T fat free vanilla flavored coffee creamer, powdered
1/2 c fat free milk
8-10 ice cubes

Instructions
Blend all ingredients together in a blender and process until smooth. If desired, sweeten with Splenda.

Orange Julius

From the awesome Karen, thanks for sharing!
serves 8-10

1 can frozen orange juice (12 oz)
2 cups ice water
2 cups unsweetened almond silk
1 cup granular splenda
2 tsp vanilla
Blend together in your blender.. We place 4-6 ice cubes in the magic bullet/ blender, cover with juice mix & blend away. We always enjoy one fresh then I put away the extras for snacks throughout the week. Juice mix stores in the fridge for about 1 week. Enjoy!

Nutritional Jazz: 192 cal; .8 g fat; 46 mg sodium; 409 mg potassium; 46 g carbs; 26.6 g sugar (unless you use splenda from above); 120% vitamin b-6; 6% vitamin D; 12.5% vitamin E; 7.5& thiamin

Paula Deen's Mint Iced Tea

makes 1 gallon

Ingredients:
1 quart water
4 family size tea bags (recommended: Luzzienne)
2 c sugar
1 bunch mint leaves
1 lemon, slices for garnish

Directions:
n a large pot bring the water to a boil. Remove pot from heat, add the tea bags, cover with a lid, and allow tea to steep in water for 20 minutes. Take a 1 gallon jug and pour the sugar into the jug and cover with some hot tap water. Stir the sugar around to dissolve while the tea is steeping. Once the tea has steeped, remove the lid and the tea bags. Pour the tea into the jug with the sugar, stir, and place the tea bags back into the jug. Stir the tea well, making sure the sugar dissolves. Fill the jug with cold water to yield 1 gallon.

To serve, pour each glass of tea and garnish with a slice of lemon and mint leaves.

Homemade Rice Milk

From Recipezaar

I haven't tried this one out yet, but I'm pretty excited to because I've always wanted to learn to make my own rice milk [for food storage purposes] because I don't like dried milk (I'd rather drink this stuff).

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
4 cups water
1/2 c uncooked rice (white or brown may be used) OR 1 c cooked rice (white or brown may be used)
1 vanilla bean OR 1/2 t vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Cook rice, vanilla bean or extract and water until very soft.
2. Let cool, remove vanilla bean (if using) and put mixture into blender or food processor.
3. Blend until very smooth.
4. Let stand for at least 45 minutes, then strain through cheese cloth.
5. Tada! Rice milk! Enjoy!

Healthy breakfast options

I don't like breakfast that much, especially when I'm pregnant, but even when I'm not I really don't like breakfast. Here's a couple easy recipes though that I found that are pretty good for those that hate breakfast as much as I do, or even if you don't.

**Fruit Protein Smoothie**
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 c milk
1 c mixed (fresh or frozen) fruit
1/2 banana
2 T peanut butter
and add ice for desired consistency, blend in a blender- voula!
Serve it w/ 1-2 slices of wheat toast w/ jam

**Breakfast burrito**
1 egg & 2 egg whites (scrambled)
1 heated whole wheat tortilla (I love these things!)
salsa or diced tomatoes
1 slice cheese or low fat veggie sausage or turkey bacon (I like the any kind I can throw into the microwave)
serve w/ 1 c strawberries