Smoothies I've been making lately

I've been making a lot of smoothies recently!

I love whole organic yogurt, and find that the cultures and enzymes really benefit me. However, I'm obsessive about the taste and quality of yogurt. I cannot stand the fake yogurts that are so popular in the USA--they are full of artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup, and other toxic things, and they are not good for you, nor do they taste good.

My favorite yogurt brands that I can find here in the USA are Fage Greek yogurt (I eat the whole milk version), Cultural Revolution (I especially love their vanilla yogurt, but all of their flavors--and their plain--are excellent!), Liberté (it's made in Québec from Vermont milk--their lemon yogurt and coconut yogurts are my favorites!), Brown Cow (I especially love their maple and coffee flavors), and Cascade Fresh (their whole plain is really outstanding as a base for smoothies). I also love Spega yogurt, when I can find it, and I love to repurpose their adorable jars! I also love Texas-made Lucky Layla Farms' Drinkable Yogurts, and I love that it's made closer to where I live than any of the others. Anyway, I love to add yogurt to my smoothies!

I also love to add coconut water! I love its subtle taste and amazing hydration qualities. My favorite right now is the new Naked Coconut water. I also like O.N.E., but I recently scored two cases of Naked for a super-cheap price, so I'm really enjoying it right now! :)

For my smoothies, I usually use equal parts of yogurt and coconut water, and then add some fresh and/or frozen fruit. Here are some of my favorite recent combos:

cherries and blackberries
mango, peaches, and blueberries
banana, peaches, strawberries
peaches and blueberries
mango and avocado
cherries and blackberries
raspberries, strawberries, and mango

You can also add a dash of honey, if you want to make it a bit sweeter.

All of these smoothies are great! They are delicious, refreshing, and hydrating! Do you have any smoothies to share? Comment!

Two crazy combos that work!

This morning I made a crazy juice combination that I recommend if you're looking for something sweet and salty at the same time!

1 carrot
3 slices of pineapple (peeled)
1 celery stalk
1 small handful of spinach
This made slightly less than one cup of juice, and it's a little insane but very yummy!

EDIT: Yokoo rec'd on twitter that I add some fresh ginger, and I have to agree! I'll try that next time!

Yesterday I made another somewhat insane combo that I really liked! It was not at all sweet and very yummy!

1/3 large beetroot
2 celery stalks
2 small baby cucumbers, including skins
1 garlic clove
1 green bell pepper
This made about 1.5 cups after I strained it, and the garlic gives a nice touch to it.

Enjoy!

Integrating Veggies

While fruit juice is totally awesome, I'm aware that it's important to drink mostly vegetable juice, so I've been integrating veggies into my daily juicing routine. One of the veggies I love to eat is beets, and beet juice is extremely yummy, but it's also VERY powerful. It's important to only use a small amount of beet juice in any recipe, and mix it with other items. Here's a nice juice that I made yesterday and really enjoyed!

1 carrot
1 large cucumber
1 celery stalk
about 1/3 of a large beetroot
This made about 1.5 cups of juice, and next time, I think I'll jazz it up a little bit with some mint, or maybe some garlic!

Today I made a juice concoction that was a total guess combination on my part, but I really liked the outcome!

1 Braeburn Apple
2 carrots
1 celery stalk
1 green bell pepper
The bell pepper created more foam than I expected when I juiced it, so I strained the juice before I drank it. Fortunately, the Champion juicer I have came with a beautiful stainless steel strainer for exactly this purpose! After I strained the juice of most of the foam, I was left with about 1.5 cups of juice, which was sweeter than I expected and very nice!