Homemade Popsicles

Can I just start this post off by saying how on earth is it already July?!?!?! Where has 2014 gone? It's like I blinked and BOOM we're already halfway through the year. Cray-cray!

Anyway, I'm coming at you today with a super duper easy peasy delicious and HEALTHY popsicle recipe for you. I figured since the Fourth of July is right around the corner, it'd be the perfect time to whip out my popsicle molds and do some "cooking." The word cooking use lightly, considering these are frozen. lol Anywhoooo, this popsicle recipe is just basically my go-to pre-workout smoothie frozen into a popsicle form.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 banana
• 5 strawberries
• 1 handful of blueberries
• 1 tsp Chia Seeds
• 1/2 C orange juice
• 1/2 C vanilla Greek yogurt

Place all of your ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. If you want to leave a few chunks in there for texture, that's totally fine too. Once you've done that, take out your popsicle molds and pour in the mixture to the fill line. With my molds, I can make four and still have about a quarter of the smoothie/mixture left. So I just drink the rest! Place your lids/sticks in the molds and then pop into the freezer for about 4-24 hours or until they reach the consistency you like.

Tada! Super easy. The best part is that each little popsicle only has about 60 calories and it's 100% natural. Pretty sweet, right?

Sore Muscle Smoothie

About two weeks ago, I strained my back at the gym doing squats and I was desperate to find a remedy for the spasms without taking a bunch of pills. I mulled around on the internet and found some ingredients that would help ease muscle soreness.

Here's what I found would help:

1. Kale.
2. Cherries.
3. Pomegranate.
4. Wheat Germ.
5. Ginger.
6. Blueberries.
7. Flaxseed or other Omega-3s.

Out of those ingredients, I had a berry mix and kale. So I threw together a recipe adding in some strawberries, protein powder, almond milk, and  yogurt.

So roughly about this much of each:

1/2 cup strawberries

1/2 berry mix

1 cup kale

1 cup milk

1/2 yogurt

Just put everything into a blender and mix away! This little mixture didn't really help with my back, but it definitely helped to prevent sore leg muscles the next day! Super duper yummy.

Breakfast Smoothie

I wish I had the guts to experiment with recipes and make up my own but I feel like that would turn out disastrous. Soooo instead I hit up places like pinterest and blogilates to find new ones to try out. Today's recipe came from pinterest, or more specifically Mindfully Frugal Mom. I like to make this the night before I have class (so on a Sun or Tues) and refrigerate it so I can just grab it and go in the morning. It's yummy, filling, and super easy since I have to leave at 7:15 for my 8:00 class. The recipe actually has quite a few calories, but I've tried altering it cut down on them. It went from originally having 630 to...*drum roll* 453. Not super great, but not horrible either. We want to keep in mind that this is a meal replacement smoothie so having a few extra calories isn't necessarily a bad thing.

So here is what you will need:

1/2 cup milk (you can use any kind you want. I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
1/2 cup Vanilla Yogurt (the recipe suggests stonyfield whole milk yogurt. I just used dannon light & fit fat free)
1/2 cup quick oats
1 banana
1 tbsp peanut butter (or any other kind of nut butter you want).
1 tsp chia seeds (optional but great for omega 3s!)
1 tbsp cocoa powder (optional)

Instructions:

1. Soak oats in 1/2 cup of water for 5-10 minutes.
2. Place everything into your blender in this order: milk, oats (with water), yogurt, peanut butter, banana, cocoa powder, chia seeds.
3. Blend everything for 30 seconds - 1 minute until everything blended and smooth. Serve chilled.

Like I said, I put it in the fridge overnight and just grab it in the morning. Easy peasy!

Tasty Tuesday - Strawberry Blood Orange Smoothie

So a couple months ago, I tried Red Robin's Berry Blood Orange Margarita and fell in l o v e. One day I was trying to come up with a different smoothie to try and thought of the berry-citrusy flavors of the margarita and how well they went together. So I tossed a few ingredients into my Nutribullet, and voila! This smoothie was born and I fell in love. If you add a little vanilla protein powder, it's perfect for a pre-workout boost or if you want something sweet without all the fat, it's the perfect treat. Either way it's super duper yummy and a must-try. So without further ado, here's the recipe.

Strawberry Blood Orange Smoothie

You'll Need:

1 - Blood Orange

3/4 - C Trader Joe's Organic Frozen Strawberries

1/2 - C Non-fat Vanilla Yogurt

1/4 - C Original Unsweetened Almond Milk (if the smoothie is a little thick)

Peel your orange, measure everything, put into a blender and blend until smooth. If it's still a little thick, add in about 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk. That's it! Super easy and it tastes like a berrylicious creamsicle.

Total calories: 182