10 Healthy + Delicious Smoothies to Lose Weight & Have More Energy

  

Smoothies are a quick & tasty way to get a big source of daily-needed vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. It's a great way to get raw fruit and vegetables in your diet.  If one of your resolutions is to eat healthier or lose weight, these are perfect for you!

Don’t SKIP breakfast- which may lead to your energy levels crashing before lunch. It could also cause binge eating later in the day, try a smoothie breakfast instead! Doesn’t matter if you throw in low calorie protein powder, need fruit smoothies for weight loss, or want a healthy shake, your blender can unlock delicious nutrition in moments!

Get yourself a Black + Decker FusionBlade Digital Blender with Personal Smoothie Jar. There’s less clean-up and you can take it with you on the GO! Perfect for even the most rushed mornings.

Perfectly Pink Fruit Smoothie

                  

Image Source: JennsRAQ.com

The Perfectly Pink Fruit Smoothie From Jenn’s RAQ is concocted with milk, raspberries, bananas, honey, and flaxseed. Blend it all together and you have a naturally sweet smoothie that is sweet without the honey (so it’s totally optional).

Peppermint Cacao Smoothie

Image Source: ACedarSpoon.com

This is the perfect “healthy” smoothie. There are a ton of smoothies that use chocolate, ice cream, and stuff that has a lot of sugar/calories in it. This Peppermint Cacao Smoothie from A Cedar Spoon tastes just as delicious as the others but this includes healthy ingredients such as frozen bananas, Greek yogurt, almond milk, peppermint flavoring and cacao powder.

Fruit and Veggie Smoothie

            

Image Source: ThriftyJinxy.com

Looking for an easy, natural way to keep your body healthy during Cold and Flu Season? Look no further than the Fruit and Veggie Smoothie from Thifty Jinxy. This can be your new daily smoothie, because it is easy to make with ingredients that you already have on hand.

Tropical Almond Coconut Mango Smoothie

            

Image Source: ACedarSpoon.com

Every mom has those days where it feels like the kids have suctioned all our energy out of us. They are energy stealing little midgets if you ask me, lol. This Tropical Almond Coconut Mango Smoothie from A Cedar Spoon is packed with proteins to naturally boost your energy levels! Go supermom!

Healthy Chocolate Mockshake

        

Image Source: Snappygourmet.com

This Healthy Chocolate Mockshake recipe from Snappy Gourmet for you that is perfect if you’re trying to control those post holiday sugar cravings! It’s quick and easy to make, and it fills you (or the kids up)! So they aren’t asking a million and five times about supper before 4 pm.

Blueberry Muffin Smoothie

            

Image Source: ThriftyJinxy.com

I absolutely LOVE anything with blueberries in it. They are absolutely delicious and an amazing way to get your vitamins!! Instead of choosing that blueberry cheesecake and wrecking your diet, mix up this smoothie! It doesn’t matter whether you use frozen or fresh blueberries, this Blueberry Muffin Smoothie is sure to be a hit!

Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

              

Image Source: ACedarSpoon.com

This Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Smoothie has oatmeal, almonds, peanut butter, yogurt, fruit, orange juice and chia seeds in it making a sweet, rich flavor and great way to start your day. It’s super healthy because it’s packed with protein, Vitamin C, Calcium, Omega-3 Fatty Acids. It also is great for helping reduce cholesterol. :D

Energy Boosting Green Morning Smoothie

Image Source: Familyfoodandtravel.com

Don’t rush out of your house with just a granola bar in your hand. It’s not satisfying and you could clearly get SO many more vitamins with this smoothie. This Energy Boosting Morning Green Smoothie from Family Food + Travel. When you start your day off with protein, and necessary vitamins and antioxidants, you’ll feel better throughout the day. More energized, healthier, and less fatigued and hungry.

Delicious 150 Calorie Smoothie

Image Source: Reallyareyouserious.com

This Delicious 150 Calorie Smoothie from Really Are You Serious is an easy 150 calorie snack option. It gives you a serving of dairy + a serving of fruit while packing quite the punch of fiber and protein to keep you energized and full.

Pineapple Pomegranate Smoothie

            

Image Source: SimplyStacie.net

If you are a fan of pomegranate and pineapple, then this is perfect! Not only is this Pomegranate Pineapple Smoothie from Simply Stacie delicious but it’s also tasty! Ever wondered what the two fruits taste like together? Now you can!

Hope you Enjoy these protein packed yummy smoothies!!!

Give Your Thanksgiving Side Dishes a Makeover With 3 Exciting New Recipes

French’s French Fried Onions have been adding crunch and delicious taste to the holidays for almost sixty years. This holiday season, the French’s Test Kitchen introduces two exciting new recipe ideas, Crunchy Onion Bacon Potatoes and Crunchy Holiday Stuffing. Made with real onions and a perfect combination of crispy, flavorful goodness,

French’s French Fried Onions can elevate your holiday side dishes from delicious to sublime.

“The versatility of French’s French Fried Onions lends themselves to a variety of uses including these new recipes developed by the culinary experts at French’s,” says Lee Meyer, Brand Manager for French’s French Fried Onions. “Everyone who’s tried our Crunchy Onion Bacon Potatoes and Crunchy Holiday Stuffing has been wowed! The reaction has been one of surprise and delight when they discover it’s a long-standing family favorite that’s the secret behind the elevated taste & texture.” So liven’ up the mashed potatoes and stuffing on your holiday buffet with new ways to serve up these holiday classics.

The tradition of serving French’s French Fried Onions during the holiday season began with the Green Bean Casserole and this year more than 40 million* will be served once again.

So enjoy a spoonful of the original Green Bean Casserole, but be sure to serve it alongside its contemporary counterparts. Then, just sit back and watch with satisfaction as a new family tradition unfolds before your eyes.

CRUNCHY ONION BACON POTATOES

Prep Time: 10 minutes, Cook Time: 25 minutes

Servings:  12

6 cups prepared mashed potatoes

12 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 cups  FRENCH’S® French Fried Onions

1. PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Layer half of the potatoes in an 8-inch square baking dish, sprinkle with half the bacon, 1 cup cheese and 1 cup  French Fried Onions.  Top with remaining potatoes.

2. BAKE 20 minutes or until hot. Top with remaining bacon, cheese and French Fried Onions. Bake 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

 

CRUNCHY HOLIDAY STUFFING

Prep: 10 minutes         Cook: 20 minutes

Servings: 8

½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

1 ½ cups coarsely chopped celery

1 ½ cups coarsely chopped carrots

1 pkg. (14 oz) stuffing

2 cups FRENCH’S® French Fried Onions

1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth

1 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Melt butter in large pot; stir in vegetables and sauté for 5 minutes.

2. Add stuffing, broth and water and stir until moistened. Gently stir in French Fried Onions. Spoon stuffing into 3-quart baking dish.

3. Cover; bake for 10 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining 1 cup onions. Bake, uncovered, 5 minutes or until onions are golden.

 

FRENCH’S ® GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE

 Image Courtesy of French’s® French Fried Onions

 

Prep Time: 5 minutes   Cook Time: 35 minutes

Servings:  6

1 (10 3/4 oz.) can  CAMPBELL'S® Cream of Mushroom Soup

3/4 cup milk

1/8 tsp. black pepper

4 cups cooked, cut green beans

1 1/3 cups  FRENCH'S® Original or Cheddar French Fried Onions

Instructions--

1. MIX soup, milk and pepper in a 1 1/2-qt. baking dish. Stir in beans and 2/3 cup French Fried Onions.

2. BAKE at 350°F for 30 min. or until hot.

2. STIR. Top with remaining 2/3 cup onions.  Bake 5 minutes until onions are golden.

Look for French’s Original and Cheddar French Fried Onions in the canned vegetable aisle at your favorite supermarket.  For more great recipes and cooking tips from the test kitchen at French’s, please visit French’s.

The FRENCH’S® Foods Company is the maker of FRENCH’S® French Fried Onions and a division of Reckitt Benckiser, a leading manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of food and household products.  Some other well known, trusted household names in the RB family of food products include FRENCH’S® Mustard,  FRANK’S® REDHOT® Cayenne Pepper Sauce and FRENCH’S® Worcestershire Sauce.

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post.

 

Glow Inside & Out During Colder Seasons

With frigid weather ahead, many people are already thinking about bundling up but what about your skin? Fall and Winter weather encourages everyone to cozy up, but what about what it does to your skin? Nina Curtis, a beauty expert with Blendtec, has developed recipes—both edible and topical—that are perfect for beating the cold weather skin blues. Her recipes can help combat dry or chapped skin, add moisture to your body, and more.

All ingredients should be organic as much as possible.

Glowing skin begins from the inside out…Enjoy this smoothie a few times a week.

1. Skin Rejuvenating Smoothie

 

Yield: approximately 4 cups

1. 2 cups water or young Thai coconut water

2. 1 cup organic red grapes (frozen)

3. 1 medium orange, peeled

4. 1 ripe banana

5. 6-8 leaves organic romaine lettuce

6. 2 tablespoon lemon juice

7. ½ inch ginger root            

8. Pinch of Pink Himalayan salt, re-mineralizes the body with minerals and trace elements essential to our health and wellbeing. (optional)

The pinch of Pink Himalayan salt, re-mineralizes the body with minerals and trace elements essential to our health and wellbeing.

Add liquid first into the Blendtec Wildside vessel, then combine all remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Place any remaining smoothie in a glass jar and store in the refrigerator up to 24 hours.

The Blendtec ‘Twister’ Vessel is ideal for making all kinds of skincare products and it’s just the right size.

Keep your skin and hair moisturized, conditioned, hydrated and toned with the following whole food recipes during the fall/winter months.

 

1. Weather Protecting Skin Sloughing Cream

This delicious sloughing cream will remove built up dead skin cells while keeping the skin smooth and moisturized during the colder months.

Ingredients:

1 oz. Organic Almond Oil

1 tablespoon raw, organic honey (contains vitamins, minerals and enzymes)

1tablespoon avocado

1 teaspoon raw almonds

½ teaspoon raw sunflower seeds

Combine all ingredients except the avocado in the Blendtec Twister Vessel to make a paste. Add the avocado in last and blend until smooth.

On a cleansed skin, slather the sloughing cream all over your face and neck (avoid the eye area), using upward and outward circular motions. Massage gently for a few minutes, rinse well with tepid water, pat skin dry and apply your moisturizer. Place any remaining sloughing cream in a glass jar with lid and store in the refrigerator up to two weeks. Apply sloughing cream once to twice a week as needed.

 

2. Fruit & Honey ‘Tone Up’ Mask

This fruit & honey mask will smooth, brighten and tighten the skin.

Ingredients:

1 cup red grapes

½ pear

½ apple

1 tablespoon raw organic honey

1tablespoon chia seeds (soaked overnight in two tablespoons of water, to create gel)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine all of the ingredients into the Blendtec Twister Vessel except the chia seed gel and honey, and blend until smooth. Mix the chia seed gel and honey together in a bowl, then add the fruit mixture from the blender and stir until smooth.

Apply this mask all over your face and neck and leave on for 10 to 15 minutes. Rinse thoroughly with tepid water, pat skin dry and apply your moisturizer. Place any remaining mask in a glass jar with lid and store in the refrigerator up to two weeks. Apply mask once to twice a week as needed.

3. Hands Down Skin Smoother

During fall and winter our overall skin condition can take a beating and our hands tend to suffer the most. This skin smoothing mask with keep your hands soft and supple. Just apply your favorite hand cream or body lotion to finish.

Ingredients:

1 over -ripe tomato

1 teaspoon wheat germ oil or almond oil

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine all of the ingredients into the Blendtec Twister Vessel and blend until smooth.. Use one tablespoon of the mixture and rub over both hands as if you were washing them, work the mixture in for a few minutes, the longer the better, rinse off and apply your favorite hand cream….Voila!

Store any remaining product in a glass jar with lid and keep in the refrigerator up to two weeks. Use at least two times a week for best results if your hands are really dry.

4. Weekly Restorative Hair Treatment

This hair conditioning treatment is ideal if your hair is dry, brittle or has a lot of split ends.

Ingredients:

1 ripe avocado (mashed)

2 tablespoon raw organic honey

2 tablespoon virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon flax oil

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine all ingredients except the avocado into the Blendtec Twister Vessel and blend until the honey, oils and lemon juice are blended completely (emulsified). Add the mashed avocado and blend until smooth.

Apply to dry hair paying close attention to damaged ends. Cover the hair with a shower cap and then wrap with a bath towel, this will hold in your natural body heat and allow the treatment to penetrate the hair cuticle better. Leave on for 15 to 20 minutes. Rinse well and shampoo then rinse. Ideal for weekly use.

 

Disclosure: This is a guest post on behalf of Blendtec and is in no way sponsored.

 

Cook’n Recipe Organizer Review & Giveaway

What is Cook’n?
"Cook'n is an amazing tool for moms and their families. With Cook'n you can enter & organize all of your personal recipes, create meal plans, make shopping lists, print family cookbooks, analyze nutrition, easily scale recipes, and more. With the newest version, you can search for and find the best recipes on the internet using the Cook'n Recipe Browser.  When you find one you like, simply click CAPTURE and it will automatically import it into Cook'n in seconds.  The software is helping families stay organized, save money, eat healthier, and enjoy more home-cooked meals."

What the Cook’n Recipe Organizer Can Do For You

• Find the Best Recipes on the Internet
• Capture and Save Internet Recipes
• Enter Your Own Personal Recipes
• Sync Recipes with iPhone, iPad, & Android
• Print a Family Cookbook
• Analyze Nutritional Values
• Make Menus, Shopping Lists & More!
• Get Free Cookbook with Purchase

Watch the video below to learn more about the Cook’n software.

My Review
When I first got my laptop, I instantly was online looking for recipes. I needed new ideas for my growing kids to eat. I didn’t want to get them used to eating the same thing every week. I was on a MAJOR hunt. So now, I have 4 binders full of recipes along with like a million books. I have a million recipe cards, along with the same amount of magazine pages that I’ve torn out.
I thought I would try and organize it all, but it just wasn’t working. I bought binders, sheet dividers, and tab dividers. I labeled each one- drinks, breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner, and desserts. I ended up with so many that I had to get a binder for each different label. This wasn’t that organized though. I still had problems finding what I needed to find.
I was hoping to find a software that would help me keep track of all the recipes I was using because half the time, I wouldn’t remember that I had it, and would waste ink re-printing a recipe that I already had. This is how my grandma also ended up with a million recipe binders. =)      I don’t have to waste that ink now though, Cook’n is better than I could have ever imagined A recipe software to be.
Do you know how hard it is to keep all this organized though? Really hard. I can bookmark a page in the binder or book, but soon forget which book or binder it was in and have to search for it all over again. This was driving me crazy. I could never keep anything in just one place, because there was so much.
My cluttered nightmare is no longer an issue now that I have Cook’n. It is more than I ever wished in a Recipe Organizer.
It comes with one cookbook, that has TONS of recipes.
Appetizers
Beverages
Breads
Soups and Stews
Salads
Main Dishes
Side Dishes
Sweets and Desserts
Breakfast
Glossary
and you can buy more cookbooks, and they are all very cheap
=)



Search the internet- I have found recipes online a million times and then never be able to find it again. I wouldn’t be able to find the EXACT recipe. Other’s like it, but not the same one. With Cook’n you can type in a recipe from the main page and search the internet. It then shows 10-12 different pages with 10-15 recipes on each page. You can search through and find the recipe you like best and then capture it. [Just click the Capture button at the top of the Cook’n Software] It then saves it right into your software.
It then allows you to place the recipe into the Category you want it to be in.. [beverages, Main Dishes, Appetizers..] It doesn’t just save the ingredients. It saves EVERYTHING. It saves prep time, cook time, serving size, directions, and also nutrition information. Then you can save and view it. It then shows you your source for the recipe at the bottom of the page (so you know where you got it).
I also love how it let’s you search the internet for items that you already have in your house. You just enter what ingredients you already have and it searches the internet for your keywords, then you can narrow it down to find what fit’s perfectly for your family.

I haven’t yet discovered everything on the software yet. There are so many features and so many fun ways to discover something new. I hadn’t even heard of most of the recipes that come with the software. My family has enjoyed so many of these recipes, that I know we will keep them in our monthly menu’s.
Menu Making is no longer a problem for me. I had millions of pieces of paper laying around with grocery lists, and new recipes I wanted to try. More than likely they all ended up lost in my million papers that need filing. I’m not going to lie, I am unorganized. That’s why getting organized is one of my New Year’s Resolutions this year. I desperately need a filing cabinet for everything. Cook’n just made one less filing cabinet though. I was going to get a small one to put in the kitchen under the cabinet, but not anymore.
I love the way they let you choose your own templates for recipes. You can leave it the way it is, or juice it up. I wanted to leave mine blank because I don’t want to spend a fortune printing stuff, but I love that I can change it if I want.  I am planning on making everyone in my family a recipe binder this year, and want to make it colorful and fun. I will be using templates on theirs.
I love it, and I know you will also. This is making TONS of mom’s more sane, have more free time, and more time to experience other things besides spending hours on weekly/monthly menu plans.
I could go on and on about it, but I know you want to WIN one, right? So, I’ll get to it.
Disclosure: This isn’t a sponsored post. I wasn’t compensated for this review. I did receive products in exchange for an honest review.
I want to thank DVO for working with Made.By.Jess.

~~~WIN IT~~~ Prize:

• One winner will receive their own Cook’n Version 10 Software!  {$99.95}  Available for PC and Mac

Open to Worldwide. This will be a part of my Valentine's Giveaway
Thanks, Jess

All About the Egg.

Yes. You heard right. Egg. As in humpty dumpty..

The egg is an amazing ingredient & I would love to tell you all about it D

The egg is an amazing & magic ingredient. It helps to form some of the most perfect and delicious recipes. Have you ever noticed that you can whip up just about anything as long as you have an egg? The egg is actually the artist behind it all.

Once you have mastered the techniques to making an egg, you’ll find it to be easy as well as fun. The egg to a cook is like a paintbrush to an artist, both create masterpieces. The egg allows beautifulness and texture into the recipe.

Whichever technique you are using the success key is time & temperature. Eggs should be cooked slowly on low to medium heat until the white sets. If cooking an omelet (which require a higher temp) it should only be for a short time.

Overheating can result in tough, liquid, or rubbery eggs..eww =(

So-refrain from disappointing results by skipping the high heat, which separate the protein and liquid.

With eggs, you don’t have to get all gadget happy. Gadgets such as poachers are nice to have but not necessary to gain the technique that’s called for in the recipe. You can almost always get by without them. There are substitutes you can use to gain the same effect. Eggs are simple, don’t think about it too much and eventually it will be as natural as breathing.

The egg is so much more than hard boiled eggs on Easter. It’s a “can’t do without” ingredient that create many recipes and make beautiful masterpieces possible.

There are two parts to an egg. The white & the yolk. The yolk is the fat & the flavor, as well as body. The white is 2/3 liquid & tons of protein.

Egg whites are whipped because they expand in volume. The yolk (fat) is removed because it keeps the white from foaming.

Knowing how to separate an egg (Isolating the white & yolk from each other) is a must know. When a fresh egg is cracked it will reveal a plump yolk & thick white. The same egg weeks later will reveal to be thin as water…

(More on eggs later…) A Jessi