Fresh Strawberry Milkshake

Now that Nathan's starting to feel a bit more chipper, he's started creating his own concoctions on the Vitamix. Here's his latest success, a fresh strawberry milkshake:

This recipe is the simplest so far, and is honestly, it is probably the best thing we've made with strawberries. If you have access to fresh ripe strawberries this is super duper yummy since it captures and highlights the flavor of the fruit.

Ingredients (makes two servings):

1 lb - fresh strawberries

2 cups - vanilla ice cream

Directions:

Place your washed, destemed and hulled the strawberries in the blender and pulse until completely liquified. Add the ice cream and continue to blend until smooth. Poor into glasses and enjoy immediately. 

I am only medium ashamed to say we had these for dinner earlier this week... I mean what's the fun of being a grown up if you can't have shakes for dinner once in a while... right? :)

Get well soon!

Elizabeth and Nathan

Strawberry-Lemon Coconut Smoothie

It's strawberry season in San Diego! I know that sounds weird, but this is when we start getting strawberries from our local farms. That is one of the reasons I think it's going to be hard to move away when we graduate... however the main reason is Disneyland, I have no idea how I'll survive being more than a couple hours drive from Disneyland.... :'(

Where I think I live

Where my friends think I live

 Where my husband thinks I live

Ok a moment to recover

...and now back to the recipe. :) 

When Nathan first got hurt I went to the grocery store and tried to figure out what might be good for him to drink. One of the things I found was coconut water, which purports to be a naturally balanced way to hydrate (like nature's gatorade?). Anyway, it intrigued me so I brought a box home. We were pretty excited to try it, but unfortunately it turned out that neither of us liked the taste and it's been sitting in our fridge ever since. I super HATE throwing things out, so here is my attempt to salvage it in a tasty smoothie.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup - coconut water (you could probably use milk or regular water too)

6 oz. - lemon yogurt

10 - strawberries

1/4 cup - coconut milk (we use Mea Ploy brand cause it's the bestest)

Directions:

Throw all the ingredients into your blender. I didn't include any honey or sugar in this recipe but you could add some now if like things a bit sweeter.

Here's the coconut water! Just dump it in!

Pour into a fancy glass

Drink and notice how nice coconut water tastes when you mask it with lots of other better tasting stuff. :)

Get well soon!
Elizabeth and Nathan

Pumpkin Smoothies

Before the accident we had been planning on making some yummy pumpkin cranberry bread [Link to the delicious recipe for when you can chew again], but since that looked like it would be hard to blend it was time to consider alternate fates for the can of pumpkin in our cupboard. After looking at several recipes (including this lovely one at the Pioneer Woman) I came up with my own version that uses the plain can of pumpkin that I already had instead of the premixed pumpkin pie filling.

Recipe Bonus: my pumpkin tin promises that pumpkin is an "Excellent Source of Vitamin A and Fiber" and that it is "Low in Calories and Fat". Well, at least the first statement will be true of the smoothie...

Ingredients:

1/4 of a 29 oz. can pumpkin

1/4 cup - brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp - pumpkin pie spice

pinch of salt

1/2 cup - vanilla greek yogurt

1 (12 fl. oz.) can - evaporated milk
3 Tbsp - honey
1 Tbsp - vanilla

Directions:

Several hours before you start premix the pumpkin and spices.  Transfer this mixture to a freezer safe container (I used ziplock bags, but you could use an ice cube tray, or any other plastic container). Once the pumpkin is frozen, transfer it and the rest of the ingredients to the blender and blend till smooth. Serve in chilled cups and feel proud that you made a smoothie that tastes good and also contains a vegetable! (Makes 2 servings)

Enjoy!

Get well soon!
Elizabeth and Nathan

Sprinkles Cupcake Smoothie?

Last year a new Sprinkles Cupcake bakery opened up walking distance from our house, an occurrence which was obviously a direct sign that we should be eating more cupcakes.

One of the best things about Sprinkles (beside beautiful delicious cupcakes) is that each day they have a secret whisper word which will score you a free cupcake. This seems to work well in theory, but in practice I always seem to walk out with my free cupcake and also seven dollars worth of other cupcakes that I couldn't leave without...

Anyway, since the day Nathan broke his jaw I had already guiltily eaten one Sprinkles Cupcake of which he not eaten even a single bite because, well, he can't bite anything. In light of this cruelty I had decide that I wouldn't get anymore cupcakes because that seemed mean. However, in a stroke of genius, it occurred to me that maybe I didn't have to go on an 8 week cupcake fast after all, maybe, just maybe I could BLEND a cupcake! Ok, it also occurs to me now that I might have a cupcake problem... but let's ignore that for now.

Once inside the store I inquired about which cupcake they thought might do the best in the blender, and after some deliberation we decided upon the classic Spinkles Red Velvet cupcake. Turns out that this is ALWAYS a good choice, even when your plans include blenders.

_______________________________

Sweet little unsuspecting cupcake, it feels safe and secure knowing that the person it was purchased for is not currently capable of biting or chewing. 

Little does Sweet Little Cupcake know of our plans...

Sweet Little Cupcake is starting to feel slightly less secure now...

So is this Vanilla Yoplait yogurt.

And Surprise! It actually turned out really nice and tasted just like drinking a red velvet cupcake. Plus it's really pretty. :)

Ingredients:
1/2 - Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcake, frosting and all (or sub with a homemade cupcake)
1/4 cup milk
6 oz. Vanilla Yogurt

Directions:
Place everything in the blender and run until it is a smooth frothy consistency. Pour into a frosty glass and enjoy!

*note we also tried replacing the yogurt with ice cream and that was good too.

Get well soon!
Elizabeth and Nathan