DIY Smoothie In a Bag!

Have you ever been in a rush out the door one morning and don't have time to grab breakfast or whip up a delicious fresh smoothie? I know when I have been in a time crunch, I'm focused on making sure my outfits perfect and my hair and makeup are finished rather than worrying about eating. But Breakfast is the most important meal of the day & gives you the nutrients you need to be alert for the rest of the day! So instead of wasting your time in the morning cutting your fruits & vegetables and picking out what ingredients you want to put in your smoothie, I made these smoothie bags! Haven't you ever seen the smoothie bags in the frozen section of your grocery store by yoplait yogurt or Jamba Juice?...These smoothie bags are kind of like those but you get to choose what ingredients you want in your smoothie!  I put these smoothie bags in the freezer which helps keep my ingredients fresh and makes my shakes nice & cold! They're super easy to make and save so much time when you're on the go, just throw one of your bags in a blender, blend it up, pour into a glass and enjoy! 

Here's what you need: 

•Fresh fruit

•Fresh Vegetables

•Large ziplock bags

•Permanent marker

After you take a trip to the market and load up on vegetables and fruits, chop up your fruits and vegetables that you want to make smoothies with. Come up with a few different smoothies you want to make & put the ingredients for one serving in each of the ziplock bags. For example in one bag I put 1 cup spinach in a bag, 2 skinned and sliced kiwi & a 1/2 cup mandarin oranges in one. With the permanent marker I wrote what ingredients were in my bag and also wrote "ADD:" listing what liquid I wanted to add to my smoothie bag when I'm ready to blend it (my liquid was coconut water) Be sure to write the date on your bag too so you don't blend up old fruits! [Yucky!] I hope these smoothie bags help give you a yummy & quick breakfast when you're in a rush! 

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Coconut Water Smoothies

I have normally made my smoothies with almond milk, but I recently started substituting the almond milk for coconut water. I think the coconut water really enhances the taste of the smoothies and makes the smoothies taste so much more refreshing. Along with the great taste, coconut water has great health benefits including being low in carbohydrates and sodium and rich in potassium, it's also a great way to hydrate by adding it to your smoothies. So I have been concocting a few different smoothies and thought I would share my coconut water based smoothie recipes with you!

Mango, Banana Apple Smoothie Recipe:

Ingredients (1 serving):

• 1/2 cup coconut water
• 1 frozen banana (sliced)
• 1 mango (cut up and skin removed)
• 1 green apple (sliced & core removed)

Instructions:

• Add the coconut water to your blender first, then add your frozen bananas, add the mango and banana. Blend until it is a liquid consistency, pour into a glass and enjoy! 

This smoothie is fruity but a little tart from the green apple, it is filled with nutrients and these fruits have lots of health benefits! 

Strawberry Banana Smoothie Recipe: 

Ingredients (2 servings):

• 1 cup coconut water
• 2 bananas
• 1 cup frozen strawberries (Trader Joe's sells bags of frozen strawberries for cheap that I love to use!)

Instructions:

• Add the coconut water to your blender first, then add your frozen strawberries, add your two bananas and blend until it is a liquid consistency. Pour into a glass and enjoy! 

This smoothie is nice and fruity, full of energy & the coconut water helps with hydrating. I like to make it after a night of drinking or if I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. 

Mango Spinach Smoothie Recipe: 

Ingredients (1 serving):

• 1 cup coconut water
• 1 cup frozen mango (Trader Joe's sells bags of sliced frozen mango for cheap that I love to use! They also sell organic frozen mango too!)
• 1 cup fresh spinach leaves
• A few drops of honey

Instructions:

• Add the coconut water to your blender first, then add your frozen mango, add the spinach leaves and drops of honey. Blend until it is a liquid consistency and your spinach leaves are all minced up. Pour into a glass and enjoy!

This smoothie is great tasting and a beautiful color, it is extremely refreshing! It seems really thick when pouring it but it is easy to drink. The mango helps conceal the bitter taste of the spinach and the honey helps sweeten the smoothie a little bit. Perfect for a hot day :) 

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Gluten Free + Dairy free Chocolate chip, Toffee Cookies

 I wanted to make some super yummy cookies for my co-workers but was tired of the basic chocolate chip cookie. So I pulled out my recipe binder and I found this recipe in my binder that my Dad put together for me full of a compilation of old recipes. The recipe I have is not gluten free or dairy free but I substituted a few items and changed up a few measurements and produced some amazing chewy+salty+sweet cookies! Hope you enjoy! PS- I bought the chevron paper treat sacks at Typo!

Gluten free chocolate chip, toffee cookie recipe:

Original recipe from martha stewart (Although, I did change a few things about this recipe to make it gluten free) 

Ingredients: 

• 1 & 1/3 cup Earth Balance Vegan buttery sticks at Room temperature 
• 1 & 1/2 cups light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon real vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all purpose gluten free flour- Trader Joe's brand 
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces or 1 bag of Trader Joe's dairy free semi sweet chocolate chips 
• 3/4 bag of Heath toffee bits 

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit 

Step 1: In a large bowl, combine your room temperature butter with brown sugar and regular sugar and beat until mixture is fluffy.

Step 2: Add vanilla and egg to the butter and sugar mixture, beating until well combined.
In a separate bowl mix together GF flour, baking soda and salt.

Step 3: Slowly add your flour mixture to your butter mixture, mixing well until both mixtures are completely combined.

Step 4: Stir in chocolate chips and heath toffee bits.

Step 5: Scoop out large table spoons of dough onto parchment paper or foil lined baking sheets. Be sure to place heaps of cookie dough at least 2 &1/2 inches apart. Bake until they just begin to brown. (16-20 minutes) They may not look or feel finished but I promise once you take them out and let them cool, they will slightly harden into a gooey & chewy, delicious cookie!

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