Smoothies recipes

There are many other ways to enjoy cocoa as well. Here s a cooling suggestion for a hot summer s day. Put a dollop of cocoa powder, a fairly ripe banana, a tablespoon of honey, and a large glass of milk into a blender to swirl into a delicious treat that ll also provide you with the blood pressure-lowering electrolyte minerals calcium and potassium. I also like to spoon a generous heap of cocoa powder into the breakfast smoothies I ve become addicted to. Take a look at my suggestions in the recipe section. 

The most effective way for me to help you put all of this great information into action is to show you how easy it is to make superfruits a regular part of your diet. I make it even simpler by also giving you recipes. In Part III, you ll find lots of delicious smoothie recipes that use superfruits, along with recipes for breakfast, salads, sauces, seafood entrees, and, to top it off, desserts ... 

Your goal should be to involve whole fruits in your meals from the beginning of each day. Whole-grain bread or cereal with pieces of superfruits would be ideal. Simply heat up a bowl of oatmeal, add some low-calorie yogurt fortified with vitamin D and omega fats, toss in a few pieces of your favorite superfruit, and enjoy. Now you re ready to tackle the morning. Refer to Chapter 6 for breakfast recipes and smoothie recipes, which are super ways to launch yourself into the day. 

Other than for smoothies, each recipe includes a Superfruit Recipe Snapshot, which gives you information about nutrient and phytochemical content, as well as a superfruit Color Code designation. 

Prepared with a conventional blender, my smoothie recipes have several common features ... 

Ripe bananas and pineapple juice. Though these two fruits are not mentioned in the industry as superfruits (they should be, in my opinion), bananas and pineapple juice are nevertheless inexpensive and agreeable companions for almost every smoothie. If you like their taste, use them often for the bonus of natural sweetness, extra nutrients, and versatility in recipes. If you use pineapple juice in your smoothie recipe, you probably wont need any other sweetener. 

Simple, simple, simple. Nearly everyone is looking for fast, convenient foods that are simple to prepare. Simplicity also can encompass cost-effectiveness. I accept this set of requirements as a dietary fact of twenty-first-century life, so I hope you will find that these quick and easy smoothie recipes work for you in meeting those goals with flying colors. 

Because these recipes use nutrient-enriched superfruits, fortified soy milk, fortified low-fat or nonfat yogurt, and flaxseeds, the general nutritional quality of the smoothies is multiplied to a level high enough to amply cover most nutrient categories. For this reason, no individual nutrient summary is included with the smoothie recipes. 

I use ground almonds (also called almond flour) to make bread, muffins, cookies, and other baked goods. Almond milk, a delicious alkalizing substitute for dairy milk, is terrific as a drink in its own right or as a base for smoothies. It can also be used in baking or added to herbal teas. See page 145 for a basic almond milk recipe. 

Drink almond milk on its own, or use it as a base for fruit smoothies or in baking recipes. 

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