smoothie Archives - Mamma's Cooking

Mango Banana Smoothie

After indulging in heavy foods over the holidays, a great smoothie is just the thing to help you feel better! I admit the novelty of my Ninja blender has worn off and after the first few months of smoothies every other day, they appear much less frequently. This however, is the most requested and blended smoothie in our house. It makes enough for 2 adults or 3 to 4 kids.

Mango Banana Smoothie

Ingredients

6 ounces of vanilla yogurt

½ frozen banana

½ cup frozen mango chunks

½ cup of milk

Directions

Throw all the ingredients in your blender. Blend until smooth and enjoy!

What is your favorite recovery food after the holidays, a vacation or other time spent eating more than you know you should? This Nutella smoothie is also a favorite in our house. Other than smoothies we go to soups. Check out my favorite soups here.

Nutella in a smoothie? Yes, please!

For my birthday, I generously received a gift card for Amazon and bought one of my new favorite toys, a Ninja blender! The kids and I have had fun inventing smoothies and I made my salsa in about 5 seconds 🙂 Smoothies are a great way to get protein and fruit into the kids for breakfast lunch or dinner. If you buy frozen or freeze your own fruit, that helps to make the smoothie creamy, like ice cream. Especially frozen bananas! Frozen mango, frozen banana and vanilla yogurt is delicious together but here is the recipe for our new family favorite…Peanut Butter Nutella!

Peanut Butter Nutella Smoothie

Ingredients

2 frozen bananas, broken into large chunks

1 cup vanilla yogurt

3 Tablespoons of nutella

2 Tablespoons of peanut butter (or almond butter)

2/3 cup of milk

1/2 teaspoon of agave

Directions

Place all the ingredients in your blender and let the blender do its work until smooth! Add more milk if you would like a thinner smoothie.

This makes a great afternoon snack! I’m so glad I got this blender! I will from time to time share the great products I use and please know that I will only recommend ones that I love myself!

<br />

Share your favorite smoothie in the comments!

Ask Mamma – Freezer meals…but wait until Irene passes :)

I started this blog before Irene was an issue here in New England, after a friend who is pregnant with her second child asked me for some ideas for stocking her freezer before the new baby arrives. So if you want to stock your freezer, now that it may be empty or unfortunately the food is spoiled because you don’t have power, here are some ideas of easy meals to restock!

(1) Enchiladas – http://mammascooking.blogspot.com/2009/06/summertime.html (just leave out the meat if vegetarian)

(2) Mac – n-cheese – http://mammascooking.blogspot.com/search/label/mac-n-cheese

(3) Lasagna – http://mammascooking.blogspot.com/2008/08/comedian.html (I have more lasagne recipes in my head, that I haven’t written down yet, so if you have any questions, let me know). Here is one from a Year of slow cooking too that sounds good.

(4) Chili – http://mammascooking.blogspot.com/search/label/chili (leave out turkey if vegetarian)

(5) Rice casseroles – look at allrecipes.com and Year of Slow Cooking blog. They both have good suggestions. I recently made a good turkey curry rice casserole. Brown some ground turkey (can use chicken, pork or beef). Season with onion powder, thyme, garlic powder, coriander, curry powder and sweeten with some apricot jam.

Cook your brown rice however you like. I use my rice cooker. Add to cooked meat. Then add a couple of handfuls of frozen peas and cover on low for about 10 minutes. Serve or freeze!

(6) Soups! Butternut squash soup, Black Bean Soup (from Year of Slow Cooking), or whatever you like to make.

(7) Stock up at Trader Joe’s or your local grocery store! Buy the frozen rice, raviolis, sweet potato fries, soycatash and your other favorites!

We have been eating down our fridge/freezer for the past few days in anticipation that we might lose power. Yummy egg hash this morning with the 4 eggs we had left, 2 slices of bacon, one baked potato diced, couple of tablespoons of sour cream, about 1/4 cup of milk, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and a handful of shredded cheddar. Whisk eggs, sour cream, milk and spices together while you microwave the potato and saute bacon in skillet. Dice potato when cooked and add to bacon, then toss cheese into egg mixture and add to skillet. Mix until eggs cooked through. Serve with vanilla and berries smoothie. I am trying to use up the yogurt we have left and frozen berries in the freezer, add some milk and blend! So good.

Hopefully we can hold on to power until after lunch or it will be ice cream for lunch! I’m sure Karina won’t mind 🙂

What is on the menu for the week?

Karina has been a bottomless pit. I know that seems like it shouldn’t be a problem, because most toddlers won’t eat anything, but to have to feed her every 40min to an 1hr…it is ridiculous! (Especially after I just put her back to bed at 10:30pm because she wanted a snack). I’m trying not to, but if she’s hungry then I will give her a snack. I am just really trying to keep it healthy. Maybe its because she started walking this week…

So, as I’ve mentioned before I have started doing meal planning for each week and then shopping just for what I need. It has made a difference in our shopping budget and the amount of space in our fridge!

Its been a while since I posted a meal plan for the week…so, here is what I have planned for the week: (who knows if it will actually happen, but most of it is what I have on hand)

Sunday

Breakfast = smoothie (I mix plain yogurt with frozen berries and apple juice.)
Lunch = sandwiches (turkey, cheese and tomato or roast beef cheese and tomato) or leftover swedish meatballs and cauliflower mashed potatoes
Dinner = Fish (still to buy tomorrow), rice (made in the rice cooker) with edamame (frozen and then takes 3 minutes to steam in the microwave)
Snacks for Karina = cheddar cheese, grapes, apple sauce, goldfish crackers, craisins

Monday

Breakfast = one egg, whole wheat toast and sliced pear
Lunch = leftover rice and edamame + deli turkey meat
Dinner = roast pork (cooked in the slow cooker with beef stock, balsamic vinegar, worchestershire sauce, dried rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper.), cauliflower polenta (buy the tubes from Trader Joes or Safeway and just mix in some steamed cauliflower, parmesan and milk) and salad
Snacks = yogurt, whole wheat pita with white bean hummus, carrot sticks, craisins and goldfish.

Tuesday

Breakfast = oatmeal and apple slices (or a whole mini apple that I discovered at Trader Joe’s last week. A friend turned me on to their mini pears, but I couldn’t find them, then I found the mini apples – perfect size for a toddler’s hand)
Lunch = quesadilla with leftover pork, black beans and cheddar cheese
Dinner = Whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce. (If I have time, I put a couple of cans of diced tomatoes in the slow cooker while Karina’s eating her lunch, with a diced onion, some garlic, bay leaf, touch of oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper. Otherwise, I just used jarred).
Snacks = orange slices, cheddar cheese, grapes, whole wheat pita, craisins and goldfish (sensing a pattern…?)

Wednesday

Breakfast = egg, cheerios and peaches (canned peaches).
Lunch = pasta, deli turkey and green beans (frozen, steamed in microwave for 3 min)
Dinner = French onion soup (this is more for me, its an amazing recipe from Rachel Ray’s Comfort Foods…mmm…we’ll see if she likes it) and leftovers.
Snacks = apple sauce, grapes, cheddar, carrot sticks, goldfish and craisins

Thursday

Breakfast = smoothie.
Lunch = turkey, cheese and blackbean in a whole wheat tortilla wrap.
Dinner = leftovers
Snacks = peaches, cheddar, whole wheat pita with white bean hummus, grapes, apple

Friday

Breakfast = egg, toast, orange slices
Lunch = peanut butter and jelly sandwich, mixed veggies (frozen, steamed in microwave for 3 minutes).
Dinner = TBD (either order food, see what’s on sale that day at the grocery store or my husband will pick something up at Pike’s market on the way home from work).
Snacks = apple sauce, yogurt, whole wheat pita and whatever else is left in the house until I go shopping on Friday 🙂

That is a fairly typical week for us. It really has taken a lot of the stress out of cooking to have the meals planned. Things always come up though, so having a couple nights of “leftovers” or keeping pasta and jarred sauce or tortillas, canned black beans and cheddar on hand can make easy pasta or quesadilla nights or allow you some flexibility.

Karina finally meet a cheese she didn’t like this week (to my surprise)…Gorgonzola. She really is her father’s daughter…

Happy cooking!