Summer treat! Homemade Smoothies

Another heat inspired creation! Fat free, filled with tons of vitamins, liquid (cos we need it even more this season!) and oh so yummy!!

I recently started making smoothies, wanting to drink something different and refreshing. They are now a hit at our house and I make em pretty much daily.
The options for flavors are endless! It's whatever fruit you love or whatever fruit you happen to have in the house.

I've never been a fan of frozen fruit, I guess I never knew what to do with em. BUT! Now I have to have it in the house all the time for smoothies.

You'll need a blender

Ingredients:

Fruit (preferably frozen but other will work too)

Yogurt (I use fat free)

Juice (any kind really, it's up to your taste buds)

if your fruit is NOT frozen you will also need a handful of ice cubes

Here's what i used!

Frozen Strawberries and blueberries

Fat free vanilla yogurt and Strawberry banana juice

Toss in your blender, your fruit, add a dollop of yogurt and finish off with a good splash of juice. The more juice the more liquid it becomes.

Blend blend BLEND!! This is the part my toddler hates, NOISE! lol

for NON FROZEN FRUIT: toss your ice cubes in now :)

I was feeling fancy and poured it in a wine glass and finished off with a fresh (non frozen) strawberry

I find this the perfect drink after a workout. I work out in the evening and will come home feeling tired and hungry. Not wanting to pig out because it's later in the evening this is the perfect snack/drink. It fills me up, gives me energy and fixes any cravings

Enjoy!

Evi

Homemade Pizza pockets

Now I don't know how you feel about cooking in the summer, but me personally...I'm not a fan. The kitchen gets hot and I get cranky. On top, I'd rather be doing other things like play with my toddler and enjoy the outdoors.

So here's a little something I do do to have some food for a few days and a snack/small meal in the freezer.

First I make a HUGE pot of spaghetti sauce. I put lots of fresh veggies, like carrots, celery, bell peppers,.... sometimes mushrooms in mine :)

Let it cool.

Now for the pizza pockets. First, dinner rolls! I buy em frozen, prepare them according to the directions (this may include 4-5 hours of the dough rising before baking)

While these are cooling off, let's work on the filling for the pizza pockets
First your ingredients. This can be pretty much anything you like.
For these I chose

The spaghetti sauce I made beforehand





Peperoni






And grated cheese







Take a mixing bowl, add a few big scoops of your sauce.
Then take your pepperoni, slice it in thin strips and toss it in the sauce
Lastly, grab a handful of cheese and add it to the mix.
Stir everything together til it looks like this









Now for the fun part. Take your rolls, that have cooled off by now. Cut a slit in it at the top. Only at the top, be careful not to cut and open the sides or bottom. We just want a hole on top to fill it :)
It will look like this when you push it open








I have found out the a desert spoon is the perfect size to fill them up and not rip the roll. You can use it, to gently open up the roll a bit more before stuffing.
like this





Stuff them til they're full. Don't try to cram in too much, they'll rip.
When filled they'll look something like this :)






And lastly, put them in a freezer bag, I put them with the openings facing each other. It keeps everything nice and clean.
Make sure to put a date on the bag, and pop em in the freezer!








Now all you have to do when you get them out of the freezer is put them in the microwave for about a minute per pizza pocket.
You'll have a quick late night snack. Your kids will love them.
Heck you can even use them as appetizers for your next party :)



As what I did with the rest of the spaghetti sauce? We had spaghetti that night for dinner and the day after I made a home made lasagna with what was left!

YUM YUM YUM!!! Hope you liked it


Evi