Pineapple Banana Smoothie {Sweet'N Low}

On vacation still and loving every minute of it. Even though this is a "busy-working" vacation, I am still having so much fun. (I never went to a 4-year college and lived in a dorm, so I am livin' it through my girls). Ya know it's fun when you stay up until midnight and then wake back up at 7am the next day just to go at it again all day long. We've shopped and shopped and organized and organized, we've done so much preparing and planning and creating great spaces in their dorm rooms that they are unbelievably awesome, if I must say so myself.

But one still must eat, right? Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner (what's that ?). I have been going hundred miles an hour and then some. This quick breakfast in the motorhome was a perfect pick-me-up.

Where am I ? St. Charles, Missouri. What am I doing? Dropping my twin daughters off at their first year of college (OH MY!), 1837 miles away from home. Why so far a way? An awesome dance scholarship with an amazing dance team. They are attending Lindenwood University a 4-year private college, for those who haven't heard me say it yet and they will double major in Marketing and Dance, plus be debt free when they graduate. NO STUDENT LOANS. That is why we are in Missouri and not in California. The school was half the price of a California Private University, and sticking with our Dave Ramsey CASH ONLY plan, my girls were able to land a great scholarhship and the little money they did have to pay, they both paid for in full, in cash, in advance for their first year of college. PROUD MAMA!

Above is a sneak preview of their college dorm room and I can't wait to show you all the details and all the AMAZING Pinterest ideas we made happen in their tiny little space. But, while on the road we needed to eat. Oh, eating Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (what's that?), I am afraid sometimes I am starving the other members of my family because I've been so crazy busy (they've had many fast food meals too). We drove our motorhome from California to Missouri filled with all the twins belongs and so while on the road I still managed to do a little cooking and baking. Here is a great recipe for a quick and easy breakfast on the road, that I created with the compliments of FoodBuzz and Sweet'N Low.

Pineapple Banana Smoothie with Sweet'N Low
recipe created by Tina Hudgens

1 cup apple juice
1 banana (cut in slices)
1 to 2 slices of fresh pineapples (or from a can)
1 pkg Sweet'N Low
1 tbsp Honey
1/2 cup crushed ice

Put all ingredients together into your blender or smoothie maker and blend until smooth. Serve cold for breakfast or an after school snack. Great way to get in a few bananas for those of us who don't like to eat them on their own (like me!).

In the Colorado Rockies on our way home from Missouri to California. JUST BEAUTIFUL.

"As part of the DailyBuzz Food Tastemaker Program,

I received Sweet'N Low packages and a stipend."

Chocolate Strawberry-Banana Smoothie

This was a creation made from left-over chocolate syrup. There are not many left-overs in my house that go to waste, they usually get turned into something else along the way. I am not so much into having the same thing over and over again, but taking a left-over or an over-abundance of something and making something new, now that's my specialty.

I had made yet another brownie recipe, and the chocolate fudge sauce was almost triple what I needed, so after a few days of looking at in the the frig, I thought how about adding a little chocolate to my already yummy Strawberry-Banana Smoothie.

Chocolate Strawberry-Banana Smoothie
recipe created by me: Tina Hudgens

5 strawberries
1 banana
1 activia yogurt
1/4 cup chocolate fudge sauce (use left-over homemade sauce or store bought)

Throw all the ingredients into your Magic Bullet or blender of choice and mix together. ENJOY!

Juice Smoothie 50/50

I thought this was so interesting, a split of 50/50 Vegetables and Fruit for smoothies! WOW, what a concept, we have such a hard time getting in vegetables, fruits are easy.

I made this smoothie and was quite surprised, I will for sure be sneaking in more veggies now to our smoothies.

Juice Smoothie 50/50
idea found at Vegan Yack Attack

3 Carrots
3-4 Small Tangerines, Peeled
1 Small Fuji Apple, Cored
1-1/2 Cup Green Grapes
3-4 Stalks of Celery

Place all ingredients through your juicer (Magic Bullet), stir juice together and if you’d like it colder, serve over ice or mix up some ice in your blender.

Strawberry Smoothie {TWC Linky Party #87 - Summer Berry Recipes}

THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS Linky Party #87

(Summer Berry Recipes)

I love berries, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries are my all time favorite. I got this great little tool at Crate and Barrel. It's SO cool. It makes strawberry cleaning so much easier, we keep this right in the silverware drawer and use it all the time. Best investment ever, I think it was around $6 bucks.

I've been pretty good so far on my once a day smoothies last week, so I am sharing another one of my own creations with you today.

Strawberry Smoothie

original recipe by me: Tina Hudgens

5 to 10 strawberries (add a few raspberries if you have some)

1 container yogurt (Activia Vanilla)

1 tbsp honey

1 glass of ice

a few splashes of milk, if needed for consistency

Throw it all into the awesome Magic Bullet (or whatever blender you like to use), mix it up and then you are off to a great morning start with a healthy smoothie.

This week's theme is: SUMMER BERRY RECIPES

Please only link recipes with our theme!

If you are a regular to THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS Linky party, then link-up we're excited to see what you made this week. If you are new, please just follow our simple rules, so that everyone can enjoy the linky party! If you forget to follow the theme, your post will be deleted. Please don't feel hurt, just come back and link up a recipe that follows the theme. Thanks a million, we look forward to blogging with you!

Please Grab Our Button!!!

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This Week's Cravings Upcoming Linky "THEMES"

Here is a complete list of the past and what's coming up next on THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS!

July 2 - July 4th Celebration (ONLY Red, White & Blue Food)

July 9 - Fried Foods

July 16 - Seafood Recipes

July 23 - ICE CREAM Goodies & Treats 

Your hostess for this party are: Tina from MOMS CRAZY COOKING, Nicole from The Daily Dish and Kristi from Veggie Converter. We host this theme linky party every Monday (and the party stays open all week long)! We hope to inspire you to make something with our theme or get an old post notice by linking it up to the linky party below. 

The LINKY PARTY is opened ALL Week!

PLEASE do not link more then 3 recipes per week.

This week's theme is: SUMMER BERRY RECIPES
Please only link recipes with our them!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothie {CRAZY COOKING CHALLENGE}

CRAZY COOKING CHALLENGE #10 - Fruit Smoothies

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

Each month I get so excited about making my recipe and seeing all of the other blogger recipes. It's so cool to all come together and create a recipe that's alike and yet so different. I have made so many recipes from the other challengers and it's so much fun meeting other bloggers, talking with and getting to know one another through cooking, baking and creating.

Here it goes, challenge #10. This month we are makng FRUIT SMOOTHIES, it's summer time, the farmers market had a WONDERFUL selection, that I am sure alot of you are using, I can't wait to start visiting my farmers market every Sunday (again). 

Wondering what the CRAZY COOKING CHALLENGE is? Want to join the CRAZY COOKING CHALLENGE? If so, we'd love to have you. Just click on the button above or the tab and fill out the form. You will then be sent an email with all the details. Only participants of the CRAZY COOKING CHALLENGE will be able to have their recipes linked-up, so if you missed this month please come join us for next month when we will be searching for the ULTIMATE Fried Chicken.

I was in the middle of making a mountain of things for this weekends Graduation Celebration and then I remembered OH YEAH..... my smoothie recipe. If the HOST forgets, oh no, what would we do then. Have no fear, I've pulled out a recipe at 11 pm the night before on another challenge I forgot, so I know I can do anything. Plus I still had 6 days left, no worries. I am just like ALL of you. Kids, Family, Life and Sleep get in the way sometimes.

I did however already make two or three other smoothies, but the recipes weren't quite up to this challenge so I continued on and when I saw this Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothie I knew that was it. (and I had over-rip bananas on the counter that were calling to be made into something). I made it, my adopted son (ie: one of my twins best friends) drank the whole thing and said it was delicious. We all tasted it, but he wanted it so we let him have it. I found this smoothie recipe over at This Chick Cooks.

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothie
recipe found at This Chick Cooks 
originally from Martha Stewart

(makes 1 smoothie)

2 bananas sliced (fresh or frozen)
2 tbsp oats (or granola)
2 tbsp peanut butter (we love chunky)
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup crushed ice (this makes it a super cold smoothie)

Throw all ingredients into a mixer or blender. We use the Magic Bullet. Blend & Drink!
DELICIOUS!

To place a VOTE for my recipe, make sure to CLICK on #1

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

Freezer Ready - Smoothies "in a bag"

I just got a Magic Bullet and I LOVE IT! We are continuing on our health kick and we started having smoothies a few nights a week in place of a big heavy dinner. My girls were told to switch their big meal to lunch time and a smaller meal at dinner time, believe it or not this totally works. (One of my daughter's has lost 5 lbs already, basically doing nothing else except changing these two meals around). I've joined them on this health-kick and mama is LOVIN' it too, no big dinner to prepare and a healthy smoothie to enjoy, heaven!

I saw this great idea on Pinterest, of course, this is where I get all my genius ideas. The idea was to freeze yogurt in muffin tins, and I had some yogurt that was just about to expire and way more then we could eat in a few days. Perfect!

Then it was time to get all the fresh fruits and vegetables I had in the refrigerator and put them to work for us (plus I pulled out all those frozen bananas that had been hangin' around the freezer). Do you do that too? When the last banana is just sitting on the counter and no one wants to eat it, I chop it up, throw it in a baggie and into the freezer it goes until I am ready to make a smoothie.

I packaged up a bunch of different smoothie recipes, a few are listed below. We added in everything we had on hand. Some got fresh pineapple, fresh berries chopped almonds, fresh mint and some fresh spinach too. Everything froze nicely. When it was time for a smoothie you just bring out the baggie, let it defrost for about 10 minutes or throw it in the microwave for a minute if you are in a big hurry. Everything is in the bag, the only thing you may need to add is ice, juice or milk.

Pomegranate-Strawberry Smoothie
1 cup pomegranate juice (can be added fresh)
2 tsp honey
3/4 cup strawberries
1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup Spinach
1 tbsp Chia Seeds
1/4 cup crushed ice (add when ready to blend)

Berry Smoothie
1 cup milk (this should be added fresh, not into the freezer bag)
1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries (or blackberries or strawberries or all the berries mixed)
1/3 cup diced pineapple (fresh or can)
1-1/2 tbsp honey
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup Spinach
1 tbsp Chia Seeds

Banana Berry
3/4 cup apple juice
2/3 cup blueberries
1 banana, sliced
1/4 to 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1 cup crushed ice

Orange Smoothie
1-1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
2/3 cup strawberries
1 banana, sliced
1/4 to 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup Spinach
1 tbsp Chia Seeds
1 cup crushed ice

White  Gummi Bear Smoothie (copy-cat recipe Jamba Juice)
8 oz peach juice
4 oz soy milk
1/2 cup pineapple sherbet
1/4 cup raspberry sherbet
1/4 cup orange sherbet
1/2 cup mangoes
1/2 cup crushed ice

Lime Smoothie
1 cup limeade concentrate
1 cup mangoes
1/2 cup strawberries
1 cup lemon lime sherbet
1/4 cup Spinach
1 tbsp Chia Seeds
1/2 cup crushed ice

THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS #70 (SMOOTHIES & SHAKES) and Fruit Smoothie with Chia Seeds

THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS Linky Party #70

(Smoothies and Shakes)

Fruit Smoothie w/Chia Seeds

We are forever in love with Jamba Juice, but to make them at home just never quite works out. I still try though, over and over again. I have already posted a few FUN smoothie recipes on my blog that we all love and now I have a new one to add to the list. This one was super duper tasty.

Today, is our last day in Minnesota (and for us California girls) we are freezing our butts off! But, dancing is my girls passion and that's why we are here. (I hope to report back to you all that we did GREAT!)

My girls have been dancing for 10 years now... and we are so excited that they will continue doing so in college. It's going to be an amazing experience for them and I can't wait to watch them grow into young adults.

Fruit Smoothie with Chia Seeds

created by me, Tina Hudgens

1 cup of cut-up fruit (melon, cantaloupe and watermelon work great)
2 bananas
10-15 strawberries
1 cup apple juice
2 containers of yogurt (about 1 cup)
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp Chia Seeds

Throw this all into your food processor and blend. (Sometimes I add some ice, just depends how cold you like it!) This was a great smoothie.

Makes about 4 small cups, or 2 large smoothies.

This week's theme is: SMOOTHIES AND SHAKES

Please only link recipes with our theme!

If you are a regular to THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS Linky party, then link-up we're excited to see what you made this week. If you are new, please just follow our simple rules, so that everyone can enjoy the linky party! If you forget to follow the theme, your post will be deleted. Please don't feel hurt, just come back and link up a recipe that follows the theme. Thanks a million, we look forward to blogging with you!

Please Grab Our Button!!!

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This Week's Cravings Upcoming Linky "THEMES"

Here is a complete list of the past and what's coming up next on THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS!

March 5 - (FIVE) Ingredient Meals (Rachel Ray or make up your own)

March 12 - St. Patrick's Day - GREEN FOOD - Everything Green!

March 19 - Chocolate, Chocolate and More Chocolate

March 26 - Freezer Meals (fix and freeze for later)

Your hostess for this party are: Tina from MOMS CRAZY COOKING, Angela from Big Bear's Wife, Nicole from The Daily Dish and Kristi from Veggie Converter. We host this theme linky party every Monday (and the party stays open all week long)! We hope to inspire you to make something with our theme or get an old post notice by linking it up to the linky party below. 

The LINKY PARTY is opened ALL Week!

PLEASE do not link more then 3 recipes per week.
This week's theme is: SMOOTHIES AND SHAKES  
Please only link recipes with our theme!

This week's theme is: SMOOTHIES AND SHAKES
Please only link recipes with our theme!

Strawberries Wild Smoothie

Friday's on MOMS CRAZY COOKING is recipe only! ENJOY!

copycat recipe found at wikihow

THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS LINKY PARTY #20 (Go GREEN!!!) and St. Patrick's Day Frog Smoothie (GLUTEN-FREE)

THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS Linky Party #20

The Theme is: GO GREEN for St. Patrick's Day Celebration

St. Patrick's is not a big holiday celebration around our house, but we do always make sure we wear our GREEN as we head out the door in the morning. This year will be no different, but this year we will be making sure we celebrate with lots of GREEN food. And since St. Patrick's Day is just a few days away, I can't wait to see what GREEN food you all bring to the blog hop party! I would love to see some GREEN cookies or some GREEN cupcakes. I will have to make them as soon as you share the recipe with all of us!

I came across this Frog Nog on Sister's Cafe Blog, where I spent the entire day on Friday printing out recipe after recipe of some amazing things I want to try. But since GREEN food day was coming first, I thought this recipe was perfect (plus I had some left-over spinach in the refrigerator)! This smoothie is so sweet and as long as you can get past the GREEN color, it is actually one of the best smoothies I have ever made.

St. Patrick's Frog Smoothie (GLUTEN-FREE)
adapted from original recipe found on Sister's Cafe Blog

2-4 cups spinach or other greens (I use mixed spinach and arugula)

1 banana
1/4 cup crushed pineapple
1 tbsp Honey
1 Vanilla Yogurt

Fill food processer (works MUCH better then a blender) with greens and a few tbsp of water. Pulse to blend until the greens turn to liquid greens. Add in banana, pineapple, honey and yogurt and continue to blend until smooth. Pour into the glass and serve!

(My daughter is still in the running for another COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP! PLEASE VOTE, if you would! Just click, read and VOTE for my daughter Kayley. She wrote a beautiful essay about an amazing teacher she has at school. THANKS AGAIN for VOTING!)

I LOVE Linky Parties and it's MONDAY already! Let's do this bloggers... it's a fresh start to a NEW week! I can't wait to mix and mingle with all of you and see what has been cooking in your kitchens! Today, this recipe is linked to the following linky parties: Homemaker Monday, I Made It Monday, Just Something I Whipped Up, Made by You Mondays, Making the World Cuter, Market Yourself Monday, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Mouthwatering Monday, Just Another Meatless Monday, Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays, It's a Blog Party Delicious Dishes, and My Meatless Mondays

*****************************************************

Now onto the LINKY PARTY! Please only link recipes with our theme!
This week's theme is: GO GREEN for St. Patrick's Day Celebration

Here is a complete list of the past weeks and a list of what's coming up on This Week's Cravings!

The SIMPLE Rules: (Click for complete list of guidelines for This Week's Cravings)

If you are a regular link-up we're excited to see what you have to share! If you are new please read & follow the simple rules, so everyone can enjoy the linky party! If you forget to link back or add a button IN YOUR post you will receive a gentle reminder to add it. THANKS A MILLION!

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Please Grab Our Button!!!

This Week's Cravings Past & Future Recipe Links

March 7 - Romantic Dinner Recipes

March 14 - St. Patricks Celebration - GO GREEN!!!

March 21 - Chocolate - Chocolate and more Chocolate !!!

March 28 - "Surprise" Ingredient

April 4 - HUBBY COOKS (I can't wait to see what the husbands come up with)

This is a BLOG HOP Party so please visit other links
and meet some great BLOGGERS!

Pumpkin Smoothie & First Weigh-in for HOLIDAY HOTTIES

Holiday Tips to Get it Done from Better Homes and Gardens: A schedule/timer is key to not crashing and burning when getting your house guest-ready. Clean main rooms, a little each day. Look for progress, not perfection. (I do this a lot throughout the year, I pick one room per day and clean it. I may start on a Monday and clean living room, Tuesday bathroom, Wednesday bedroom, etc. etc.; then by the weekend or the day of the holiday/event the entire house is spotless. I LOVE IT!)

Watch for this logo for healthy recipes this Holiday Season here on MOMS CRAZY COOKING.

My Holiday Hotties Teams are going strong. We are checking in with each other daily on our facebook group and it really helps being accountable to a team. We are all on our way to loosing weight with encouragment from one another along the way. My weigh-in last week Wednesday was 159.6 and today I am at 159.4 (I am still excited because I am still down from when I began this adventure months ago). This week our challenge from The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans was exercise minutes. I did NOT do as well as I wanted. I do NOT have an excuses except for LIFE. But I am in the adventure for the LONG-HAUL, so I will just pick up where I left off and press forward.

This week is Thanksgiving and my boot camp trainer today sent an email with some good advise; "to help with the extra calories that may be consumed on Turkey Day try to take it easy the day before and the day after. Also control your portions and drink plenty of water." Thank You SHE ROCKS, I am going to take this advise and put it to use.

We had this delicious smoothie this week. It's the perfect time of year for pumpkin flavored everything, so why not have a Pumpkin Smoothie. This smoothie is so packed with nutrition that I felt stuffed all morning. I even skipped my morning snack, because I did not feel hungry at all. I estimated this only has about 225-275 calories, so I believe this is a perfect healthy breakfast. What a great shake for the morning of Thanksgiving. It's quick, easy to make and will definitely hold you over til' the big meal is served.

Pumpkin Smoothie

recipe author unknown (found on a torn piece of paper from a magazine)

In the blender whirl together 1/4 cup canned pumpkin with low-fat vanilla yogurt, a banana, a spoonful of peanut butter, a handful of ice and fat-free milk to thin as desired. Top with a little whipped cream and cinnamon.

We would love to have some HEALTHY recipes for using your Thanksgiving leftovers
please link up with

"THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS"

This recipe is linked to: Show & Tell, Toot Your Horn Tuesday, Lucky Linky, Sweet Sunday, Meatless Mondays and Gold Star Wednesday

Strawberry POMegranate Smoothie

I try to make my lovely teenage girls (haha, most of the time they are lovely, but they are 17 years old and yes I do have TWO of them, TWINS) smoothies once a week.  It is a nice change from the normal everyday breakfast. I wish, I wish I knew where I got this smoothie recipe from (If someone recognizes it, PLEASE let me know so I can give proper credit.) Anyway, it is one of our favorites. My girls are VERY VERY picky on their smoothies because they LOVE Jamba Juice, so if my smoothie does not measure up to them, then it's no good! We have just a few recipes that we use for smoothies and this is one of them. ENJOY and HAPPY SMOOTHIE DAY!!!

Strawberry POMegranate Smoothie

recipe author unknown

2 ripe bananas

8 oz Vanilla Yogurt

4 oz POM Wonderful Juice

2 tbsp honey

12 frozen or fresh strawberries

Place all ingredients in blender in order as they appear above. (we sometimes have ripe bananas that we have thrown in the freeze to preserve, these work just as well). Blend all the ingredients well until everything is nice and smooth (or leave it a little chunky if you'd like). Make sure that the honey has not stuck to the sides; if so scrape and remix. Pour into a glass and enjoy with a straw. Complete goodness!

This post is linked to: Real Food Wednesday