It's Bananas...B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!!

I emailed my nutritionist a couple of weeks ago to ask her about post-workout snacks. I've heard that protein smoothies are a good recovery snack, but do I necessarily need a smoothie that contains protein powder? My nutritionist said that while the protein powder certainly wouldn't hurt, I'd get more nutritional value (as well as the desired protein) from making my smoothie with lowfat yogurt. She suggested making a smoothie with a banana, some lowfat vanilla yogurt, ice, a bit of peanut butter, and a squirt of chocolate syrup. I made this today after my spin class, and it was yummy! I didn't measure anything - just eyeballed it - but here are some approximations:
-One banana (the one I used was pretty ripe...it's also good to use a frozen banana, which makes the smoothie nice and cold)
-1/2 to 2/3 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt
-Handful of ice cubes
-Teaspoon of creamy peanut butter
-Teaspoon of Hershey's chocolate syrup
I threw it all in the blender and mixed it up. It was a nice snack!

I try to keep vanilla yogurt on hand as well as a variety of fresh and/or frozen fruits. All of these ingredients are great for smoothies. Sometimes a squirt of honey is necessary to balance the tartness of the fruit.

Try coming up with your own concoctions!

Independence Day

We had some friends over for the 4th. I thought I'd share our recipes.

We did basic burgers but with a ton of topping options. We served three different sauces: chipotle ketchup, horseradish mustard mayo, and red chile mustard. We offered a smorgasboard of cheeses: American, Swiss, white cheddar, Manchego, and jalapeno jack. And of course there were pickles, tomatoes, onions, and lettuce.

We also tried a new Southwestern potato salad, a Bobby Flay recipe that is served at his restaurant Mesa Grill. It was quite spicy - a bit too spicy for me. If we make it again, I think I'll use a bit less chipotle puree and/or less cayenne pepper.

We also made our staple summer salad, Ina Garten's guacamole salad.

For dessert, I tried a recipe from one of my favorite blogs, Lick the Bowl Good. Monica, the author of the blog, adapted the recipe from one of Martha Stewart's. We had a delicious strawberry-blueberry cobbler cake with vanilla ice cream.

Here are two pictures, one from before the cake went into the oven and the finished product.

Enjoy the recipes!