Summer is in full swing at our house. My teacher husband has finished almost all of his summer work, and we are loving having him home with us! Our days are full of sun, water, playgrounds, and sidewalk chalk. We still get in a few household chores here and there, but we’re mostly in the business of making memories right now. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for me to make dinner.
Okay, let me rephrase. I hate making dinner, and this is my current excuse to get out of it as much as possible.
Even though I don’t like to cook, I dislike overspending on food even more, so instead of going out or ordering in, we have to get a little creative. Or lazy. But I like the word “creative” better.
We drink smoothies year-round at our house, but we make them even more during the summer. They are a creative and yummy way to get veggies, fruit, protein, and all kinds of healthy and yummy things into our kids, and ourselves, without much effort. We love to pack them full of things we wouldn’t normally eat, and mask it with the flavor of berries.
Often times, our summer “dinner” will consist of a nice big smoothie, a cheese stick, and a handful of pretzels. Those last two items can be whatever other snacky items you have on hand that you can convince yourself have some kind of nutritional value at all. It’s summer. Rules are flexible. The kids are happy that dinner completely consists of “special treats,” and I’m happy because dinner took me all of 5 minutes to make. Plus, they can keep on playing outside and graze. We’re all out there together, so it still counts as valuable family time!
Here is one of my favorite summer smoothies to make. It’s yummy, and full of healthy things like protein, fiber, omega-3, calcium, magnesium, potassium, healthy fats, and antioxidants. This easy drink really is a filling meal that packs an awesome immune-boosting punch! We made this yesterday. It was perfect timing, because we had extra watermelon and a banana that both needed to be used up fast.
Watermelon Blueberry Smoothie Recipe
2 cups watermelon
1 cup frozen blueberries
3 cups fresh spinach
½ cup plain yogurt
½ avocado
1 banana
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1 cup frozen blueberries
3 cups fresh spinach
½ cup plain yogurt
½ avocado
1 banana
2 tablespoons chia seeds
Throw it all in your blender, and blend until smooth! No need to add any more liquid – the watermelon will take care of that!
This recipe filled up our whole blender, but ended up only making
about 3 ½ cups of drink. That sounds weird, looking at the amount of
ingredients above. But I promise, it did. I could have packed my
spinach cups tighter, but then I’m not sure if it would have all fit in
there!
If you don’t like something in it, that’s okay – just omit it, or switch it out with something else. Before you decide omit it, though, maybe you should just try it. You may not even notice it’s in there! You can also add in other items too. That’s one of my favorite things about smoothies – you can just throw in whatever you have around the house, and it ends up tasting awesome (almost) every time. Some of our other go-to smoothie items are: strawberries, peaches, mango, carrots, broccoli, kale, flax seed, greek yogurt, and orange juice. I have friends who put all kinds of weird things in smoothies – like cucumber and cilantro. I haven’t branched out into that arena yet. But who knows – I might sometime! For now, I’m excited to be getting so many healthy things in my body without having to taste it.
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