Simply Healthy College Girl

Gingerbread (Green) Smoothie

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present:

As it is the beginning of the year, I'm sure many of you are working on your new year's resolutions. I set my "new year" resolutions at the beginning of the school year because I find it a more applicable time for me as a student. However, every month I pick certain habits or goals to work on to help me towards my resolutions.

This January my goal is to improve my selection of simple green smoothie recipes. My basic formula is one cup of liquid, two bananas, a few cups of greens, and any add ins to make it different. (Talk about a simply smoothie!) I've done some experimenting and am excited to see what else I can come up with this month!

This recipe has to be my favorite so far.

I'm still on a bit of a Christmas kick (if you hadn't noticed).

It tastes like dessert in a glass.

If you think all green smoothies are gross, try this one. You won't be disappointed.

Gingerbread (Green) Smoothie
Yield: 3 cups

1 cup almond milk

2 bananas

2-3 cups greens

2 tablespoon raisins, soaked

1/2 tablespoon molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Soak the raisins in warm water for at least half an hour. It worked best when I let them soak over night.

Add all the ingredients to the blender. Blend on high till you have a blender full of deliciousness.

I think this one takes the award for fanciest tasting green smoothie I've ever made.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I realize the time for pumpkin holiday delights is passing...but I couldn't resist one more pumpkin recipe.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
(Based off my original vanilla recipe)

1 can refrigerated coconut milk

1 cup pumpkin puree

4 small frozen bananas

4 dates

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (more or less to your taste)

1 teaspoon vanilla

a teaspoon or two of pumpkin friendly spices (I used cinnamon) to your taste

Refrigerate the can of coconut milk and freeze the bananas overnight.

Flip the can of coconut milk upside down and open it. Pour out the liquid on the top. You’ll be using the solid cream.

Pit the dates.

Blend the coconut cream, pumpkin, bananas, dates, chocolate chips*, vanilla, and spices on high till it’s smooth like ice cream.

Feel free to have it right away if you don't mind soft ice cream.

Or freeze for a couple hours if you prefer a more from-the-carton-like scoop.

*I used my mom's Vitamix blender for these pictures, and I forgot that Vitamix blenders just puree the heck out of everything. I know it doesn't look like it, but there are chocolate chips in there. They're just perfectly blended in with everything else. If you prefer to have your chocolate chips more chip-like: blend all the other ingredients, add the chocolate chips, and pulse. (When I used my Ninja blender for this recipe, I blended the chocolate chips with everything else and got nice, slightly broken up chunks. The results will depend on the power and construction of your blender.)

Gingerbread Pancakes

Missing Christmas already? Never fear! Gingerbread Pancakes are here!

I made these Christmas morning, and it was hard to get good pictures of the finished product because they got eaten up too quickly!

Gingerbread Pancakes:
Yield: 8 pancakes

1 cup flour of choice*
1 tablespoon coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 cup almond milk
1 Tablespoon molasses

Mix together all the dry ingredients.

Mix in wet ingredients until thick like pancake batter.

Cook the pancakes in a lightly greased pan, using about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake.

Top with your favorite syrup and enjoy! I added a little maple syrup to mine.

*A note on flour choice: The first time I made these (as shown above) I doubled the recipe and used a blend of organic, gluten free flour that my mom had. It was very thick and needed more milk too reach a more pancake batter-like consistency. The second time, I made these in my dorm (as shown below) and used buckwheat flour (my favorite flour for pancakes) which made them delightfully fluffy.

Not Just Another Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

~~Don’t judge a book by its cover.~~

Don’t judge a smoothie by its color. You see this lovely green smoothie?

It tastes like pumpkin pie.

Don't believe me? Try it for yourself.

Have it for breakfast. Nothing says breakfast like pumpkin pie!

Pumpkin Pie (Green) Smoothie
Yield: about 2 cups

1 cup almond milk
handful or two of greens
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 frozen banana
1 date
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1-1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spices (I used cinnamon, allspice, cardamom, nutmeg, and ginger)

Add all the ingredients to the blender.

And blend.

Looks can be deceiving. Very deceiving.

Use the leftover pumpkin to make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is how I feel about life right now:

(Source)

All I want to do is jump in a pile of leaves. Right now.

What is it about autumn that everyone loves? My walk home from school every night is a path of multi-colored and delightfully crunchy leaves. I just want to rake them all up and jump in!

Last week, my school was on fall break (another reason to love the season!), so my friend and I got together and watched Anne of Green Gables. Of course this has always been my favorite transition scene: