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Vita Mix: Blueberry Banana Almond Smoothie

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Making smoothie drinks at home is easy with a Vita Mix and items from Trader Joe’s.

Maybe it is the heat, or maybe it  is the end of another semester in graduate school and we are looking to try something new, but WOW  we  are making a lot of blender drinks (or smoothies) in our Vita Mix.

Click HERE to Get FREE shipping on your Vitamix

This week, the blueberries were calling to us, as was the heat, so in an effort to enjoy those yummy blueberries and keep cool, we used the remains of the blueberries in a smoothie.  In addition to those SuperBlues blueberries, we had other great ingredients from Trader Joe’s to select from: Bananas, Raw Almonds, Honey and Vanilla Yogurt.  How to choose….

Blueberry Almond Banana Smoothie

Blueberry Almond Banana Smoothie


So you can see that selecting the items is the hard part, making a Smoothie is actually easy with the Vita Mix. You simply add the ingredients and then let the strength and power of the motor make short work of blending everything into a smooth and creamy drink.

This drink was super easy and just delicious!

What you need:

  • 2 Cups cold water
  • 1 ripe banana
  • ½ cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
  • ¼ cup raw almonds
  • Honey to taste

How to:

Blend the water and the almonds together on High to make a smooth almond-milk. Then add the fruits and honey if using. Blend on High again until smooth. Taste and add more honey if you need to- depends on how sweet your banana is, right?

This will make about 3 cups of rich, fruity smoothie.

Variations:

  • Strawberries
  • Mango
  • Yogurt
  • Maple Syrup

There are so many variations possible- these are just a few of our favorites. Please feel free to share your favorite fruit smoothie combinations below.

We just love making drinks and soups in the Vita Mix.   When you add the fact that Trader Joe’s has a wonderful selection of produce, nuts and frozen items for sale, you can see there are a zillion items to make.  In fact,  we hope to share many more adventures in blending with you soon.

Have you checked out the Vita-Mix yet?  This super blender might be just what you need to reach your health goals. Take a look today

Click HERE to Get FREE shipping on your Vitamix

If you liked this post, please take a minute and leave a comment. Even if it is just to say hello, we love to hear from all our readers.

This item is Wheat Free/ Raw

SuperBlues Blueberries Now At Trader Joe’s

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SuperBlues Blueberries

SuperBlues Blueberries

Summer arrived for me at Trader Joe’s today in the form of SuperBlues blueberries

I can remember picking blueberries as a child at my Grandmother’s house in Massachusetts. She had rather a lot of bushes and I remember them as being very tall as a child (I would love to go see them now!).

Anyway in the mornings, we would get up, get dressed and practically race into the kitchen to get handed a coffee cup. This was our morning “blueberry pail” and we would take our cup out for a morning adventure of collecting blueberries right from the bushes.

We would hunt around in those bushes for the biggest blueberries that we could find and leave those smaller ones to pick in the next day or so. When we returned to the house, we would rinse them off and use them on top of our cornflakes. Then my brother and I would have a contest to see who had picked the biggest blueberries.

Well, I was a kid again last week when we were shopping at Trader Joe’s. There at the sample counter (of course) were the biggest blueberries I have seen in a long time. The package said SuperBlues and that was an excellent description.

These blueberries were HUGE (I am not sure if you can tell in the photo, but some were as big around as a nickel!) and full of flavor. Trader Joe’s sampled the SuperBlues with some vanilla yogurt- simple and delicious.

SuperBlue Blueberries in oatmeal

SuperBlue Blueberries for Breakfast

We served them up at home on our oatmeal for breakfast. Boy they really took me back to picking and eating blueberries at my Grandmother’s house (although I was missing the cornflakes!).

So if you see these SuperBlues at your Trader Joe’s store, pick up a packages and enjoy a taste of summer.

Brunch Ideas From Trader Joe’s

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More great breakfast ideas from Trader Joe’s website (Click here to view) If you have not visited the Trader Joe’s website in a while, take a quick trip there now, you will like what you see!

A few days ago, we were paging through the online Trader Joe’s Frequent Flyer catalog, and saw some new ideas in the recipe area. Many looked like they would not only be easy but tasty made with the good stuff from Trader Joe’s.

OK they all looked fabulous but the one that really stood out for us was the Blueberry Waffle Bling. This was most likely due to the fact we LOVE blueberries and “cream” (such as whipped cream or creamy yogurt or even sour cream). There is a recipe (PDF) that you can download, print and take shopping with you at Trader Joe’s- How convenient!

Note: This PDF did take quite a while to load so be prepared for a small wait. This could be due to the fact we had a LOT of stuff open on the computer, but we wanted to let you all know.

Anyway the clever folks at Trader Joe’s started with two Trader Joe’s Toaster Waffles and then jazzed them up with a great sounding filling of:  cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and some fresh or frozen blueberries. From the look of the photo, they used the frozen blueberries which would have a nice, blue sauce to drip or drizzle on the waffles.

What you need (4 servings):

  • 1 package Trader Joe’s Frozen Waffles
  • 1 package Trader Joe’s Cream Cheese
  • 1 package Trader Joe’s Blueberries (we like the frozen mixed berries)
  • 2 TBS. Trader Joe’s Sugar
  • 1 tsp. Trader Joe’s Vanilla

How to:

1. Mix up the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a bowl or even in the food processor. You can soften up the cream cheese by zapping it in the microwave for 10 seconds, then waiting 30 seconds and repeating a couple more times until the cream cheese is slightly soft. You don’t want it to melt. After mixing in the sugar and the vanilla, taste to see if you like how it tastes, as you may want to add more sugar or vanilla. Set aside. You could make this mixture a few days before-so that you have this part ready ahead of time.

2. Toast the waffles according to package directions. When hot, spread the cream cheese on one waffle; add some blueberries and then top with another waffle, more cream cheese and more fruit. You can serve this with some Trader Joe’s real maple syrup if you like.

3. Enjoy!

Variations:

  • Use other fruit such as Strawberries or Mango chunks.
  • Add some lemon peel to the cream cheese mixture.
  • Add Maple syrup to the cream cheese mixture- Taste to see if you need/want to add the sugar as well.

This looks so fabulous on the web page, we are defiantly going to try this recipe soon.

Have you tried it before? What did you think?

Trader Joe’s Triple Fruit Treat

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Confessions of a super busy week: I forgot to post a note about a great product, until, um…. the last handful!

Here is the full story… while shopping at Trader Joe’s we found a new-ish product: Trader Joe’s Triple Fruit Treat with mango, cranberries and blueberries.

Well, we thought they were new, looked great, so we should give these a try, right?  Then the checkout person was like “hey these are fantastic!”  and the person bagging up our groceries (in those nice, cloth bags) also commented on this seemingly ordinary bag of dried fruit “yes, I just love those mangos!”

So while we thought this was a new product, we guess it has been in the store for a few days at least.

Anyway back to the review…. This item really was just delicious! The mangos were cut into small, thin squares so they were just the right thickness to be chewy, but not too thick that you were worried about your teeth.  We already love dried cranberries, and these were nice because they were more separated, and not all smashed into large chunks. And dried blueberries? WOW these are really a nice dash of flavor, and make this mixture really shine!

Just to go over the top, we added some cashews and some peanuts to the dish when we were snacking on this fruit mixture. So to us, this was like a super gourmet trail mix. YUMMZ!

Trader Joe's Triple Fruit Treat

Trader Joe's Triple Fruit Treat

So here is the final handful of this dried fruit mix when we said to each other  “I thought YOU took the picture!”

Go ahead and try it today!