Copycat Orange Berry Blitz

Jamba Juice and I go way back. My favorite female cousin introduced me to the place when I was about 12-13 and treated both me and my brother to whatever we wanted there. The two of us have extremely similar tastes in food, which rears its ugly head most often at sushi buffets, because without fail, one of us will pick up pile on pieces of sushi onto our plate in the exact order that the other would’ve taken them. It’s a good thing he’s one of my best friends. :O But back to my derailed story, we both ended up picking Orange Zinger (now known as Orange Berry Blitz and also no longer on the menu, although if you ask, they usually know how to make it).

It was love at first cup, and although I’ve since tried a bunch of the other flavors, Orange Berry Blitz will always be my favorite.

This is, of course, before I moved to a land where it doesn’t exist (alright, fine, the closest one is 107.22 miles away–yes, I really did just check) and also stopped being able to afford $5+ drinks (I miss when they were ~$3.50; those were the days!). As with most things in life, I’ve learned to make do with what I have.

Whilst boards-studying earlier this month, I was making a smoothie for myself. As per usual, I was trying to use up ingredients in the fridge, and bam! A wayyyy cheaper and healthier version of my favorite drink was born. It was a happy accident, and now that I’ve found the ingredients for the real thing, it makes sense why the taste is so similar. :] I threw in protein powder (think of it as one of their protein “boosts”!), but that’s entirely up to you.

I unfortunately didn’t think to take a picture of the first one I made (well, I did, but more on that later, I guess), so that first one actually came out looking way more similar than the one I actually took a picture of (the pineapple-mango-strawberry ratio in the bag I used wasn’t entirely even). This makes a gigantic cup! (I poured it into a mason jar so it’d look a little more presentable.)

Copycat Orange Berry Blitz

Ingredients:
-1 1/2 cups Private Selection Tropical Smoothie Blend (Kroger’s fancy way of saying pineapples, mangos + strawberries)
-1/2 cup frozen blueberries
-1/2 cup Fage Greek yogurt
-1 cup orange juice
-1 scoop unflavored protein powder

Instructions:
1) Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth!

Peppermint Patty, that’s not for you!

This is why I couldn’t really showcase the first one I made. :/ This is all that was left by the time I thought about taking a picture.

Chocolate Cherry Protein Shake

I made this after Tetris-ing a whole lot of boxes/bags and the like into a car and a moving van. (The guys were moving all my stuff to Kentucky for me because I was stuck in Lewisburg studying, so I figured the least I could do would be to help them stuff everything in.)

Chocolate Cherry Protein Shake

Ingredients:
-3/4 cup Homestead Creamery chocolate milk (any type of chocolate milk would do)
-1/2 cup frozen kale
-1/4 cup frozen cherries
-1 scoop unflavored protein powder (you could probably use chocolate)
-1 banana

Instructions:
1) Add all ingredients into a blender and mix until smooth!

Can you tell that I played Tetris as a child? This is basically what happens when you try to combine the refrigerators of two foodies. :x

Recipe ReDux: Lychee Jasmine Tea

June 2014’s theme is:

Floral Flavors: Nothing brightens up a dish like a real flower! Whether you live in the northern or the southern hemisphere, edible flowers can add flavor and aroma to salads, breads, spreads, desserts or dips. Make your recipe bloom with rose water, flowering herbs, floral teas, dried lavender blossoms or even fresh flowers like nasturtiums, violets, borage, squash, sunflowers or pretty much any blossom in a vegetable garden.

I’m gonna be honest–this month has not been kind to me, (thankfully not because of anything catastrophic). Although I entertained the lovely idea of going to the farmer’s market all month, I never did get the chance to make it out there. I’ve been pulling 16-17 hour-days in my basement study hovel. While there are breaks every now and then to commiserate/trade study notes with friends, eat meals, it’s been a pretty bleak experience that I very sincerely hope will pay off when I finally take this test.

Since I couldn’t find fresh flowers, I decided to try to come up with something that I already had all the ingredients for. Thus, this recipe is almost entirely composed of care package items from my parents, and is somewhat of a cross between iced tea and fruit-infused water.

I tend to associate longan with lychee, even though they’re definitely not the same thing. Both of these can usually be found in Asian markets (of which there are none within a 2-hour radius from where I am, hence why my ingredients came from a care package that my mom sent me last month).

• Longan is a great source of vitamin C and iron.
• Lychee is also a great source of vitamin C, as well as B vitamins, potassium and copper.
• Couple both of those with jasmine green tea and you pretty much have an antioxidant bomb in this drink. :O Antioxidants help to protect you from free radical degradation/damage.

Lychee Jasmine Tea

Ingredients:
-2 jasmine green tea bags
-1/4 can lychee, pureed
-dried, seedless longan
-frozen fruit (mangoes, pineapples, strawberries), or ice
-sprig of fresh mint
(~1/2 gallon water)

Instructions:
1) Boil the water, add tea bags and cover for ~5 minutes. Let it cool completely before you put it in the fridge to chill. (Remove tea bags before doing so!)
2) Puree the lychee in a blender/food processor.
3) Pour lychee puree into a tall glass, then add the tea and water.
4) Top it off with the longan, frozen fruit (or ice) and a sprig of mint!

Notes:

• I have a hot water dispenser, so I just fill a cup with water and stick the tea bags in. This is very much to taste, so you can add more water if you find it to be too strong! I don’t own a pitcher, which is why I went with the cup method.
• Every can of lychee I’ve ever seen comes packed in syrup, so you can choose to drain that and sweeten it later with your choice of sweetener (or not at all), or reserve some of the liquid to pour into the tea! I drained about 3/4 of the can of liquid and left the rest in so that I could get the lychee to puree properly.
• This actually only became an iced-tea/fruit-infused water hybrid because I couldn’t figure out how to get the ice dispenser to work (too high-tech for me, clearly; don’tjudgeme), so I decided to throw in chunks of frozen fruit instead! If you like your drinks super-chilled, I suggest you actually use ice. ;)

This is what the bag of dried longan will typically look like!

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Coconut Date Protein Shake

Once upon a time, Kroger decided to mark down a whole bunch of their Liberte coconut yogurt (25 cents each! :O!). I’m a huge fan of sales and yogurt, so I bought a bunch of em’. :x Ever since, I’ve been trying to figure out ways to incorporate them into recipes (I’d like to try making curry with it, but I’m still in contemplation on whether or not that would turn out well). Since I’m still on my grocery ban (I really, really need to finish off the stuff in my apartment so there’s less to pack when I move to Kentucky), I figured I might as well continue with this whole eat-everything-in-my-apartment crusade. I need to start actually contributing to church potlucks. :O

I discovered the concept of date shakes from Lappert’s Ice Cream in Sausalito, California, but could not justify spending $5 on a drink, so I decided to make my own!

For the record, unless myfitnesspal is lying (which I don’t think it is, since I checked the labels), this thing is a frighteningly deceiving calorie-bomb and should probably be used as a meal replacement or post-workout recovery drink. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. :O (At least they’re good fats?)

Coconut Date Protein Shake

~553 calories, 77g CHO’s, 17g fats, 28g protein, 5g fiber, 322mg sodium.

Ingredients:
-7 dates, pitted + coarsely chopped
-4/5 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
-6 oz. coconut yogurt
-1 scoop Designer Whey vanilla protein powder

Instructions:
1) Chop dates and put in container with milk and protein powder. Refrigerate for ~10 minutes.
2) Scoop in the coconut yogurt.
3) Blend until smooth.
4) Pour into glasses and enjoy!

Creamy Vanilla Cashew Milk

I’m sure this would be even more awesome with vanilla bean, as suggested in the original recipe, but…they’re really expensive. :/ This is the first time I’ve ever tried making a nut milk, but it was surprisingly easy! :] We decided to use the pulp to make a “crust” for another dessert that I’ll probably post about in a couple days.

Creamy Vanilla Cashew Milk

Ingredients:
-2 cups raw, unsalted cashews
-5 1/2 cups water
-1 tbsp vanilla extract
-1 tsp ground cinnamon
-1 1/2 tbsp honey
-pinch of salt

Instructions:
1) Place cashews in a large bowl and cover with water, soaking overnight. Drain in the morning and rinse until water runs clean.
2) Combine cashews + water in a blender and puree until completely combined.
3) Put a fine mesh strainer (or doubled-over cheesecloth, if you have one) over a large bowl and strain the cashew milk. Use the back of a spoon to press all the liquid out.
4) Set cashew “pulp” aside.
5) Add cinnamon, vanilla extract, salt and honey (might help to microwave the honey a little to combine) to the “milk” and mix! You could also throw it back into the blender to mix it.

It should stay fresh in the fridge for about a week, but…we drank it all, so there’s that.