Smoothie In A Jar

Smoothie in a jar... ever heard of it?

If not, you are missing out, my friend.  I read about this concept 6 or 7 years ago on another healthy living blog.  It has never left my rolodex of recipes stored in my little brain.  Frankly I think it is genius because I love peanut butter (or Nutella, Barney Butter, Sunflower Butter, etc) and I love smoothies.  Are you good at getting the peanut butter out of the bottom of the jar?  I used to be pretty good at it, but as of late, my schedule does not allow me to fiddle around with a knife and jar just to get the last tsp of heaven out.  So, I do what other bloggers do.  I whip up a smoothie and pour it into the almost empty peanut butter jar.  The smoothie loosens the pb up and makes it easier to pull out from the bottom.  Plus, you get the amazing taste of peanut butter in every spoonful.

In this particular smoothie I used fresh frozen strawberries (I cut them up and froze them), fresh frozen baby spinach, almond milk and protein powder.  There is something about using fresh ingredients that you freeze yourself (instead of just buying them frozen) makes the smoothie taste creamier and have more of a chill.  I then poured it into the White Chocolate Wonderful Peanut Butter jar.  There was about a tbsp left.  I was in another world while eating this... pure joy.

Let's backtrack to last night's dinner.  I made Mike and I bun-less burgers because we had a lot of fresh ingredients left over from Monday night's Chicken Thai Lettuce Wraps.  I made sure to get organic red meat that were already in patty form and pickles from the store.  I used to go to Red Robin... well, I have actually only been twice... but each time I went I ordered the bun-less burger.   My goal was to recreate that taste.  I nailed it!  I pan fried the burger, sprinkled McCormick's Seasoning on it, sautéed garlic and mushrooms, then piled everything on top of bib lettuce.  I can't leave out the olive oil mayo, ketchup and pickles I slathered on too  :)

Again, I apologize for the green and yellow tones that are poking through the pictures.  Artificial light is not flattering when it comes to photographing food.  I need sun in my world badly.

I hope these recipes are giving you guys ideas to make for your meals.  They are all fairly easy and so dang delicious! Plus, they are good for your waist.

Bon Appetit!