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Wild Blueberry Flavor Burst Smoothie

January 26, 2017 By Jessica Braider 2 Comments

Wild Blueberry Flavor Burst Smoothie

By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by the Wild Blueberry Association of North America and I am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time.

The other night I stopped by a friend’s house and we got to lamenting the fruit selection at this time of year. The citrus is ok and sometimes you can find a good pineapple, but the apples are past their prime and berries are way out of season. In short, it is a bummer. So that is when I shared my secret to surviving the mid-winter fruit doldrums: frozen fruit! This is the time of year when I stock up on frozen berries each week and use them to mix into yogurt and oatmeal, bake them in desserts, and make smoothies. So when I was invited to participate in the Wild Your Smoothie Recipe Contest I was psyched because it meant I could share one of my absolute favorite smoothies made with my hands-down favorite frozen fruit: wild blueberries.

If you have never tried wild blueberries, you are missing out! They are what blueberries are supposed to taste like—a sweet and tart flavor explosion in your mouth! They have a much stronger blueberry flavor because the plants are wild and genetically-diverse with thousands of interlocking plants spreading naturally across fields called barrens. As I kid I loved picking wild blueberries, but they can be hard to find, so now I depend on the frozen version, which miraculously keep their flavor and nutrition since they are individual quick-frozen at harvest. The other perk of wild blueberries is that they have twice (!) the antioxidant capacity of the larger, cultivated blueberries and can help with gut health, diabetes, cancer, and brain health. Pretty amazing, right?! And here’s the best part: frozen wild blueberries are super easy to find since almost every grocery store has them!…

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Filed Under: Breakfast, Healthy Eating, Snacks Tagged With: Easy, ginger, healthy, pineapple, smoothie, Spinach, vegetarian, wild blueberry

Pineapple-Ginger Popsicles

May 26, 2016 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Pineapple-Ginger Popsicles

While I grew up in a family where good food was highly valued and celebrated, from about age 7 on I had quite a tortured relationship with eating. I was incredibly self-conscious about my appearance (I was pretty overweight) and I worried about people judging me by the foods I was eating. This lasted well into my twenties (or even thirties). For me, the shift occurred when I started cooking more. Through cooking I began to shift the way I thought about food. It became less about control and negotiation (“if I have this last cookie, then tomorrow I won’t have anything ‘bad’ and I’ll be back on track”) and more about feeling satisfied and nourished.

For me, part of feeling fulfilled by the food I eat is to have some sort of sweet treat every day. Many times that treat is something that the old me would have considered unhealthy and would have regretted as soon as I ate it such as ice cream or cookies, but other times it is something along the lines of these amazing popsicles which contain nothing but healthiness. These are a sort of upgraded version of the all-fruit popsicles that I loved as a kid, but with no added sugar. They are sweet and creamy and have a nice kick from the ginger!…

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Filed Under: Dessert, Healthy Eating Tagged With: dessert, Easy, ginger, healthy, kid-friendly, pineapple

Jessica Braider

Hi! I'm Jessica. I love delicious food that is simple and easy. As a busy mom, I am always on the lookout for ways to make life easier and tastier! Read More…

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