eating healthy – Hoots of a Night Al

Get Smoothies Delivered to Your Door with GreenBlender

January 19, 2017 No Comments

I was recently approached by GreenBlender and asked if I would be interested in receiving a sample shipment of their smoothie service to test out, and I immediately said I’d be very interested! With 2017 upon us, I feel like so many people have goals to live healthier lifestyles. However, adding better choices into our routines can be daunting and discouraging. GreenBlender is here to help take the guesswork and difficulty out of healthy eating.

You can sign up for one of their three plans to receive weekly smoothie shipments. These boxes come to your home packed with ice packs to ensure the contents stay nice and fresh. And trust me, you’ll want them to stay fresh because each box is packed with quality ingredients.

Before seeing the tasty ingredients though, you’re greeted with a menu of sorts. Each box comes with five unique recipes that coordinate with your box of ingredients. The recipes are conveniently labeled with various categories, so you know which smoothie is low in calories, high in protein, energizing, and more.

After reading through the weekly menu, the unboxing continues to unveil a hearty helping of fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, and boosters. The ingredients are almost always organic (and marked when they rarely are not), in-season, and locally sourced.

I was amazed to see how much produce they were able to fit in the shipment. I’m very picky when it comes to selecting fruits and vegetables. I’m the girl that will search through seventy apples to find the perfect one with no bruises. I was happily surprised to see most of the produce was very well selected. My clementines were pretty smashed, and my pears were rather bruised. However, that may have been due to rough package handling and not the fault of GreenBlender.

I loved how all of the ingredients were clearly labelled. It was convenient if you come across an ingredient you have not used before. Everything is also measured and bagged, so all you have to do is open it and add it to your blender! They really took all the guesswork out of smoothie making.

As you can see, there was no shortage of unique and surprising ingredients in my package. Many I had used before and several I hadn’t even heard of!

The first smoothie I tried was the Goji Clementine Smoothie. Each smoothie recipe claims to make two servings (with each serving being only 12 ounces). It seemed to me more like one to one and a half servings, but maybe that just means I eat too much! Haha!

The Goji Clementine Smoothie was citrusy and refreshing and claimed to be high protein, immune boosting, and increase glow. It definitely tasted healthy. If you love being able to taste the real ingredients in your smoothies without them being hidden behind sugar and other unnatural substances, I bet you’ll enjoy these recipes.

My second smoothie to try was the Kiwi Apple Detox. Containing ingredients like collard greens, cucumber, ginger, meyer lemon, and more, I was skeptical about how it would taste. I’m not a lemon fan, so I didn’t enjoy it, but my husband gave it slightly higher praise.

Like I said before, my box included ingredients for three other smoothies, but I won’t review them all here. Suffice it to say, if you enjoy smoothies that taste all-natural and allow the flavors of the ingredients to shine through, you’ll definitely enjoy these smoothies. If you prefer smoothies from Smoothie King that are loaded with extra sugar and preservatives (like me), they may not be your cup of tea…er, smoothie.

Final thoughts? GreenBlender is a great company that provides unparalleled convenience when it comes to making your smoothies at home. As long as you have a blender, ice, and water, you can use the ingredients they send you to create five smoothies every week without having to set foot outside. I personally think you could simply go to the store and acquire the ingredients on your own for a much lower cost, but I totally understand many people craving the convenience and ease of having a healthier lifestyle delivered right to their door.

Have you tried GreenBlender or a similar service before? Let me know your thoughts below!

I was sent this product for free to provide my unbiased review. All opinions, as always, are my own.

This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on these links or make a purchase using these links, I may receive a small percentage of the profit at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Hoots of a Night Al!

Food, Recipe

How to Make the Juiciest Chicken EVER!

January 7, 2017 6 Comments

I love baked chicken breasts as a healthy weeknight meal. However, my chicken breasts always used to come out dry, which drove me crazy. That is, until I discovered dry poaching. It’s a basic cooking technique that is used to keep the chicken moist and juicy during baking. Read on to see how easy it is!

All you need is a baking dish (I use and love this one), parchment paper, and olive oil. Pour around a tablespoon of oil into the baking dish, and use a pastry brush to spread it on the entire dish.

Once your dish is coated in olive oil, place your chicken breasts in. You can marinate them beforehand, or add your chosen spices at this point. I have been loving the Grill Mates Mesquite marinade lately.

Next, tear off a piece of parchment paper that is roughly the size of your baking dish. Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil on the parchment paper, and spread it out with a pastry brush.

Finally, place your parchment paper (olive oil side down) into your baking dish and tuck it around the sides of your chicken. It doesn’t have to be tucked too tightly, just enough so the moisture won’t escape during baking.

Bake your chicken at 400 degrees for around 40 minutes (more or less depending on the size of your chicken breasts). Once your chicken reaches 165 degrees internally, remove it from the oven and enjoy!

I have used this method time and time again, and every single time it results in moist, flavorful chicken. I promise if you’re sick of eating dry chicken, this is the answer to your prayers!

Do you have any other easy cooking techniques I should try?

Food, Recipe

Simple Ginger Dressing

January 29, 2016 4 Comments

Have you ever been to a hibachi style restaurant and received the onion soup and salad before the magician of a chef comes out and starts slinging fried rice everywhere and making onion volcanoes? (That will probably all sound very odd if you’ve never been to a hibachi restaurant…) This dressing recipe tastes just like the dressing on those salads! It’s a simple oil-based dressing that works great on salads or as a marinade.

My favorite thing to enjoy it on is a simple salad of romaine, carrots, purple onion, and shrimp. However, my parents marinate their shrimp with this dressing to grill, and if we had a grill, I have admit, that would be my favorite way to utilize it! It makes a great sauce for cooked shrimp as well.

This dressing is as easy as tossing all of your ingredients together and blending them up!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup carrots, diced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons ketchup
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil

It is best to blend all of the ingredients except for the oil, and then continue blending while slowly adding in the oil. I typically store my ginger dressing in a mason jar or cruet. Since it’s oil based, I usually don’t refrigerate this dressing. I think that makes it much easier to mix up when you want to use it, as the ingredients will always settle and separate.

I hope you love this dressing/marinade/sauce as much as I do if you decide to make it! If you do, please let me know how you enjoy it most, so I can try it that way, too!

Enjoy, and happy cooking!