Morning!

You gals reminded me that I used to blend frozen fruit into fat free soy milk. It melts faster than ice cream but it's good! Must do that again.

Morning SusanB!

So you end up with a really thick smoothie, sorta?

Dagmar

For frozen bananas, I peel them, wrap them in foil, and toss them in the freezer for at least two hours (though I've kept them in there for probably a week or two). As I said, they do ripen in the freezer even, but I find that it's much slower than ripening on my counter (especially since my kitchen has no natural light so bananas go bad VERY quickly). I've never tried making frozen grapes but I've heard they're great also.

I make breakfast smoothies out of just frozen fruit (a variety of the bagged kind), a scoop of protein powder, usually 1/2 cup juice, and then however much water is needed to get it to a drinkable consistency. They're delicious, and only 300 cals! Not bad.

Frozen bananas are the BEST! I peel them, slice them and put them in a ziplock bag. I take out what I need and reseal the rest. I like them blended with plain Fage yogurt at lunch or blended with milk for a banana milkshake for breakfast.

Does anyone have a recipe for this? I had some fresh pickled cucumbers at lunch the other day. The liquid had dill in it but it was also sweet--not much vinegar at all. I've been searching all over and I can't find a recipe that calls for sugar and dill--its just one or the other.

This recipe does:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/reci..._27557,00.html

I made it this summer, and I didn't like it very much, but my family raved about it. Just wasn't to my taste.

Thanks! That sounds very close to what I had (although no onions or radishes). I'm going to give it a try while my folks are in town.

Afternoon folks!
Yes, Dagmar ... if you eat it quickly, it's almost as thick as ice cream. And I'm a sucker for ice cream.

I make my smoothies with greek style plain non-fat yogurt, frozen fruit, and Torani syrup. I use about a cup of yogurt, 2 tbsp syrup, and I think around 70g of fruit. They come out super thick--so thick I could eat them with a spoon and some people might want to add a little skim milk to thin them out a bit. I use frozen berries or mango, but you could use bananas (one day when I'm feeling like I have calories to spare, I'll have to try that).

BTW-My SO uses frozen bananas in his smoothies and he has kept the bananas in the freezer for months with no ill effects. They do turn brown, but they taste fine in the smoothie. He peels the bananas before freezing them.

I've frozen grapes before and it isn't necessary to peel them, but then I never peel my grapes. In fact, I've never heard of peeling grapes--that seems like a lot of work!

alinnell: Cooking Light has a recipe for Cucumber Pickle Spears that calls for both sugar and dill.

It seemed absurd but I've never frozen any kind of fruit except berries so I had to ask.

I just put two very ripe bananas in the freezer (wonder why its called free-zing, nothing free about it ) which I'm going to use in smoothies for dessert tonite.

Still trying to get the DH on board the diet train. He's had another set back for leaving his workplace and he was sulking big time (cookies, chocolate, bourbon - he'll have such heartburn today) last night after school.

I'll keep chipping away and setting the example. His sister's whole family is dieting now so I'll keep hoping he finally "gets it".

Obesity can equal diabetes, hip replacements, heart problems, arthritis etc. which are all present in his immediate family.

Have a great day everyone!

Dagmar

Good morning!
I get a big bag of frozen fruit at Zehrs (no name). It's got peaches, grapes, melon balls, strawberries, pineapple. I can make a mixed smoothy or pick out the kind I want.

Whenever I hit the supermarket, I am always stocking up on frozen fruit. Whatever's on sale/cheapest at that particular market, and then I make different blends each morning depending on my mood (e.g. blueberries and banana for something creamy; pineapple, orange, and strawberry for something citrus-y). Mine usually come out between 250 and 300 calories, which isn't too bad for breakfast on my 1500 cal daily limit. Though maybe I should rethink that...

I weigh myself every morning. I know you're not supposed to, but I swear I don't obsess over it. I only actually track it once/week, but weighing daily helps me see if a number from my actual weigh-in is off due to water retention or something silly. I use a digital scale that measures to 1/10 of a pound. Now, I realize that it might not be that accurate... but I have been at the exact same weight for a week. I did have a bad day last Thursday, but I've been eating REALLY well since then, and have still managed to save 3583 calories (that's saving based on a 2000/cal diet, which I think is probably about right for me to maintain). So - shouldn't I show SOME kind of loss??

Still here and doing what i need to do. Have not been on the scale.

Barbara~check your link to the recipe. I think the wrong thing got posted.

Meanwhile, I did find that recipe. Thanks!

I had a weird thing happen today. I got up, went for my run, drank about 32 ounces of water and half a cup of coffee, and had my shower and suddenly it dawned on me--I forgot to weigh myself! It is so ingrained in my morning routine. How on earth did I forget?

alinnell--oops! Yes, I pasted in the wrong URL. You probably don't want to take a two-hour survey on stock compensation. I fixed the link.

Scenestealer--When I got down to your weight (and I'm about your height), I stopped seeing a loss every week. It would go in fits and starts. I'd have a couple of weeks with no loss and then lose 2 lbs in one week. For me, it was all related to TOM. For a while there, I could pretty much predict when I would show a loss based on where I was in my cycle (assuming I stayed on plan). I know you've said before that you don't believe in water retention, but it's been my experience that it has a big impact on the scale (I can tell when I am retaining water based on how many times I have to get up and pee during the night).

My smoothie comes in at around 140 calories, depending on what kind of fruit I use. It is 1/2 cup (100g) non-fat greek yogurt, 140g of frozen fruit, and 1 tbsp sugar free syrup. I think it comes out to about 10-12 oz total. But I eat it as a snack, not as a meal substitute. I think you would need something more substantial to use it as a meal.

That is a REALLY good point, Barbara, and one I completely forgot about. I'm about a week away so it probably is more water retention! I definitely do "believe" in water retention; I just try to account for it as much as possible by weighing myself every day (so I can see if it's really far off), and by weighing in first thing in the morning after using the bathroom, when it's more likely that my water weight is consistent. But thank you - that makes me feel so much better and not like giving up