Vitamin A Odyssey Apricot Peach Smoothie

It’s summer, it’s hot and humid and we need something to help us cool down. Nothing better than a smoothie, especially if it is also healthy, filled with vitamins and antioxidants. We scour the net and cookbooks of all kinds to bring you the most delicious recipes, like this one from Ellen Brown and Karen Konopelski‘s Super Smoothies – 100 Recipes to Supercharge Your Immune System, on pages 140 and 141:

The bright orange color of apricots and peaches should serve as your clue that the are both good sources of of beta-carotene, which helps protect your cells from free radicals and lycopene, which may lower cholesterol and help prevent heart disease. these two fruits have complementary flavors as well as colors, as you will see when enjoying the frosty smoothie.
Ingredients

• 1 cup chilled apricot nectar
• 1/2 cup silken tofu
• 1/2 cup unsulfured dried apricots
• 1 1/2 cups peach slices, frozen
• 1/2 cup vanilla frozen yogurt
• 4 peach wedges for garnish

Directions

1. Combine apricot nectar, tofu, and dried apricots in a blender or smoothie maker. Blend on high speed for 45 seconds or until mixture is pureed and smooth.
2. Add peach slices and frozen yogurt, and blend on high speed until mixture is smooth.
3. Serve immediately, garnished with peach wedges, if desired.

Yield: Four 1-cup servings

Nutritional Analysys: Each 1-cup serving provides 180 calories; 1 g total fat; 0 g saturated fat; 3 g protein; 43 g carbohydrate; 4 g dietary fiber; 2.5 mg cholesterol

Tip: Most commercial dried fruit has been sprayed with sulfur dioxide, a gas used for fumigation. the gas destroys much of the fruit’s natural B vitamins, so make sure the dried fruit you buy is marked unsulfured.

SUPERCHARGE NUTRIENTS                                      % DAILY VALUE

• Vitamin A                                                             3628 IU (73%)
• Vitamin B6                                                           0.1 mg (5%)
• Vitamin C                                                             25.7 mg (43%)
• Vitamin E                                                             0.5 mg (3%)
• Magnesium                                                          27.4 mg (7%)
• Manganese                                                          0.2 mg (4%)
• Selenium                                                             2.7 mcg (4%)
• Zinc                                                                     0.5 mg (3%)

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values
may be higher or lower depending on your caloric needs.

It tastes delicious, it is good for you and it’s truly refreshing. Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS

Tiberias

Comfortable, relaxed, upscale, delicious… Those words barely describe this brand new eatery in Midtown Manhattan. Tiberias (45 East 34th Street; NY, NY 10016; Tel: 212.481.4222). is under OK supervision, its fare is cholov Yisroel dairy. SYR and I went there yesterday at mid afternoon, less than a week after it opened. It may be brand new but, the two Steinhart brothers have been working in and managing restaurants for the last five years, in spite of their very young ages. This is the realization of their dream, a dream of having a unique restaurant with something different than the standard offerings. If this is how they started, it will not just be a dream!

A partial view of Tiberias Restaurant

SYR started the meal with the Stuffed Mushrooms, stuffed  with fresh vegetables topped with mozzarella and doused in cream sauce.

5 button mushrooms, stuffed with vegetables, topped with mozarella, doused in cream sauce.

She found it very flavorful, each ingredient combined for a delicious, perfect, appetizer.

I had the Gravalax. Homemade smoked salmon with potato crustini and cucumber salad with dill and mustard,  subtly flavored and very good to the palate.

We then shared the Special of the Day, Pasta del Sol. It consisted of penne with cream sauce and cherry tomato culis, topped with a nicely sized grilled Atlantic salmon.

Considering it was a hot, humid day SYR accompanied the meal with a Lime & Srawberry Smoothie, made from freshly squeezed lime juice, a bit of lemon zest,  fresh strawberries and crushed ice. It looked great and tasted even better. I had the Coffee Slim Shake (it’s sugar free, but you wouldn’t believe it from that great taste!), it came with ice cream, skim milk and was topped with cocoa powder. On the table next to us, a young lady was feasting on an interesting looking Affogato de Gelato, her expression told us it must have tasted heavenly. She explained to us that she’s enjoyed it here before, it consists of a large scoop of sugar free vanilla ice cream, in a boiling shot of espresso served in a martini glass…

We ended the meal with their Jack Daniels Cheese Cake, this is a Mozart type cheese cake with 2% percent of Jack Daniels whiskey. It tasted superb  and looked great, served with three ice cream scoops, some whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

Jack Daniels Cheese Cake

SYR had a Torino Hot Chocolate, gourmet hot chocolate with a partially submerged milk chocolate bar… buonissimo, ottimo!!! I had their Cappuccino, an espresso with steamed milk topped with foam, made from Italy’s famed Danesi Gold Beans…. subtly sweet with a pinch of brown sugar, artistically presented.

Tiberias Cappuccino

A great experience in a brand new eatery with a nice ambiance; as SYR puts it, NO-GUILT DELISH! This definitely calls for an encore…

CS

Great Summer Drinks

I don’t know how it is for all my foodie friends out there, but come summer, I crave tall, cool icy quenching drinks – and healthy interesting salads.  Heavy food just doesn’t cut it! Summertime used to mean throwing Tahiti parties with my son in the back yard – good music, fun books on the lounge chairs, a kid’s wading pool, a sprinkler, water guns, fun drinks, a great salad, a relaxed head space and a handful of silly playfulness. I return each summer like a salmon swimming upstream against the passing of time to partake of tasty tumblers, full of those sweet reminiscences. My blender is my best friend in this heat.

Come April-May, I switch from hot to ice coffee, and often take a cupful of ice, equal portions of water and  low- fat-milk, two sweeteners, a teaspoon of my favorite coffee… blend it all and NIRVANA! There are some really cool sugar free, fat free, kosher syrups and creamers available out there now. Our favorite pick is DaVinci Gourmet® (Khof-K certification) which has dozens of sugar free flavors-all the standards plus exciting gourmet ones like Dulce de Leche, English Toffee, Irish Crème, KAHLUA® Flavored Sugar Free Syrup, Toasted Marshmallow and a host of fruity flavors as well.  A 750 mL bottle runs $7.99.  You can order directly from their site http://www.davincigourmet.com/products/sugar_free_flavored_syrups/. The possibilities are all tasty, endless and delightfully guilt free.  Of course they also have all the classic and natural flavored syrups flavors.  Oh, don’t miss their gourmet dessert syrups all at surprisingly affordable prices. A little goes a long way. I’m going to try the Chai tea, sugar free concentrate, I spotted on their web site.  Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found any cholov Yisroel low fat sugar free creamers, let us know if you find any on the kosher market scene.

For smoothies I like making my own these days. Sunflower Café on Kings Highway (Brooklyn), corner of13th Street, makes a really good smoothie – they call them fruit frappes; they offer flavors like melon, peach, strawberry, kiwi, apple, mango and banana, or you can ask for two flavors mixed (with milk or without).  They’re delicious, tall but pricey at $6 a glass. I like buying my own fresh fruit and blending up my own creative fresh combos. When day turns to night, throw in some rum, pineapple juice, a couple of tablespoons of coconut milk, some strawberries and voila! instant yumminess with that special chill factor.  One of the reasons I like making it at home is for the sure savings plus I know the approximate calories Ive put in.

Check out www.smoothieweb.com, http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/smoothies,www.allrecipes.com/Recipes/Drinks/Smoothies/Main.aspx, or www.flowercarole.com/.  Obviously you’ll have to make kosher substitutions where necessary.

Strawberry Banana Supreme Smoothie

It is worth trying to find strawberry nectar to make this smoothie hum. This is a very popular smoothie as it contains strawberry flavors and banana.

Ingredients

• 1 cup strawberry nectar or apple juice
• 1 cup milk
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries
• 1 cup strawberry yogurt

Directions

Pour all liquid ingredients into the blender. Add all frozen ingredients. Blend at MIX setting for 30 seconds then blend at SMOOTH setting until smooth. While the machine is running, move the stir stick around counter-clockwise to aid mixing. Serve immediately.

Yield

Each recipe serves 3-5.

Sugar-Free Orange Guilt Free-ze Milkshake

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon DaVinci Gourmet Raspberry Sugar Free Syrup
• 1 scoop orange sorbet
• 1 scoop raspberry sorbet
• 1 scoop vanilla non-fat ice cream or frozen yogurt
• 1 cup cold non-fat (skim) milk

Directions

Combine the milk, syrup and two scoops sorbet, in a blender. Blend until thick and creamy and pour into a glass. Top with remaining frozen yogurt or ice cream.

Yield

one 16-ounce serving

Send in your favorite smoothie recipes.
The sender of the best tasting, thirst quenching recipe will receive our Summer Smoothie Kit.

SYR