Cranberry Blood Orange Smoothie + January Challenge Update #3

There are many delicious cranberry + orange recipe combinations out there, from scones to cookies to cocktails. I decided to kick things on the healthy factor up a notch with a breakfast smoothie featuring frozen cranberries and citrus, using a blood orange instead of a regular orange – Cranberry Blood Orange Smoothies. Blood oranges happen to be K’s favorite winter citrus.

As a bonus, this smoothie featured freshly made almond milk from the local company PINT {review coming soon}. I could drink this milk every hour of every day!

Tonight’s smoothie also contains a “secret” green ingredient. You can’t see it in the color of the smoothie, and you can’t taste it! Last week’s post mentioned the importance of rotating the greens in your diet. I started adding veggies to smoothies this week to change things up. The “green” ingredient in this recipe is celery. It blends incredibly well! Celery contains Vitamin A, is very low in calories, and aids digestion {source}. Give it a try, won’t you?

Cranberry Blood Orange Smoothie
Serves two.

3/4 cup frozen cranberries
2 bananas
3 stalks celery
1 and 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk
1 blood orange {peeled}

The “no added sugar” part of the challenge is still going well. I am getting used to avoiding fake coffee creamer in my morning cup{s}. Instead, I add unsweetened almond milk and a splash of half and half. The quality of coffee makes a huge difference. When the coffee is flavorful on its own, I don’t need the extra “flavor” from artificially sweetened creamers. I add a shake of ground cinnamon if I need a little something extra in the morning. For sweet snacks, K and I are keeping dried figs and dates on hand. The best way to eat a date for dessert is smeared with raw almond butter!