- Hey guys, look who I have in my kitchen today.
- Hello everyone.
- Sara Lynn, of The Domestic Geek,
thank you so much for coming.
- Are you kidding me?
I love being in this kitchen, it is always so lovely
to cook in this kitchen, I love it.
- Well thank you for coming.
Now if you're not familiar with Sara Lynn's channel
I encourage you to head on over there and subscribe.
You will find all kinds of awesome,
healthy recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
It will keep you well federal throughout the year,
and lots of smoothies because you are the smoothie queen.
- Well I have been known to make a smoothie or two.
I think at this point we're like over a hundred smoothies
on the channel.
- [Beth] Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
- So there's a smoothie for every occasion.
- There's a smoothie every occasion and I can't think
of a better occasion than back to school.
We need our smoothies for back to school.
- [Sara Lynn] Absolutely.
- And to shake things up a bit,
we're gonna show you one or two unexpected ingredients
to put in these smoothies
that have a lot of great nutritional value right?
- Absolutely.
And the best part about a smoothie is
because it's all blended, you really have an opportunity
to hide some sort of more peculiar things in there
and you can barely taste them,
but you amp up that nutrition factor.
- Now are these smoothies from your new cookbook?
- So these smoothies aren't actually in the cookbook,
but this cookbook is loaded with lots
of great smoothie inspiration for sure
that I think you guys would love.
- Yes, and if you have not seen the cookbook,
here it is.
I'm so proud of you, I know how much work goes into this.
This is like, this is your first child.
- That's what I say, it was like birthing a baby
until I actually birthed a baby and I was like,
no, that's not even close to the same.
But no, this is my book baby
and it was a total labor of love.
I'm so excited to have it out in the world,
there's more than a hundred healthy recipes
and everything's really easy.
So it's health meals made easy.
- That's what I loved about it, yes,
it's called Domestic Geek's, Meals Made Easy,
and you can win this cookbook right?
- Absolutely.
So if you wanna a chance to win you can hit my Instagram,
we've got all the details for how to win a copy of the book.
- In the description.
All right, great, it's an awesome book,
great for back to school.
- So first up,
I am actually going to share what I'm calling,
my strawberry surprise smoothie.
And I'm sneaking two unexpected ingredients in this blender
for this smoothie.
So this one all starts with some strawberries,
you can use fresh or frozen, either will do.
I love to really go for it with strawberries,
strawberries are obviously super classic in a smoothie.
What is slightly less classic is our second ingredient,
which is actually a whole roasted beet,
really important not to use pickled beets here
because sometimes people--
- Yes.
- That would be a totally different situation.
That would be one of those smoothie challenges
that we talked about where you try to put the gross
things in the smoothies and see how it turns out,
this is not that.
So we have one roasted beet headed straight
into the blender.
What I love about roasted beets now is you can either
roast them yourself and peel them,
or you can buy them roasted at the supermarket often now,
which makes your life a whole lot easier.
Then the second thing we're going to be adding
in terms of an unexpected ingredient are some white beans.
So these are cannellini beans,
they've been rinsed and drained,
you can usually buy them canned in the supermarket
and they add a ton of great fiber and a little bit of body
to your smoothie, but absolutely no flavor.
So again, totally undetectable.
For a lot of the flavor in this smoothie,
it's gonna come from some vanilla protein powder,
I get asked all the time what kind of protein powder
I use and the answer is really, whatever's on sale,
because I'm kind of cheap and protein powder tends
to be pricier.
So I always just buy what's on sale,
use whatever kind of protein powder makes you happy.
- Now I have to admit, I don't actually,
I haven't made a lot of things with protein powder.
- Okay.
- So when I was shopping for your ingredients,
I wanted to make sure I got the right thing.
- [Sara Lynn] Okay.
- So I saw, like it would say, whey protein,
is that the right kind?
- Whey protein is like a dairy based protein,
so it's perfect.
It's fine if you're a vegetarian, if you're a vegan
you'll wanna go with like a pea protein for example.
But again, there's so many different kinds of protein
on the market, there's going to be one for you.
And same with your milk.
So as you know,
the milk varieties today are virtually endless.
You could totally do dairy milk in here if you wanted to,
but almond, cashew, soy,
hemp and oat milk is now one of my favorites.
We're using almond today.
And of course on goes our lid.
You have a serious blender.
- This is a serious blender,
I got this on sale right after Christmas,
that is the best time to buy any fancy blenders,
right after Christmas because they all go on sale.
This was the floor model so you got a really good discount
on it.
- Well we know blenders can run you a pretty penny,
so this is probably for the best.
- This is a good one, I love this little blender.
Okay so we're gonna do the smoothie setting,
which is 50 seconds.
That color is spectacular.
- Isn't that so fun?
So the beet really takes the color to the next level,
it makes everything fuchsia.
- [Beth] It does, it looks like paint.
- It's so, so much fun.
And how much would your kids love this for breakfast right?
- My girls would go nuts for this.
So now we are going to put these in some glasses, okay,
here we go.
Now do we get to vote on what's our favorite at the end?
- I think we should, I think we should.
- Okay, we'll keep score.
- So I've kept this nice and thick
because we used the frozen strawberries.
If you used fresh it would probably be a bit thinner.
- I like nice and thick.
- The frozen fruit chew keeps it nice and chilled
without having to add ice and watering down your smoothie.
- [Beth] That's true.
- The moment of truth.
- Moment of truth.
- Cheers!
- Cheers, bottoms up.
Oh that is good.
- That's really, really good.
- You know what's interesting, I've gotta take another.
You get the sweetness of the strawberries
but the earthiness of the beets.
- Yes, exactly.
But it's really hard if you didn't know there was a beet
in here, it would be really hard to distinguish
what that flavor is.
We didn't add any additional sweetener to this,
so that's definitely something worth mentioning.
If your protein powder isn't really very sweet,
because that's usually where the sweetness will come from,
you could also a little honey, some agave,
some dates to this.
- I feel like it doesn't need it though,
I think the berries make it sweet enough.
And you know the texture of it,
because of the beans I think,
it feels like there's a banana or yogurt in here,
but there's not.
- So one of the things I get asked most is,
how can I make my smoothies rich and creamy without banana?
And white beans are a great solution there.
- Yeah, there are a lot of people that don't like bananas.
- I'm a huge banana fan but I also do understand.
- Yes, we can respect that.
- Like not loving the banana, so this is a good solution.
- Good, all right I've got one for you now.
- Oh, so excited.
- So I'm gonna make for you
what I call my lovely lavender smoothie.
- I love lavender, that's exciting.
- It's really delicious and it's one of these things
I think is great for back to school
because if you don't wanna go back to school
and you're really dreading it,
it's a beautiful flavor that eases you in.
- I like the spirit of that,
it's sort of like the taste of a spa,
it's a nice way to wake up I think.
- It is, it's gentle, yeah it's gentle for the reentry.
So we're gonna add a cup of frozen blueberries in like that.
Then we're gonna add a banana.
- See I am a banana person in my smoothies.
- Me too!
- So I know there's people out there
who are not into the bananas,
but bananas make me happy.
- I like it and it sweetens up the blueberries a little bit.
Now we're adding the lavender, the secret ingredient.
Yes.
- How do you do,
so I don't know that I've ever made a lavender smoothie.
- Yes, they are quite delicious
but a little does go a long way.
- Right, because it can be an overpowering flavor.
- Yeah you can go into perfume really quickly.
- Okay.
- So I say just a teaspoon is all you need,
and it's really important too,
to make sure you get culinary grade lavender.
- Yes, because the other stuff is the stuff that's made
for potpourri.
- Yeah, any of that stuff that's made for like sachets
or potpourri, is treated with things that might not
be safe for human consumption.
So a little word to the wise, good tip.
- Edible lavender.
- Yes, it'll say it.
So it's in my Amazon shop if you guys wanna know
where to get it.
It comes in a big bag, but not to worry,
you can make my lavender creme brulee's
after the lavender smoothie.
- Oh I've seen that video and those looked incredible.
- You've gotta come back for those.
- Yes please!
- All right so we're gonna do one teaspoon
of our dried lavender.
Then I am gonna add a little honey just to sweeten it up,
maybe about I don't know, a teaspoon or so?
- [Sara Lynn] Your honey pot is adorable.
- Isn't this the cutest?
I have found that it's easier to put it in things,
than those little honey bears that get all kinda stuck.
- Yes!
- Hard to squeeze.
There we go.
Then you can use your milk of choice,
I'm just using regular 2% milk.
There we go, and wait til you see the color on this one.
- Oh my gosh it's going to be vibrant.
- Hope you like it.
- That looks incredible.
- Isn't it pretty?
It looks like lavender.
The color is like perfect.
- Oh gosh it smells amazing.
- So imagine you've just gotten up,
you've gotta get to the bus, and you try this.
- Your day is going to be so busy
and you just pause for a second.
- [Beth] It's so lovely isn't it?
- Beth, that is actually outrageous.
- Isn't it lovely?
It's so gentle, calming.
- Oh I could do a lot of that actually,
I could probably drink both of these.
So this next one I am calling my mango morning smoothie.
What I love about it is that it's got a really beautiful
sort of sunshiney color.
You know you eat with your eyes first and I just feel like
what a beautiful way to start your day
with some that looks like sunshine.
So this one is actually inspired by the flavors
of a traditional Indian drink,
which is called a mango lassi,
which is like a mango yogurt drink.
And it all starts with some mango, makes sense.
And I'm using frozen again,
but the secret ingredient we are going to be using
in this recipe is actually some roasted, sweet potato.
- Oh my God I love that.
- Because we love sweet potato, it's loaded with nutrients,
lots of fiber, but you rarely think to put it in a smoothie.
This is a great place to use leftover sweet potato
or I have even seen now they sell
canned organic sweet potato.
- Yes that's a game changer.
- Which is kind of great, but you roasted this sweet potato
for me and I was like, why did you?
I feel terrible!
- It's not everyday you come down from Toronto,
I mean come on, I couldn't give you canned sweet potatoes.
- I feel really, really lucky Beth to be in your kitchen
and you went to all this trouble, so I'm so excited.
So we have our sweet potato and our mango
and we're going to add just some plain yogurt.
You could use vanilla here, it's totally your call.
And then I am going to add a little sweetness to this.
So it really is up to you how much or how little sweetness
you wanna add, if you feel like your yogurt is sweet enough,
that's fine but I do always like to add just
a little drizzle of sweetness.
Come on, you can't actually go wrong with honey.
And for our seasonings we are going
to use two different things,
first we are using a really classic Indian spice,
ground cardamom.
- I love cardamom, it's so good.
- Which again, like the lavender a little goes a long way
and it is really easy to overdo it with cardamom.
But the good news is it's actually wildly expensive.
So it's kind of good that a little goes a long way
because you only need like barely a pinch,
like something like an eighth of a teaspoon.
- Got it.
- And, the other secret ingredient
in this recipe is actually some ground tumeric,
which you can't taste at all,
but adds a whole lot of nutrition power.
So we know turmeric's like an antioxidant.
- Yeah what does it do?
I feel like I've been hearing all of these health reports
about tumeric, it's like the new thing.
- It's supposed to have antiinflammatory properties
and antioxidant properties,
so it's a real powerhouse.
But the good news is if you put it in a smoothie,
you can barely detect, which is fabulous.
Then for our liquid I'm using traditional dairy milk
because we have some yogurt in here,
but if you wanted to use almond milk, hemp milk,
whatever floats your boat go ahead.
Then we'll just blend it, I don't know how to work
your fancy blender Beth.
- I'm kind of driving.
- It's kind of, no it's so good.
- Right, I'm your blender valet.
- Beautiful.
So we have this gorgeous sunshiney drink,
and now the moment of truth.
See I like a nice thick smoothie.
- [Beth] Look at that!
That is gorgeous.
- Isn't that fun?
And it's so bright and sunshiney,
it's like such a nice way to start the day.
- For sure and those glasses, they're like two big suns.
- Oh my gosh they are, these beautiful bulbs.
- Globes, yes.
- There you go.
- Thank you, amazing.
- Smells really good, we can smell a little bit
of the sweet potato there actually.
- Mmm, oh I love that.
- Right!
I know it's very unexpected.
- There's so much going on, this is like so fabulous.
I love the sweet potato, I love the texture of it,
and then the little hint of the mango
that tartness of the mango.
- Absolutely, absolutely.
So the sweet potato's sort of can get a little lost in it
if you're not using enough.
But, the cardamom, a little bit of the tumeric,
it's really, really refreshing.
And again, like super sunshiney.
- I have something really fun for you,
it's my new favorite thing,
are you drinking coffee these days after the baby?
- To be honest I went to decaf while I was pregnant
and have not come back around yet.
But I still actually love coffee so much,
but I am a decaf girl.
- Yes, so a similar thing happened to me.
I actually, I have found as I get older I can't have
as much caffeine.
Doesn't it effect you?
- It's actually changed my life coming off coffee.
Lower anxiety, much more level headed, so I feel really good
about that decision.
- Okay then you will love this,
because I was going through a bit of a detox
at my sister's house,
and she made this smoothie for me that I swear,
it is like the best replacement for coffee.
No coffee, no caffeine,
a couple of secret ingredients I'm gonna show you.
- Amazing.
- All right.
We're gonna add about three tablespoons of almond butter.
This is gonna make two, so you would just cut it in half
if you didn't need two.
Then we're gonna add some coconut water,
which is great for hydration.
- Very hydrating.
- Very hydrating, you need to be hydrated in the morning.
- [Sara Lynn] Yes.
- Then we're gonna add one half of a date.
- Okay.
- I know it's very precise but I don't know,
I don't really like very sweet things.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- And I've found, I used one whole date and it was like
too sweet for me.
So if you like sweet things go ahead and use the whole one.
If you've never made anything with dates
you do have to know that there's a pit in it,
so don't put the whole thing in there.
Although I wonder if it would blend up, it might.
- I mean with this blender,
I feel it would be sure to do it,
but probably not a good idea.
- Wait til you see what this blender can do now.
This is like my favorite feature,
I'm gonna show you in a minute,
and then a little bit of nutmeg.
- [Sara Lynn] I love nutmeg.
- Little warming spice.
Then I also think it's good to add a little pinch of salt,
just to spike the flavors a bit.
- Beth, there's never a dull moment in your kitchen,
now you have me very intrigued.
- Just to kinda heighten everything.
People think salt is to like make things salty,
I find it's just to bring all the flavors out.
- Absolutely, that's why you use salt in baking right,
isn't that the idea?
- Yeah.
- That like it just makes every other flavor
sort of standout.
- Exactly.
So now, we are going to put this on the soup setting
so this blender has a soup setting,
which warms whatever is in here.
- Oh, so it's a warm smoothie!
- It's a warm smoothie.
- That's cool.
- So I call it my coconut almond faux latte,
or you could call it a fauxte.
- A fauxte, I love it.
That sounds delicious.
- And if you don't have a soup setting on your blender,
although so many of them have it now,
but if you don't, you could either use warmed coconut water,
you could heat the water first.
But truth be told my sister did make this for me cold,
and when I drank it I was like,
this would actually be really good hot.
So it takes three minutes on the soup setting.
- Three minutes.
And that's really just to heat it up,
I find that it gets to a nice heat
when it's at three minutes or so.
All right, see you can feel the warmth.
- And it looks like a latte, like it's got,
like it's so frothy.
- I know, okay watch, oh there's the steam.
- It smells good.
- Doesn't it smell good?
All right so we're gonna just put them in some mugs.
- Oh now you're speaking my language.
- Right?
And look it starts to kind of separate a little bit
like a latte.
- [Sara Lynn] Oh Beth, this one could be a game changer.
- It's kind of a game changer,
but wait you need your garnish.
So I don't know any latte art for you.
- Oh, you're not gonna make a face
or anything out of the foam?
- Okay give it a try, let me know what you think,
here we go.
Isn't that delicious?
- Oh my gosh Beth.
- Some yummy right.
- This is unbelievable.
I could totally see how a caffeine fiend would be satisfied
by this.
- It's comforting and also kinda weirdly decadent
even though it's just almond butter
and coconut water really, and half a date.
- It's sort of, like it actually is sort of shocking
how good it is considering how few ingredients there are.
- Exactly, that's why I love it,
good for those busy mornings.
Okay, what's the favorite smoothie?
What's your favorite?
- My favorite, I have to say this is probably it today
because it's so unique and it's like,
it's just so satisfying.
- I know it is, it is satisfying and I promise
it's also really good cold too.
So if you don't have the soup setting you still should try
it because it's really delicious cold as well.
- And what about you, do you have a favorite?
- Yes of course, I love the mango, the mango morning.
- With the sneaky sweet potato,
mango morning with a sneaky sweet potato kick.
No, they were all good.
You know what?
It's actually hard to choose, they were all really yummy.
- They're all really yummy.
We wanna know what you guys decide, so try them all,
let us know what you think,
leave us a comment and let us know
which one's your favorite.
Thank you so much for coming, it's always so fun to see you.
- I always have such a blast with you,
thank you so much for having me Beth.
Thank you guys for watching.
- Yes and if you haven't already head on over to
Sara Lynn's channel, The Domestic Geek.
Subscribe, lots of healthy recipes on there
for back to school.
- Absolutely.
- Lots of lunches,
you have like amazing back to school lunches.
- Oh yes, no you will not go away hungry,
that I can promise you.
- That's for sure, thanks again.
- Bye. - Cheers.