Harlequin
May 27, 2014
352 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon
A smoothie a day keeps the fat away. So go on. Blend your way to skinny.
Forget those 700-calorie "healthy" smoothies you've been drinking. Daniella Chace, nutritionist and bestselling author of Smoothies for Life!, has whipped up 365 recipes that will kick-start your weight loss with daily doses of delicious, medicinally potent superfood smoothies.
Organized by season and month, each of these 365 smoothie recipes is a satisfying blend of whole foods that are rich in nutrients that help you shed body fat. Powerhouse ingredients—such as pomegranate juice, chia seeds, green tea and cocoa powder—will boost your metabolism, increase fat-fighting enzymes and even curb your appetite And with names like Tulsi Avocado Cream, Green Lushy, Svelte Synergy and The Violet TuTu, you'll be sipping your way to increased muscle and reduced fat while your taste buds—and waistline—rejoice.
Summer is approaching (or already here depending on where you live) and there's not much better than sitting pool- (or beach) side and reading a good book . . . except for doing so with a nice, tasty cold drink, too. Nutritionist Daniella Chace's new book 365 Skinny Smoothies is full of possibilities that not only taste good, but are good for you, too.
While 365 Skinny Smoothies is a 'weight loss' book, that is not, exactly, why I wanted to give it a try. Weight loss isn't my goal with the book, but drinks designed for that are going to be healthy, anyway.
In the book:
There are 365 smoothie recipes, one for every day of the year, but also information on why smoothies are - or can be - good for you and what, nutritionally to include. There's also an index of the ingredients used throughout the year (from bananas to almond milk to avocados to hemp seed and more), their nutritional benefits and possible substitutions, if needed.
The smoothies do call for quite a few ingredients that you're not likely to have on hand and/or that may be hard to find. The first chapters help with this some in separating the perishable from the nonperishable ingredients (so you can buy the coconut milk or oat milk, but wait on the fresh fruit until you need it). The smoothies are also designed to fit around what is in season (apricots, avocados currently)and use the same, fresh, ingredient for several in a row.
If planning to make several smoothies, the selection and choice of ingredients (along with alternatives listed) should help with your shopping - and not having to buy a ton of things.
What I thought:
I have only made about ten of the smoothies so far. Several of them were from the May, June dates but I also tried a few from earlier in the year. One, in particular, did not seem to fit the serving size (1 1/2 cups of liquid, ice and frozen fruit for 2 servings) and did not quite work (this was an advance copy, though, and things could have changed). Another two were okay and I drank them, but I'm not sure i would make them again. Of the rest, two in particular (Mango Mint with Citrus and The Purple Mermaid) are now on my list of favorite smoothies.
I appreciate that, in addition to each ingredients uses and benefits at the start of the book, there's a few sentences at the start of each recipe about what that smoothie's ingredients are good for, especially together.
The author does recommend using a blender such as BlendTec, VitaMix or Tribest, I used my (rather awesome) $40 Oster blender
. I've used it with greens (like kale) before and it does a great job. Don't let the recommendation of the expensive blenders put you off this book.While some of the smoothies do suggest things I may not be able to find and purchase and some may not be to my liking, the ones that I do like (or love), the ingredient combinations I wouldn't have thought of on my own, and the information provided, make this a book very worth exploring. I'm looking forward to trying more of the smoothies.
Rating: 8/10
thank you to the publisher for my ecopy to review via NetGalley
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