These smoothies were super yum.  The recipe is from Money Saving Mom, which is one of my favorite frugal websites.

Not only were they super yum, they were super easy and only have four ingredients.  One of those ingredients is frozen orange slices, just as a heads up.  Yes, you can freeze your orange slices!  Buy a lot when they are in season/on sale, peel, pull apart, and freeze.  Make sure you freeze them in a single layer or they will stick together.  That can be kind of a pain later.

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Today, I made Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies.  Very yum (if you like peanut butter and bananas) and very healthy.  It’s my way of atoning for the junk we’ve been eating lately…  (I think it’s more of a mental atonement than a physical one, but oh well.)

I got the recipe from This Chick Cooks.  My friend Chris has loaned us her blender and I am sooooo grateful.  Especially now that I drank this yummy smoothie.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies

from This Chick Cooks

2 bananas, sliced and frozen (I forgot the frozen part, and my smoothie was warm…but still good)

1/4 c. oats

1/4 c. peanut butter

3/4 c. milk

Start with putting the oats in the blender and blend until they are powdery.  Then, throw in the rest of the ingredients.  Blend well and drink up.

Today, we made watermelon lemonade.

It was supposed to be made yesterday, but we had some trouble with getting to the store…  So we made it this morning and it is YUM.

Here’s the recipe:

Watermelon Lemonade

Simple Syrup:

2 c. water

2 c. sugar

Lemonade:

3 c. water

2 c. lemon juice

1 c. lime juice

4 c. ice cubes

2 c. diced watermelon

2 c. diced strawberries

1 orange, sliced

1 lemon, sliced

1 lime, sliced

1) Start by making the simple syrup.  Simply put 2 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar into a medium saucepan.  Heat to boiling and boil for 10 minutes.  This should reduce down to a little over 2 cups.  Do what you’d like with the excess, but take the 2 cups for the lemonade and put it in the freezer to cool while you cut up the rest of the fruit and squeeze your lemons and limes.

2) Mix the sugar syrup and 3 additional cups of water in a big pitcher.  Add in 2 cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice and 1 cup of freshly-squeezed lime juice.

3) Next, add in 4 cups of ice cubes, 2 cups of diced watermelon and 2 cups of diced strawberries.

4) Lastly, stir in the lemon, lime, and orange rounds (which are mostly just for looks).  We accidentally got a little too excited and squeezed all our lemons, so we had to make do with lime and orange rounds.

5) Pour into glasses and serve immediately or chill until icy.  I found myself wishing I had my pretty glass decanters, but they are in storage, so I used my $1 pitcher from the Dollar Tree.  I told myself it looked beautiful and that I did NOT need to go to T.J. Maxx and get something pretty for $12 or so.   It looked prettier when I poured it into glasses that I actually did get at T.J. Maxx some time ago (set of 12 for $8 = YAY!).

And there you go.  This one’s a keeper.  Turned out very yum.  I originally found this recipe at What’s Cookin, Chicago?  What I’ve shared here is how the recipe turned out at the hands of me (which can be interesting at times, as you well know!).

Give it a try and let me know what you think!!

UPDATE: Lime, lemon, and orange rounds look cute, but if you leave them in there, they will make the lemonade bitter.  Take them out.  Also, ours was a little strong, so you may want to try adding another cup or two of water, depending on your preferences.