Five ingredients…that is all you need to make your next favorite smoothie. It’s beautiful when a recipe such as this comes together and tastes better and better with every sip. Adding nut butter to your smoothie can be a real game changer, especially if you are cleansing. Not only does it add healthy fat and protein, but it also adds a nutty flavor that gives your palate a break from fruits and vegetables. It’s that new guest at the party that is a hit with everyone!

The banana is a classic smoothie ingredient, but we feel that it gets used without much thought. It’s as though people add bananas to smoothies just because. It’s an easy ingredient to incorporate into a smoothie, with the added benefit of making a smoothie creamier and naturally sweet. Bananas happen to be great sources of vitamin B6, vitamin C, fiber, manganese, potassium, and magnesium. The vitamin B6 is easily absorbed by the body, and one banana can provide nearly 25% of your recommended daily intake. Vitamin B6 help the body metabolize carbohydrates, fats, and amino acids, and helps maintain a healthy nervous system.

That means that the banana can help your body metabolize the fats and protein from almond butter and use them for energy efficiently. Additionally, the dietary fiber in both banana and almond butter can help keep you full for longer. That’s why we encourage you to make this smoothie for breakfast. You may just avoid unnecessary snacking before you eat lunch! 

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Most of you know how integral fruits and vegetables are to your overall health. The compounds in fruits and vegetables work to enhance immune function, improve heart health, decrease inflammation, etc. As readily available as this information is, people choose to purchase and eat unhealthier food options in an attempt to save money. 

In reality, there are plenty of budget-friendly ways to boost your fruit and vegetable intake. Eating healthy foods does not have to break the bank. Rather than harming your health with convenient fast food that you think will save you money, you can do your body a favor and nourish it with higher-quality foods. Learn how to do that on a budget in this article. 

Shop At Your Local Market Or Farmer’s Market

Depending on your location, a farmer’s market may not be the most convenient place to shop. Additionally, it can be expensive if you live in a city San Francisco, New York City, or Los Angeles. Most local farmer’s markets, though, sell seasonal produce at more affordable prices than regular grocery stores. When you shop directly from the farmers, you skip the middleman, tending to result in lower prices. Lastly, you get access to the freshest in-season produce, which is usually more flavorful. 

Shop Seasonally

Speaking of in-season produce, buy the fruits and vegetables that are in season, which can translate to significantly lower costs. For example, purchase melons and berries in the summer, apples and parsnips in the fall, squash in the winter, and asparagus in the spring. Knowing which produce items are in season will help you save on your grocery bill. You can always research a growing calendar in your area, or consider asking your local grocery store staff to understand which produce items are in season. 

Don’t Be Afraid Of Frozen Fruits And Vegetables

Frozen fruits and vegetables are valuable, especially if you are trying to eat healthy on a budget. Not only can they be just as nutritious as fresh fruits and vegetables, but they can also be equally as nutritious. Since they are typically cut or prepared in a specific way, they are convenient and easy to handle. Plus, you can store them in your freezer until you need them. Just make sure that you avoid added ingredients when buying frozen fruits and vegetables. You should not see salt, sugar, or sauces on the ingredients list because those ingredients detract from the health benefits. They also indicate extra additives. Frozen peas, spinach, broccoli, mixed vegetables, berries, and other fruit are excellent options that are quite versatile. 

Plan Your Meals And Create A List

There is nothing worse for your budget than heading into a grocery store without a list. You just buy what you think you need, as opposed to stocking up on what you actually need, and what is actually healthy for you. By planning your meals ahead of time, you can make a shopping list that includes every ingredient you will need to make those meals. That reduces the likelihood of food waste and impulse buying. A list of necessary items will help you avoid the unnecessary things that will typically spoil in the fridge. 

Properly Store Your Fruits And Vegetables

If you store your produce properly, you can maximize the shelf life and minimize food waste. Some produce needs to be stored on the countertop, while other produce requires refrigeration. Herbs, for example, should be stored in a jar of water with stems in the fridge to encourage a longer shelf life. Don’t store apples near bananas because the gases they emit can quicken the ripening process of both fruits. Buying in bulk? Consider freezing excess produce to extend the shelf life, but make sure to use airtight bags or containers to prevent moisture buildup.

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It’s the middle of March, which can only mean one thing: St Patrick’s Day is nearly here. There is a certain food establishment that serves the classic Shamrock Shake annually. You know the one, right? There are golden arches, or something like that (wink wink). The main thing we want is for you not to succumb to the temptation. Don’t let curiosity get the better of you because one of those small shakes contains the following nutrition:

• Calories: 500
• Total carbohydrates: 82 grams (g)
• Protein: 11 g
• Total Fat: 14 g
• Cholesterol: 55 milligrams (mg)
• Calcium: 380 mg
• Potassium: 500 mg
• Sodium: 160 mg

For reference, the shake is made with vanilla ice cream, a sugary processed syrup, and whipped cream. This recipe doesn’t contain any of those things, because we actually care about your health. The good news is that there are many different ways to create your own shamrock shake. You just have to keep an open mind about your food, and all that you can do with it.

This shake is not really a shake; rather, it’s a smoothie. Avocado contributes to the green color, but so does the spinach and mint. Avocado is a great smoothie ingredient because it helps make it more creamy, while also adding protein, healthy fats, magnesium, potassium, and vitamin C. Don’t worry…you won’t taste it at all, especially since this smoothie also contains bananas, which provide natural sweetness. The touch of raw cacao powder is optional, but it provides the classic mint chocolate combo that a shamrock shake is.

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Smoothies are truly the best. They are cooling, easy to make, and provide you with tons of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, protein, and more in one fell swoop. You have to change up your smoothie ingredients in order to diversify your nutrient intake. Incorporate colorful fruits and vegetables, as all of those vibrant colors offer unique antioxidants. This antioxidant-rich beet mango smoothie, for example, has many colors in the rainbow. If you’ve learned anything from us over the years, it’s that we support eating the rainbow, just not Skittles.

To make this smoothie, you begin with mango, which offers a sweet, creamy, tropical base. Add in frozen raspberries for a subtly tart flavor, more antioxidants, and fiber. Next, add chopped beet, but make sure to peel it because that will help reduce the earthy flavor. Beets provide unique antioxidants, which give them their signature dark red color. They also contain folate and nitrites, which the body converts to nitric oxide. In the body, nitric oxide helps to relax blood vessels, increase oxygen and nutrient delivery, and improve muscle efficiency.

The remaining ingredients are carrots and spinach, which we classify as the hidden vegetables in this smoothie. Carrots actually provide a pleasant sweetness and the spinach goes unnoticed, as it does not have a strong flavor. You’ll add fresh lime juice, ginger, and mint to really brighten up the flavor of the whole smoothie. Just blend it up until it reaches your desired consistency and then enjoy!

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Ladies and gentlemen, may we have your attention, please? Ready your juicer and taste buds because you are about to enjoy an invigorating glass of healthy goodness. Does that even make sense? Well, if it doesn’t, the flavor of this pineapple ginger green juice will. Not only is it full of vibrant flavor and a tropical twist, but it also contains an assortment of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidant compounds. Let’s just say that this green juice is every bit as healthy as it is delicious. Cheers to your health!

Imagine the sweet, tangy essence from a ripe pineapple, which forms a harmonious marriage with the zesty kick of fresh ginger. The cool cucumber brings a cooling and hydrating element to beautifully balance the juice. It’s almost as if the cucumber, which offers a surprising amount of vitamin C, serves as an oasis for your palate. Meanwhile, the earthy notes and gorgeous color of fresh spinach helps to create a visually stunning drink.

Indulge in this delightful blend that is not only a feast for your senses, but also a nurturing embrace for your body. Pineapple contains powerful digestive enzymes and ginger offers an assortment of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds. You can enjoy this juice for breakfast if you want to boost energy levels, or consider drinking it post-workout. Some people find that it serves as a great afternoon pick-me-up. Maybe consider this green juice instead of coffee next time you need a little pep in your step!

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If you want to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet, start making smoothies. You can customize smoothies to align with your taste preferences, tailoring levels of sweetness, tartness, or bitterness to your liking. Plus, smoothies can help fill you up, provide you with lots of nutrients in one fell swoop, and help cool you down on hot summer days. 

What flavors do you want to refresh your palate during the summer months? Tropical ingredients, such as mango, pineapple, papaya, kiwi, and acai tend to do just that! You don’t have to rush out to a specialty grocery store to grab the most exotic, tropical fruits you can find. A simple banana, blueberry, spinach, and mango smoothie will do you right! If you want to mix it up, though, you can enjoy the recipes in this article. 

The Benefits Of Smoothies

Not only are smoothies delicious and refreshing, but they also provide essential nutrients that encourage optimal, overall health. Fruits, especially tropical varieties, tend to overpower the flavor of greens, which is great considering that a lot of people don’t consume enough greens every day. Spinach, however, does not exhibit strong flavor, despite the fact that it transforms the color to a rich emerald. 

Hydration is of extra importance during the summer months. Most people don’t drink enough water as it is, and tend to drink dehydrating beverages, such as soda, alcohol, or caffeinated drinks. You can enhance your hydration efforts by consuming smoothies, especially when you add water-rich fruits and vegetables, such as watermelon, cucumber, citrus, or melons. 

Finally, smoothies can be a helpful tool for total weight management. Smoothies are typically low-calorie meal options, unless you add lots of nuts or nut butters. The fiber from the fruits and vegetables helps keep you feeling full and satisfied for longer periods of time, which prevents overeating. If that sounds great to you, continue reading for five healthy and refreshing summer smoothies. 

Watermelon Mint Smoothie

How refreshing! A watermelon mint smoothie is the seasonal hydrating beverage you need to cool you off on these hot summer days. 

Click here to make the smoothie. 

Cucumber Apple Smoothie

This green smoothie is a refreshing combination of crisp cucumber, crunchy and tart apple, zesty lime, herbaceous mint, and hearty kale. 

Click here to make the smoothie.

Lemon Blueberry Smoothie

A gorgeous lemon blueberry smoothie with refreshingly sweet and tart flavors. This is easy to make and you can add nutritional boosters too! 

Click here to make the smoothie.

Pineapple Grapefruit Detox Smoothie

Boost your fiber, vitamin, and mineral intake and promote detoxification by enjoying this pineapple grapefruit smoothie.

Click here to make the smoothie.

Antioxidant Beet Berry Smoothie

A bright red antioxidant beet and berry smoothie is a secret weapon for your health! Frozen bananas and dates naturally sweeten this smoothie.

Click here to make the smoothie.

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As if carrying the baby wasn’t a big enough job, add cramps into the equation. Many women say that cramps are just another thing to deal with during pregnancy. It comes with the experience. Nevertheless, it can be quite frustrating to find a comfortable position to sit or sleep in and then have your calf muscle cramp up. You clutch your sore leg and try to get the muscle to relax and are no longer comfortable. 

Cramps occur more frequently during pregnancy due to hormonal changes that affect circulation. Painful cramps can interrupt your day or night, but they are not harmful and you can prevent them easily. Follow the tips in this article when you get cramps during pregnancy and you will rest and relax more easily. 

Talk To Your Doctor About Taking Magnesium

A prenatal supplement usually contains magnesium, and there are many magnesium-rich foods you can eat as well. Foods like spinach, walnuts, bananas, and dark chocolate are excellent sources of the nutrient. If cramps become a serious problem, you may need to consult your doctor about supplementing with more magnesium. Lacking magnesium in the body can negatively affect your muscles’ ability to relax. 

Stretch To Get Rid Of Cramps

If you want to prevent cramps from occurring in the first place, go ahead and get your stretch on. Stretching is also an effective way to get rid of an existing cramp. Pay attention to the muscle groups that cramp most often, especially if you are prone to nighttime cramps. Consider engaging in light stretching before bed, stretching your hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, back, and more. Those muscle groups are the likeliest to cramp at night. 

Hydrate And Hydrate Some More

Lack of water in the body will cause the muscles to cramp more frequently. That means it is time to drink plenty of water when you are pregnant. The standard recommendation is to drink eight (eight-ounce) cups of water per day to hydrate the body. The problem with that figure is that it may not hydrate your body. Aim to drink half your bodyweight in ounces of water per day. If you weigh 180 pounds and divide that by two to get 90, drink 90 fluid ounces of water daily. You can also eat cauliflower, spinach, cucumber, peppers, carrots, watermelon, and tomatoes, all of which are water-rich foods. 

Get Plenty Of Sleep

How can you get sufficient sleep if you are cramping? Well, sleep is integral because a fatigued body is more likely to experience cramps. If you don’t get the rest you need, you will probably experience cramps in the middle of the night. You’ll wake up and be frustrated at losing sleep. When the baby comes, you’ll be losing plenty of sleep, so need to start now! A simple way to remedy this is to take naps, even if they are for 20 minutes during the early afternoon. A little sleep can go a long way in keeping you rested and cramp-free.

Elevate Your Legs While You Sleep

Elevating your legs while you sleep can not only help relieve pressure in the low back, but also alleviate leg cramps during pregnancy. Place one to two pillows under your lower legs so that your knees, calves, and feet are higher than your hips. That helps to improve circulation between the lower legs and the heart. It also aims to decrease lactic acid buildup that causes muscles to cramp. 

Relax With A Prenatal Massage

One thing to note about massages during pregnancy is that you have to be careful. Applying pressure to certain areas can be dangerous to the baby, which is why experts recommend seeing a massage therapist licensed in prenatal massage techniques. Massage works to increase blood flow to the muscles and encourages healthy ligaments and relaxed muscles and tendons. All of that helps to keep your muscles loose and reduces the risk of cramping.

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Everyone experiences dry eyes every now and again. More often than not, dry eyes are an occasional annoyance, not a regular symptom of allergies or a more serious eye condition. Dry eye syndrome, or keratoconjunctivitis sicca, can cause daily discomfort. People with chronic dry eyes can experience blurry vision, daily discomfort, or the sensation of something being in the eye. 

Whether you have dry eye syndrome, allergies, or occasional dryness, there are various home remedies that may help soothe your symptoms. You can experiment with the remedies in this article (detailed below) to see which one offers the most relief. If things do not improve, you may need to consult a medical professional to address the root cause of your dry eyes. If you haven’t reached that point, consider the following home remedies. 

Apply A Warm Compress

According to a 2023 review, applying a warm compress to the eyes works to increase moisture and encourage tear production. In order to get the most out of your warm compress, follow these instructions:

• Moisten a washcloth or small hand towel with warm water that isn’t too hot to the touch. Wring out excess water and fold it in half, or fold it so that it will cover both eyes. 
• Sit back or lie down to help the washcloth stay in place. Close your eyes and apply the warm cloth over both eyes. 
• Let the warm cloth sit on your eyes for five to 10 minutes, or until it loses its warmth. 

Increase Your Fluid Intake

It stands to reason that if you are dehydrated, the body doesn’t have the available fluid to produce sufficient tears. Increase your water intake to help increase moisture in the eyes. A great rule of thumb for optimal hydration is to drink half your body weight in ounces of water per day. If you weigh 150 pounds and divide that by two to get 75, you should drink 75 ounces of water per day. You can also click here for tips to improve hydration habits. 

Focus On Sleep

Closing your eyes will not solve your dry eyes problem, but getting quality shut-eye just might. Sleep experts note that poor sleep can worsen dry eye symptoms because insufficient sleep lowers tear production. Healthy sleep hygiene may help fix the issue. Aim to get seven to nine hours of sleep per night and do your best to go to bed and wake up at the same times daily. 

Focus On Potassium-Rich Foods

If you include more potassium in your diet, you may improve your dry eyes. According to health experts, potassium is one of the three components of the tear film. The tear film is a thin layer that protects eyes from damage. Because potassium plays an integral role in maintaining healthy tear film, adding more potassium-rich foods to your diet may help you avoid dry eyes. Sweet potatoes, bananas, beets, white beans, spinach, and avocados are great potassium-rich foods. 

Consume More Omega-3s

Omega-3 fatty acids may help improve the function of the oil glands in the eyelids. The meibomian glands, as they are known, in the eyelids produce an oily layer. By including more omega-3 fatty acids in your diet, you may aid this oil production and avoid dry eyes. While omega-3s are readily available in tuna, mackerel, cod liver oil, sardines, salmon, and trout, you can also find them in vegetarian sources, such as broccoli, spinach, flaxseeds, chia seeds, kale, and cauliflower. 

Use A Humidifier

Both heating systems and air conditioning can cause eyes to dry out, which results in dry eye symptoms. In order to slow dehydration, try to use a humidifier to add moisture into the air. If you don’t have a humidifier, you can click here to learn how to naturally humidify a space. 

Take Eye Breaks

If you are engaged in a task that will take a long time to complete, make sure to take eye breaks, especially if you are looking at a computer screen. In fact, it can be beneficial to take a couple eye breaks per hour if you look at screens all day. To do an eye break, close your eyes for a couple minutes, or blink 10 times slowly. That can help you spread your tears more evenly across the eyes.

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Imagine a bed of crunchy, spring mixed greens, hearty broccoli, and shallots tossed in a velvety avocado pesto dressing. You want to know the good news? You no longer have to imagine that beautiful bowl of goodness because you can make it! This salad is like a refreshing breeze that cools you down on a hot summer day. The flavors soothe your taste buds and the ingredients do wonders for your overall health.

Like most salads, this salad contains a bed of greens with some cucumbers thrown in the mix. The spring mix provides unique textures and flavors to this salad. Spring mixes differ depending on seasonal availability, but they usually contain red leaf lettuce, spinach, baby chard, mizuna, or arugula.Unlike most salads, this recipe calls for some chopped raw broccoli florets. Raw broccoli provides another textural component, but make sure to chop up the broccoli into small pieces. You don’t want giant florets because that won’t be an enjoyable eating experience. The thin apple slices also provide a sweet flavor and crunchy texture!

That last, and potentially most integral component to this recipe, is the avocado pesto dressing. Normally, you’d put a sauce like this on zucchini noodles, not a spring mix salad. That changes today, people! We are breaking the rules and making a pesto a salad dressing. Quite honestly, it’s one of the best culinary decisions we’ve ever done! Let us know how you like it in the comments below.

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Shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots….of green juice. These green juice shots are essentially concentrated shots of nutritious leafy greens, vegetables, and fruits. Despite what you may think, they do not taste like your lawn. Yes, they contain kale, spinach, and celery, but the apples, ginger, and limes impart a zesty flavor with notes of spice and sweetness. Think of these shots as miniature elixirs that help boost energy and immune function! Allow us to highlight some of the benefits of drinking green juice shots below:

• Supports immune function: the high levels of vitamins C & E, in addition to antioxidants and minerals, work to enhance immune function. Both the spinach and kale contain high levels of vitamins C & K, folate, and beta-carotene, all of which help the body fight infections.
• Promotes healthy skin and hair: The abundance of antioxidant compounds in the green juice shots may help nourish and protect skin and hair. This works to enhance appearance and vitality.
• May reduce inflammation: The anti-inflammatory compounds present in kale, ginger, limes, and spinach may aid inflammation reduction. By reducing inflammatory markers in the body, you can help reduce the risk of developing arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease.
• Supports digestive health: Containing prebiotic fibers, these green juice shots help feed the beneficial probiotic fibers in the gut. By enhancing the amount of healthy bacteria, you can improve gut microbiome and improve digestive health.

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