By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by the Wild Blueberry Association of North America and I am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time.

The other night I stopped by a friend’s house and we got to lamenting the fruit selection at this time of year. The citrus is ok and sometimes you can find a good pineapple, but the apples are past their prime and berries are way out of season. In short, it is a bummer. So that is when I shared my secret to surviving the mid-winter fruit doldrums: frozen fruit! This is the time of year when I stock up on frozen berries each week and use them to mix into yogurt and oatmeal, bake them in desserts, and make smoothies. So when I was invited to participate in the Wild Your Smoothie Recipe Contest I was psyched because it meant I could share one of my absolute favorite smoothies made with my hands-down favorite frozen fruit: wild blueberries.

If you have never tried wild blueberries, you are missing out! They are what blueberries are supposed to taste like—a sweet and tart flavor explosion in your mouth! They have a much stronger blueberry flavor because the plants are wild and genetically-diverse with thousands of interlocking plants spreading naturally across fields called barrens. As I kid I loved picking wild blueberries, but they can be hard to find, so now I depend on the frozen version, which miraculously keep their flavor and nutrition since they are individual quick-frozen at harvest. The other perk of wild blueberries is that they have twice (!) the antioxidant capacity of the larger, cultivated blueberries and can help with gut health, diabetes, cancer, and brain health. Pretty amazing, right?! And here’s the best part: frozen wild blueberries are super easy to find since almost every grocery store has them!

Ok. So now let’s talk about this smoothie. It is, in a word, heavenly. I am not a big fan of those super, sweet one-note smoothies that make you feel virtuous but don’t really have much interest to them. I like smoothies to have a kick, something that makes them different and interesting. And this one fits the bill! Between the super blueberry-ness and the ginger and cardamom, you’ve got layers of flavor that make you feel like you are drinking a decadent, creamy, luscious treat, while still getting an amazing nutritional boost with greens, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatories all in one. Ready to dive in? Here’s the recipe!

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Wild Blueberry Flavor Burst Smoothie

Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 1 -2

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• 1 cup frozen wild blueberries
• 1 cup milk or milk alternative of your choice
• 1 banana
• 1 or 2 handfuls of baby spinach about 1 cup
• ½ cup pineapple fresh, frozen, or canned
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• ½ teaspoon cardamom

Instructions

• Combine all the ingredients in your blender and puree until smooth. Enjoy.

<p>The post Wild Blueberry Flavor Burst Smoothie first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

For me, part of feeling fulfilled by the food I eat is to have some sort of sweet treat every day. Many times that treat is something that the old me would have considered unhealthy and would have regretted as soon as I ate it such as ice cream or cookies, but other times it is something along the lines of these amazing popsicles which contain nothing but healthiness. These are a sort of upgraded version of the all-fruit popsicles that I loved as a kid, but with no added sugar. They are sweet and creamy and have a nice kick from the ginger!

Note on the ginger: I have kept the ginger content pretty mellow in the recipe so that it is more kid-friendly, but if you like an added zip, then definitely feel free to up the ginger content!

So give these a try over the holiday weekend. They’d be a great fun and healthy way to kick off summer!

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Pineapple-Ginger Popsicles

Course Dessert, Snack

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 hours hours

Total Time 5 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• 1 can of no-sugar added pineapple chunks
• ½ teaspoon freshly grated ginger

Instructions

• Put both ingredients in a blender and puree until very smooth (you want to make sure the fiber of the pineapple gets really broken down) and frothy. Pour the mixture into popsicle molds and freeze for at least five hours.

<p>The post Pineapple-Ginger Popsicles first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>