I hope everyone had a happy, healthy Thanksgiving holiday. I hope you enjoyed my non-recipe posts as we were visiting my in-laws and I didn’t do much cooking.
After two days of driving, Meghan woke up this morning with a low-grade fever, no energy, and not much of an appetite. My poor sweetie pie didn’t want to do anything but lay around all morning.
This girl has never been truly sick. She’s had a few runny noses, which I contribute to teething more than any type of sickness as every time she’s had one it’s been her only symptom. She’s had a low-grade fever on a few occasions, but only for a short time and the fevers didn’t develop into full-blown sickness. I’m hoping this time will be the same and her little body will fight whatever bug has invaded her and she’ll be feeling better in no time.
If you read my breastfeeding story, you know that last winter we had breast milk in our sickness-fighting arsenal. This year, we have to look elsewhere for an immune system boost. Today I whipped up this smoothie that is packed with immune-system boosting foods–foods that will fight and help prevent sickness. It’s really light and refreshing, too. This was lunch for Meghan and me, but it could also be a great snack in between meals. Let’s take a look at the star ingredients and how they can help your body become a sickness-fighting machine:
Yogurt: The probiotics contain friendly bacteria that help strengthen our immune system.
Almond Milk: High in vitamin E, which enhances immune function (if you don’t have almond milk, use regular milk and add a handful of almonds).
Spinach: High in vitamin C, which of course plays a large role in our immune system’s functions, but also has antioxidants and a good amount of folate, which helps our body produce new cells and repair DNA.
Orange: Boosts the vitamin C amount.
Raw Honey: Raw is important here, because heated honey doesn’t have the same benefits as raw honey. Raw honey is known as an anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal food.
I know we’ll be consuming this smoothie a lot throughout the winter.
Immune Boosting Smoothie
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 2 smoothies 1x
Description
A smoothie packed full of goodness
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 2 small navel oranges, peeled and pulled apart into wedges
- 1/2 green apple, not peeled, sliced
- 1 cup raw spinach, packed
- 2 tablespoons raw honey
- a few ice cubes
Instructions
- Place all ingredients, in the order listed, into a blender. Blend until smooth and enjoy.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: Drinks
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 smoothie
- Calories: 255
- Sugar: 46g
- Sodium: 172mg
- Fat: 5.5g
- Carbohydrates: 50g
- Protein: 5.5g
Look at all those lovely immune-system-boosting foods!
Using the whole orange makes for a pulpy smoothie. Meghan didn’t seem to notice and it didn’t bother me a bit, but if you are a pulp-free type, you can strain this before drinking. If you have a super-high-powered blender you may not have that problem, but I wouldn’t know since my kitchen is not blessed with such a machine. 🙂
Here’s to hoping Meghan wakes up from her nap feeling much better!
Maryea;
Hi,this is the second time that I have visited your website to copy down some more recipes from your site,I hope that you don’t mind me copying down some of your recipes that I am eager to make at home.I have type 2 diabetes and four other health issues and I have a compromised weak immunity from being three months premature 52 years ago.
I try to eat as healthy as I can and I live at home and I exercise and I go on daily walks as long as the weather and temperatures let me go outside,when the weather and temperatures are bad and aweful outside I stay in the house.
I just copied down your immune boosting smoothie and I am going to make your smoothie in my magic bullet blender after I go buy the ingredients soon.but I am not sure if I can or should put raw honey in the ingredients in the blender because of my compromised weak immunity and I get sick easily and I end up in the hospital when I am sick,and if I put raw honey in the blender with the ingredients would that cause my blood sugar to go up a lot.
Can I use stevia packets into this smoothie or can I use agave liquid to your smoothie?
Kim
That’s what the recipes are here for! 🙂 Yes, you can definitely substitute for the honey! I would go with stevia.
Dairy is inflammatory and not a health food.
I don’t love the term “health food”, but regardless I think eating plain, unsweetened yogurt in moderation can be considered “healthy” because of the live cultures and how it can promote healthy bacteria in your gut (which is important for immune function). Overall I agree with you, though, and choose to not eat an excess of dairy or serve it to my family.
So I’m a couple years behind finding this, but am always experimenting with green smoothie recipes. Can’t wait to try this one today! Will definitely be sharing on my blog’s FB page too. 🙂 Thanks!
Thank you so much, Crystal. I really appreciate you sharing! 🙂
This is one of my favorite green smoothies!! Just stocked up on more of all the ingredients. Can’t wait to have one when I wake up for breakfast! Thank you so much for sharing this delicious & nutritious smoothie!! Many thanks & lots of blessings to you!!
You’re welcome! Thanks for letting me know!
This is so great! Thought it would taste foul but its DELISH! Thanks so much for posting 🙂
Love from Jules in the UK x x x
You’re welcome. 🙂 Glad you liked it.
Thank you for this recipe! I made this smoothie for my family 2 days ago and put the leftovers in the fridge, will it still be okay to drink today? It’s separated a bit so I was wondering if the yoghurt might have gone bad or something? It was delicious but we couldn’t finish it, very filling! 🙂
I find that smoothies with greens, while they might still be okay to drink, taste really bitter after a couple of hours. I doubt the yogurt went bad if you had it in the fridge. If you stir it I would think it’d become smoother again. But, like I said, it might not taste that great anymore. Sorry. 🙁
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I have to try this!
Sam really likes the Bolthouse brand’s “Green Goodness” juice so he would probably like this too. THIS might be something I can make! 🙂
Delicious! Just made some for the family and we all are enjoying it:)
Thanks for this post. Calvin (13months) has suffered severe diarrhea (12 days) from an allergic reaction to an antibiotic that they were using to treat an ear infection. Also, come to find out I was making it worse by having him drink milk and the antibiotic wiped out the lactase enzyme which helps break down the lactose. Five days ago, I switched him to almond and soy milk. We have been symptom free for 3 days now. I am now trying to slowly reintroduce dairy and since, I just recently weaned him, I was looking for some sort of immune booster since the antibiotic wiped out his gut flora. Thanks again.
Aw, poor little guy! The probiotics should definitely help his gut flora. Maybe try goat’s milk yogurt if he can’t handle the cow’s milk yogurt. I definitely think that would be preferable to soy yogurt for a 13 month old. Good luck!
I will pick some goat’s milk yogurt up today along with a couple of other ingredients from your smoothie recipe. Thanks
Tell Tim right this instant that you want a Blendtec for Christmas! It’s amazing!!!
Do you think Blendtec is better than Vitamix? My brother and parents have a Vitamix and love it. Hmmmm…
I *heart* green smoothies!!!!!!!