Blueberry-Banana Green Tea Smoothie

Not sure about the flu shot? Fight back with food instead! Welcome back to 5 Flu-Fighting Foods--a 5-week series that will arm you with recipes to stay healthy this season!


I'm excited to be joining the following 5 amazing bloggers in hosting this series:
Nikki @Christian Mommy Blogger
Mindy @The Purposed Heart
Anne @Quick and Easy, Cheap and Healthy
Leigh Ann @Intentional by Grace
Rachel @Day2Day Joys

Come back each Wednesday as we reveal five different foods that support your immune system. 


Two weeks ago we had fun with lots of pumpkin recipes--and last week we delved into breakfast foods!

Each post will be opened up to all our readers, who will be linking up their favorite recipes, with ideas for creative ways to serve them to their families!

Image by lekyu

This week's flu-fighting food is green tea!         
This traditional Asian beverage is chock full of antioxidants  to both prevent and fight disease!


A Japanese study conducted during the 2008-2009 flu season, found that schoolchildren who consumed 1-5 cups of green tea per day were less likely to develop the flu! 


What's more, various studies have shown green tea to potentially:

• protect against heart disease,
• fight cancer,
• lower cholesterol,
• prevent diabetes and
• decrease risk of stroke and dementia (source) 

This week's healthy homemaker recipe is for a blueberry-banana green tea smoothie!! I'll be honest. I occasionally drink green tea, but this was the first time I actually tried to make anything with it! 


I came up with this smoothie based on what I had on hand! Enjoy!

First, I gathered my ingredients: green tea, almond milk, frozen banana and frozen blueberries.

Then, I warmed the milk on the stove. 

Then, I steeped a green tea bag in the milk.

After chilling the tea/milk, I poured everything into a blender. 

Enjoy your smoothie!

Blueberry-Banana Green Tea Smoothie
Ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 small-medium frozen banana
• 1 1/2 cups almond milk, separated (or milk of choice)
• 1 bag green tea

Method: 

• Warm (but don't boil) 1 cup milk on stove top
• Once warmed, steep green tea for 5 minutes in milk.
• Let tea/milk combo cool. (Put in fridge if you want to speed this up!)
• Once cooled, pour tea/milk, 1/2 cup milk, blueberries and banana into blender and puree! 
• Enjoy your smoothie!

I'm linking up with: Growing Home, Women Living Well, Raising Homemakers, Works for Me Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, Foodie Wednesday, What's Cooking Wednesday, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Turning The Table Thursday, Pennywise Platter, Cooking Thursday, Full Plate Thursday, Creative Juice, Things I Love Thursday, It's a Keeper Thursday, Live Renewed, Frugal Food Thursday, Frugal Friday, Fight Back Friday, Food Trip Friday, Fresh Bites Friday, Friday Food, Living Well Blog Hop, Foodie Friday, Freaky Friday, Foodie Friday, Monday Mania, Mangia Mondays, Made By You Monday, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Real Food 101, Mouth Watering Monday, Make Your Own Monday, Traditional Tuesday , Tuesdays at the Table, Frugal Tuesday Tip, Tasty Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Hearth and Soul Hop, 

Be sure to check out the great green tea recipes and tips shared by the other amazing homemakers hosting this series!

Green Tea Kombucha @Christian Mommy Blogger
Vanilla Green Tea Latte @The Purposed Heart 
Immune-Boosting Green Tea @Day2Day Joys
Why Green Tea? @ Intentional by Grace
Green Tea Oatmeal @ Quick and Easy, Cheap and Healthy


Now it’s your turn! All 6 of us co-hosts enjoyed reading your mouth-watering breakfast recipes last week! My top 3 favorites were:

• Creamy Pumpkin Breakfast Cereal @Tessa The Domestic Diva
• Baked, Blueberry Oatmeal @Nutmeg Nanny
• Perfect Pumpkin Pancakes @Renaissance Mama

*Be sure to visit the other co-hosts in this series to see who they picked as their favorite posts last week!

Link up your delicious green tea recipes below--and come back next week to link up recipes with a something you have to peel and comes in cloves. ;) 

Image by lekyu

There are only two guidelines for participation:

1. Your recipe must be a GREEN TEA recipe. Any entry submitted that does not include breakfast will be deleted.

2. Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs. This way your readers can have access to all of the other great green tea recipes as well!