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What do pizzas and smoothies have to do with the healthy quilter? And why should they be lumped together in the same post? After all, one (pizza) is often considered the nemesis of the dieter, and the other (smoothies) are often (wrongly) considered the friend of the dieter. 

Recently I wanted some pizza. So I decided to try to make a lower calorie pizza, while still retaining the deliciousness of the honest-to-goodness pizza. I wrote about my experience here. If you check it out, you will notice that there is a LOT LESS cheese on this pizza. But it still retained the wonderful taste of the real thing, for a lot less calories. For the busy quilter, an added bonus to this kind of cooking is that the leftovers can be frozen in individual servings and reheated at your whim. When you are in the middle of that big project, no need to stop and cook!

And now for smoothies. I just wrote a blog about how pizza and smoothies are similar. Huh?? Both pizzas and smoothies are quite palatable. Both of them have an infinite variety of ways to make them. They both have many many different add-ins and add-ons that make them oh so tasty. And that is where they can become a problem for the person who is either losing weight or trying to maintain their weight loss. All those little add ins add UP. And this was the problem that I had with smoothies in the past. I would add in a bit of this and a bit of that, or follow a super sounding recipe. And pretty soon I had 400 calories in a cup. 400 calories that didn’t seem to keep me full for too long. And that doesn’t work for me. That’s why I made the declaration that I would rather chew my calories. And for the most part, I wrote off smoothies.

But this past November I decided to give smoothies another try.  This time, though, they had to meet certain requirements. I wanted to have 20 grams of protein (because protein keeps you full longer,) and only be 170 calories. Twenty grams of protein is 80 calories. This doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for add-ins. But if you are creative, you can make some very tasty smoothies. I've written about some of my simple creations here.

When I am in the middle of working on a quilt project, I really enjoy my smoothie break. It doesn't interupt the creative flow. There is very little prep work or clean up after. And it gives me plenty of energy to keep working for quite a while.

For the quilter on the go, here is my best tip for making smoothies the ultimate traveling companion. If I am going somewhere, and I don’t want to drink my smoothie right away, I will go ahead and make it, and then put it in the freezer for a while. How long I want it to stay cold and frosty will determine the amount of time I leave it in the freezer. I just love this. I can bring my smoothie with me and have it waiting for me, cold and frosty, as soon as I finish my visit to that first quilt shop! Don’t forget to pack a straw!