It’s summertime and that means our Seattle area has an abundance of berries! The Apple Corps team and our department colleagues took advantage of this and spent a morning picking the juiciest blueberries we could find!

As Nutrition Educators, we know that blueberries are considered a superfood as far as nutrition goes. An excellent source of Vitamin A, these little blue gems can help prevent vision loss. And because they’re packed full of healthy antioxidants, they help keep us looking and feeling young (just like Nutrition Educator, Cristina in the picture below)! Blueberries have even been proven to prevent certain cancers and diseases, and can reverse short-term memory loss. Amazing!

So what’s your favorite way to eat blueberries? We’ve come up with a delicious, healthy blueberry recipe that you can make at home. Try it and tell us what you think!

Very Blue Berry Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 2 cups juice, orange or apple
• 1 cup low-fat or non-fat vanilla yogurt (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
• 2 small (or 1 large) ripe banana
• 1 cup frozen blueberries (or fresh + ice cubes)

Preparation: 

1. Place all ingredients in a blender. Blend for 20 seconds or until smooth. Makes 4 servings!

If you have little ones in the kitchen, they can help by:

• Picking and measuring berries
• Peeling bananas
• Dropping ingredients into blender
• Putting the lid on blender
• Pushing ‘start’ and ‘stop’ buttons on blender
• Helping pour servings
• Helping wash dishes

Nutrition Facts per Serving:

• Calories: 159

• Total Fat: 1g (Saturated Fat: 0g, Trans Fat: 0g)

• Cholesterol: 1mg (0% DV)

• Sodium: 49mg (2% DV)

• Total Carbohydrate: 35g (10% DV)

• Dietary Fiber: 3g

• Sugars: 25g

• Protein: 5g

• Vitamin A: 6% – Vitamin C: 115% – Calcium: 15% – Iron: 4%