A Perfect Winter Drink: Ginger, Pomegranate and Fresh Mint

Fresh drinks in the winter do require an additional dosis of vitamin. With so many sun-less days and nights starting around 4pm, we definitely need not only more light, but also those vitamins in our body that help to fight against low immunity, colds and in not a few cases, even depression.

As I like to stay both fit and hydrated, I created my own winter variant of lemonade, that in addition to lemon, it also has some useful cocktail of vitamin: pomegranate and ginger. Kept in the fridge for around 30 minutes creates a very pleasant refreshing effect. If you want to fight against the cold, you can also use warm water instead as a good remedy against cough and other unpleasant winter occurences.

It can be prepared within minutes and is a real good option for ending a busy first week of work in 2018.

Ingredients

1 cup of fresh mint leaves

1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds

500 ml. fresh cold/hot water

Directions

Add all the ingredients in the blender and mix for 2 minutes at moderate speed. Eventually, you may need to clean the liquid from the pomegranate seeds therefore you need a strainer. 

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Honey melon and banana smoothie

Summer is (almost) in full bloom in Berlin - forget one or two days or hours of heavy rains as today, and finding the best ways for a healthy hydration is one of the many questions of the day. Yesterday, I decided to be out of any smoothie books and prepare my own, unique smoothie, using the available ingredients in my fridge (efficiently using and combining leftovers and food is one of my latest objective, as I realized I am wasting a lot of stuff because not always thinking about how to create new recipes or meals). Here is my experience. It serves two and the preparation time is maximum 10 minutes.

 Ingredients:
1 and a half medium-sized banana. If you want a more creamy effect, you can use two.
2 teaspoons of Veganz coconut flowers sweetener
1/2 medium sized honey melon
175 cold water
Directions:
Cut the banana into little rounds
Scoop the seeds of the melon and cut it into cubes
Add all the ingredients in the blender and mix for around 3-4 minutes at medium speed

Here we are! The smoothie has a lot of natural sweetness - both banana and honey melon do have plenty of sweet. If you keep it in the fridge for half an hour, it is even get fresher. You can have it in the afternoon, while sitting in the balcony wrapped in the warm rays of the sun, or any time when you need a fresh drink for a healthy, happier day!

Strawberry-banana-matcha detox smoothie

Ready to take a healthy break from the overwhelming delicious meals of this season? You may say that you have a lot of time to do it afterwards, or even that you were on a strict diet long time before the cooking spree started. It doesn't count. Right now, I am talking about a short healthy break in-between greasy, oily, but irresistible meals. I tried today to be as fast as possible, yet using healthy ingredients, as follows:

1 big banana

250 gr. fresh strawberries, halved

1 tablespoon matcha powder

250 ml. fresh water

Put into blender and mix at moderate speed for around 2 minutes.

His Highness the smoothie is ready. The preparation time is of maximum 5 minutes - if you are fast at cutting strawberries. It serves two. Before serving, I refrigerated for around 30 minutes.

My biggest pleasure in enjoying this smoothie was how the tastes so different of the ingredients melted together and created a completely new, refreshing and with a very modest sugar concentration. As the banana was quite ripe, I was expecting more sugar, but luckily it wasn't which made the tasting experience even more enjoyable. 

Overall, a pleasant experience to be repeated as soon and often as possible.

Now, time to go back to the table for more enjoyable feasts!