It’s time for another Delhaize food challenge. This month it’s all about smoothies and shakes –  sponsored by Delhaize. You will find the recipes in this article.

Delhaize

Delhaize is collaborating with people who blog about food. On a monthly basis, Delhaize hands out a food challenge, specifying the general outline of what has to be done this particular month. This could be the ingredients, a theme or similar things. But also the budget or which brand to use (e.g. the house brand).

Unlike many other companies, I like how they freshen up their brand (It was founded in 1867!) by participating in current trends. Collaborating with bloggers is one thing, but they also have a great client magazine. This magazine, of course, is marketing material but the information you can gather there, about products in general and Delhaize products, in particular, is amazing. What’s even better is that they have great and interesting recipes as a part of the magazine, too. The quality of those free recipes is much higher than in many dedicated food magazines. There you have plenty of advertisements, too, and on top of that you pay for regular magazines.

Delhaize Food Challenge

Please note that this article has been published in collaboration with Delhaize. They sponsored almost the entire stock of ingredients used in my recipes. They set up a challenge every month, outlining a few guidelines. For the July 2016 challenge, the given theme was “summer drink“. Furthermore, they ask to mainly use products of their house brand and set a budget. I’m free to use the allotted budget to my preferences as long as I move withing the given guidelines.

Summer Drink

When I read about the challenge I was really excited as I do plenty of shakes already. Those are mainly post-workout protein shakes like this:

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So I felt good about the July challenge, but also a little anxious as I wanted to go beyond my comfort zone and do something else than my usual protein shake! What I ended up creating is a day worth of smoothies, shakes or drinks (also soups!), helping you to fuel your body with plenty of great vegetables and fruits. You can easily add them to your breakfast, lunch and dinner. Before heading to the recipes, let’s have a look at all the ingredients I bought:

Delhaize Food Challenge: Ingredients Overview

Rise and Shine!

This shake you can drink as replacement for your breakfast. The shake is mainly based on greens and will kickstart your body and give it plenty of fluids, which is important after several hours of sleep (i.e. dehydration.)

Have a quick look at the ingredients:

Rise and shine ingredients

Ingredients:

• 3 stalks of celery
• 1 cucumber
• 1 lime
• 2 peaches
• 1 apple
• 45 g kale

Here’s how do do it:

1. Remove the core of the apple and the peaches and cut into chunks
2. Peel the lime
3. Cut off the ends of the cucumber
4. Cut the celery stalks in chunks
5. Put everything into a blender, add some water (helps the blending process… learn from me!)
6. Blend, serve and enjoy!

Rise and shine in blender

Here’s how the ingredients blend into a smoothie:

Serve and enjoy:

Rise and shine – serve in mason jars!

That’s your breakfast and now let’s head to lunch.

Midday Madness

For lunch, we don’t have a meal replacement shake, but midday madness shake is rather a dessert.

Midday Madness – Ingredients

Here’s what you need:

• 3 peaches
• 1 blood orange
• 1 apple
• 1 handful of baby spinach
• 500 ml soy milk
• cinnamon (optional)

Here’s how do do it:

1. Remove the core of the peaches and the apple and cut into chunks
2. Peel blood orange and cut into chunks
3. Put all the ingredients in the blender
4. Blend, serve and enjoy!

Ready to make a smooth dessert?

Midday Madness – in blender

Here’s a short video of the blending process:

Now serve into a nice glass and enjoy your drink:

Midday Madness – Serve!

Adding some cinnamon gives the sweetness of the soy milk and the peaches, combined acidity of the blood orange, a really cool twist. If you had a lot you can even get a neat heating sensation.

Goodnight and Sleep Well

For dinner, I have a special shake for you. You can have it cold or warm, depending on your preferences. As it is packed with plenty of delicious vegetables, it serves well as a full meal for your dinner. Have a look at what I bought:

Good Night and Sleep Well – Ingredients

Here’s what you need:

• 3-5 tomatoes
• 6 carrots
• 2 bell peppers
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 4 stalks of celery
• 1 cup of watercress
• 1 handful of baby spinach
• salt, pepper, chilli flakes

Here’s how do do it:

1. Peel carrots and garlic, remove core of bell pepper and cut into chunks
2. Cut the stalks into chunks and chop the watercress
3. Put everything into a blender, season as desired and add some water
4. Blend, serve and enjoy!

Good Night and Sleep Well – Blender

Here’s a video of the blending process:

Serve as a cold shake:

Good Night and Sleep Well – served cooled

Or heat it up in a pot, serve in a bowl and add a few pine nuts and some pumpkin oil:

Good Night and Sleep Well – eaten as a soup!

All of those recipes yield enough for at least two people. I really hope you enjoyed the composition. I tried to add a variety of fresh produce, giving your body plenty of micronutrients. Let me know what you think of my shakes 🙂