Recipes from Dannon

I'm copying a few recipes from The Dannon Kitchen so I can toss the (what do you call those? the foil seals from the top of the yogurt containers?) - anyway, so I can get those off my kitchen counter.

A couple recipes I want to try:

Banana Nut Winter Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 banana, frozen
• 1 cup Dannon® All Natural Vanilla Lowfat Yogurt
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. honey (optional)
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

Directions:

1. Cut the frozen banana into 3 or 4 chunks and peel. Place in blender with Dannon® All Natural Vanilla Lowfat Yogurt, walnuts, cinnamon and honey (optional).
2. Blend on high for 2 minutes or until smooth. Pour into glass and top with a dusting of ground nutmeg. 

 Creamy Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1-1/2 qt. chicken broth
• 1-3/4 cup Dannon® Plain Yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. chopped parsley or cilantro
• 1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

Directions:

1. In a soup pot heat oil. Add onions and cumin and sauté 3-4 minutes. Add potatoes and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer soup 20-25 minutes.
2. Puree soup with 1-1/2 cups Dannon® Plain Yogurt and parsley or cilantro. Serve each portion of soup with a dollop of remaining yogurt and a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds.

and a recipe I've tried:

Layered Mexican Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 16 oz. can refried beans or black beans
• 1 cup chunky salsa
• 2 cups DANNON® All Natural Plain Yogurt
• 1 cup sliced olives (black or green)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded lettuce

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine beans with 1/3 cup salsa. Spread half of mixture into a flat serving dish.
2. Spread 1 cup DANNON® All Natural Plain Yogurt over the bean mixture, followed by 1/2 cup olives, 1/3 cup salsa, 1/2 cup cheese and 1/2 cup lettuce.
3. Repeat layering. Cover and chill until ready to use.

I liked the dip. I think everyone else would rather I made my regular Taco Dip, but it's good to have options. Also, while looking up these recipes, I saw several other recipes I'd like to try.  So many good-looking recipes on that Dannon Kitchen site...

Smoothie Recipes

Now that we've got the Ninja, we're thinking we need to have smoothies more often. I made some this weekend with orange juice, a banana, and some frozen strawberries - using one of the recipes in the recipe booklet that came with the Ninja.  They were pretty good, and we decided we need to keep more frozen fruit around so we can make smoothies any time we want.  So when I went shopping today I grabbed a big bag of frozen fruit.  I already have frozen bananas, and I got some vanilla yogurt too, since some of the recipes in the booklet call for that, too.

Also, I just quickly searched for 'Smoothie Recipes' online and found this entire list of smoothie recipes. And that's just one of the sites that came up! I'm looking forward to trying a few of these.