I Need to Buy a New Blender & Navitas Yumminess (+Giveaway)

I recently had the opportunity to review some Navitas Naturals products.  Navitas has a simple food policy "Nutrient rich whole foods are best produced using organic agricultural methods with minimal processing.  Focusing on both food safety and nutrition, we handle our premium superfoods with care.  This includes third party testing for all our products.  Our facility is Organic, Kosher, and GMP/HACCP Certified.  In addition, we utilize methods such as freeze-drying and low temperature processing to ensure maximum nutrition and safety." source  

First and foremost, adding more unprocessed food into our diets is a priority for me. I try my best.  I am aiming to provide my kids with a healthy lifestyle through the foods we eat and daily activities.  This makes Navitas a perfect product for me.   Navitas has a huge selection of superfoods for everyone in your family.

                             

This is the incredible shipment I was sent.  

The Cacao Goji Superfood Power Snack was the first bag I opened ripped into.  They are nice little bites of chocolate yumminess.  These little snacks are made from cacao, maca, chia, and camu-camu. 1 bag provides you with 8 servings.  The bag says 1 serving is 28 grams.   Looking in the bag, I would estimate to say a serving is about 5 of the pieces.  Each serving is 120 calories,  9% fat, 2% sodium, 1% potassium, 10% dietary fiber, 25% vitamin A, 45% vitamin C, 4% calcium, and 4% iron.   To me, they kind of have a cherry, dark chocolate taste going for them.  I love cherry and I love dark chocolate, so obviously I enjoy these little bites.  It is hard to only eat a few pieces.   

The Superseed Blend:  I was very excited by this blend because I love Chia.  Yes, I am a chia lover.  I became obsessed with chia after reading Born To Run.   The only problem with chia is the texture.  Those seeds definitely get stuck in my teeth.  The Superseed Blend is ground up chia seed, flax seed, and brown rice.  

Uses:  smoothies, breakfast cereals, and flour substitute.  

Superseed Blend Close up

I had never heard of Maqui Powder before.  It's a Patagonian Superfood - right in antioxidants, vitamin C, and dietary fiber. It is also a natural anti-inflammatory food.  Some of the benefits of antioxidants include improved brain performance, heart health, liver strength, anticancer activity, and overall longevity.  

Uses:  try blending with other fruits or sweet items in smoothies, desserts, or you can even sprinkle it on your cereal or oatmeal.  

Maca Powder is an Indian Superfood and Maca has been used to increase stamina, boost libido, and combat fatigue.    Maca powder has a somewhat nutty taste with a subtle hint of butterscotch.  

Uses:  smoothies, in milk, with chocolate, or mixed into the flour for dessert recipes.  

I've definitely heard of mulberries before, but I don't think I've ever tasted them.  Now that I have, I will be using them a lot more.  They are an incredible source of iron and vitamin C.  Mulberries also have resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant found in mulberries and is also found in red wine.  Studies have shown that resveratrol can promote a healthy heart.  

Uses:  smoothies, shakes, oatmeal and granola, cookies and desserts.

Earlier in the month, Navitas hosted a Smoothement - suggesting readers to replace one meal each day with a Navitas smoothie.  I signed up for the Navitas Smoothement daily email so I could get ideas for my smoothies.  I loved their ideas, but didn't always have the necessary ingredients at home.  All of the recipes emailed did sound yummy and worth a try.  If you would like to check out some of the recipes, go here.  

I opted to get creative with creating smoothies by taking some of the ideas on the website and adding in whatever I had at home.  The only negative part of this, I had forgotten my blender was broken.  Oops!  

So, I got creative again, I pulled out my food processor.  I had seen Joe and Jess use their food processors to make smoothies, so I thought - why not?  

Recipe # 1:  Strawberry Smoothie

• Frozen strawberries
• Maca powder (1 Tbs)
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup of almond milk

One for Izzy & one for me!

Another note - I used my margarita glasses throughout my smoothement because Ward keeps threatening to throw them away because he says I don't use them.  Ha!  Guess what?  I used them!!!

Izzy approved

Recipe # 2:  Tropical Smoothie

• Kiwi
• Banana
• Superseed Blend
• Almond Milk

Verdict - Yummy!  You've got to try this one.  I never thought I'd like kiwi in a smoothie.  Actually, I never even thought of putting kiwi in a smoothie, but now that I have, I will add it in again.

Recipe #3:  Pumpkin Smoothie

• 1/2 cup pumpkin
• almond milk
• banana
• maqui powder 
• plain yogurt

Recipe #4:  Kale/Strawberry Smoothie

• handful of kale
• strawberries
• yogurt
• superseed blend
• almond milk

Recipe #5:  Blueberry Smoothie

• frozen blueberries (hand raked from Joe and Jess this summer)
• banana 
• plain yogurt
• almond milk
• superseed blend

To be honest, I wasn't really sure if smoothies would be filling enough to get me through the morning.  I've tried smoothies in the morning before and they weren't enough.  But, adding in some Navitas ingredients to my smoothies seemed to have done the trick.   Making smoothies in the morning was so easy too.  It actually took a lot less time to make a smoothie than my other breakfast choices.

Would you like a chance to win your own Navitas product?

I'm going to make this one easy on you.

All you have to do is head on over to Navitas to sign up for their newsletter here.  While you are there, shop around a little bit and come back here to Running With The Girls and leave me one comment letting me know you signed up for the newsletter & which smoothie ingredient you would choose!   GIVEAWAY ends 2/1!  Winner will be announced 2/2. 




I was sent a sampling of Navitas Naturals free of charge with the purpose of providing a review and hosting a giveaway; however, all opinions posted here are of my own.