Healthy New Year's Smoothie by PureWow

With every new year, there's always tons of articles and recipes on how to get healthier. This PureWow recipe for a clean, green smoothie is one of them this year.

The ingredients are simple and easy to find. There's no dairy, nut butters, or other thickeners. No trendy ingredients or added sweeteners. I definitely give it points for being clean.

I thought the naval orange and banana provide enough sweetness. But if you have a sweet tooth, honey or agave can be added.

PureWow says to use a clove of ginger, but I haven't heard of the term "clove" used before in describing a measurement of ginger. So, I'd go with a 1- or 2-inch piece of peeled ginger based on your preference.

Since I used an English cucumber, I only used 1/3 or 1/2 of it since it's longer than regular cucumbers.

I made this a few more times to use up the rest of the spinach and added 1/4 teaspoon of ground turmeric for added health benefits.

There's no frozen ingredients or ice, so the smoothie's consistency is not thick.

Overall, I thought it tasted good. The flavors aren't going to wow you but you most likely have all the ingredients on hand.

My Rating (out of 5): 3

Trader Joe's Pretzel Stick

I recently came across a light-hearted article that listed the top favorite items at Trader Joe's in 2016, or something like that. The Pretzel Stick made the list and I decided to try it.

While it has the color and skin of a pretzel, that's about all that I liked about it. It's a small baguette shape less than 12" long so it could be a snack or used for a sub sandwich. But I didn't like the texture of the bread inside. Since it's a pretzel stick, I wanted the dough to have a little chewiness like a pretzel has. But it was just crumbly, on the dry side, and didn't have much flavor.

I was never a big bread eater because I didn't like the texture of many grocery store products. Either they are too soft and gummy, or dry and flavorless. Unfortunately, the Pretzel Stick falls into that same group for me.

My Rating (out of 5): 2