What do you put in your smoothie?

A three-berry breakfast smoothie, above, with almond butter and low-fat yogurt, below. I also added Tropicana orange juice, juice from half a lime and organic vanilla soy milk.

Editor's note: Today's post discusses smoothies, two great takeout places in Englewood, the Paramus ShopRite and what's in those coffee pods.

I bought 4 pounds of frozen wild blueberries and another bag with three frozen berries from Costco Wholesale -- blackberries, raspberries and blueberries -- and started making smoothies in an old blender.

Other ingredients have included orange juice, low-fat yogurt, almond butter, lime juice, low-fat milk and soy milk.

I forgot that I had black chia seeds in the refrigerator I could have used.  

Pure, 100% apple juice would be another good ingredient, as would fresh fruit, including bananas and strawberries.

 

Cheese, bread and meat samples at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood. The dark Mountain Gorgonzola from Italy, bottom left, is a powerful cheese.

A small mountain of butter for croissants at Balthazar Bakery in Englewood.

Englewood food

On the way home from Englewood on Wednesday, I stopped at Balthazar Bakery at 214 S. Dean Street for crispy baguettes.

Then, I continued on South Dean for about a quarter of a mile and went into Jerry's Gourmet & More for an appetizer of free cheese samples and three complete, restaurant-quality Meals To Go ($7.99 or $5.99 each after 4).

The samples included a powerful Mountain Gorgonzola and a melt-in-your mouth buffalo-milk mozzarella.

One of the dinners -- entree, pasta, vegetable and salad -- included deliciously light potato gnocchi in a light tomato sauce.

The baguette from Balthazar -- still only $2 -- is a "living" loaf of bread.

The crust is crispy in reverse proportion to the humidity, so the two loaves I picked up on Wednesday shattered under the knife at home.

I'm on a no-bread diet, but allowed myself the guilty pleasure of two "heels," the ends of the slender loaf, with my dinner salad.

The sign said $2.99, but the Golden Pineapple I bought rang up at $2.50.

Low-fat and regular Goat Milk at the ShopRite in Paramus.

Lactose-free milk

Lactaid-brand milk is priced higher than other non-organic, lactose-free milks, but it was on sale for $3.49 a half-gallon at the ShopRite in Paramus, only 10 cents more than the store brand.

When I got it home, I compared a teaspoon of it to ShopRite's lactose-free milk, and could taste no difference.

Lactaid usually costs $3.99 a half-gallon. ShopRite's lactose-free milk is $3.39, and rarely goes on sale.

I have yet to find any place serving coffee -- whether Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts or McDonald's -- that has lactose-free milk.

At the Paramus ShopRite, I also picked up a Golden Pineapple for $2.50 and two 1-pound packages of strawberries for $4.

Turkey Hill Rum Raisin Ice Cream was on sale for $2.50. 

At Target in Hackensack, I read the ingredients on one of those coffee pods that seem to be all the rage, and ran for the exit. See photo below.

A package of Cafe Caramel coffee pods.