POM Wonderful - Berry Pomegranate Smoothie

Janny from Pom Wonderful contacted me recently and offered to send me some POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice along with some information on the health benefits. I happily accepted her generous offer and a case arrived a week later with lots of the cute little bottles. Thanks Janny!

I had seen a lot of great pomegranate recipes on the net and was excited to try some new recipes. But my boys had other ideas. They wanted to drink the juice straight from the bottle. My first thought was no, it's my juice. But I knew how good the juice was for them and gave in and let them each chug a bottle. I thought it would be too tart for them, but they loved it.

I tasted it straight from the bottle, but it was too tart for me, so I mixed it with some OJ and loved it. Since I loved this combination I decided to try Recipe Girls' Pomegranate-Blood Orange Sorbet. I used regular orange juice in the recipe and left out the cinnamon. If I made it again, I would use white sugar instead of brown sugar.

Next, I made a recipe from the POM Wonderful website - POM & Balsamic-Glazed Chicken. I didn't have any pomegranate arils, but I thought the sauce was great. My husband who doesn't like sweet sauces thought it was just okay.

My favorite recipe was the smoothie I made with the POM juice. My local paper had a good article this week about creating healthy smoothies and one recipe called for pomegranate juice. I didn't have the nonfat buttermilk it called for, so I substituted yogurt. I didn't have enough frozen blueberries, so I also added raspberries. The smoothie was deliciously tart and refreshing. I liked that I didn't need to use ice, because my blender always has a hard time chopping it up. I'd definitely make this one again.

I have one bottle left in the refrigerator and have my eye on an apple pomegranate tart recipe that Sara has on her blog, if I can keep my boys from drinking it first.

Berry-Pomegranate Smoothie
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 cup POM juice
6 oz. strawberry yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt

In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth.
2 Servings