Okay y’all, I just need you to know that this one was a little bit of a stretch for me.

I have never been a “tangy” smoothie or candy or frozen yogurt kind of girl.  I like my sweets… uhm, sweet.  I like my smoothies sweet, creamy, and delicate- and sometimes with a bit of peanut butter.

But, desperate times call for what?  Creativity. (I know that’s not how the saying goes, but that’s how it went for me the other day).

Very long story short- after weeks of feeling like something just wasn’t quite right in my body and experiencing some symptoms that were a little more than “new mom” stuff, we decided to get some blood work done.  I could tell you all about how google had me convinced that I had a rare form of leukemia, but that’s another story for another day.

The results came back and I was diagnosed with severe iron deficiency anemia.  Obviously, I don’t like this, but it’s way better than my google diagnosis.

Anyways, my doctor wanted me to try a few things at home first before taking any drastic measures to fix the problem. So I got that pretty little iron pill that states on the bottle, “do not take with any food that contains calcium or antacids.”  It also says, “do not take with coffee,” which is really annoying because coffee is my breakfast, lunch, AND dinner these days.

But then, underneath these things, it says, “taking on an empty stomach may cause upset.”

I asked my doctor about this and he told me to take it with orange juice and toast, or with fruits and nuts.  Apparently those things don’t inhibit iron absorption.

But I don’t really like to drink juice, and I also don’t eat toast. So I decided to get creative and make a smoothie that basically has all of the things that are “safe” iron accompaniments.

So I replaced my almond milk with orange juice, added some almond butter, and created this tangy berry nut smoothie as a vehicle to get my little iron pill down.  I took my first sip expecting it to be “just okay” enough to get the job done, but then I just LOVED it.

Y’all, it still had that sweetness that I loved, it was still totally creamy, and the almond butter gave it a little kick of both nutty flavor and a little protein.

AND it got the iron down.

#WIN

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