The Athletes Orange Dream Smoothie

• Yield:1 serving
• Difficulty:Easy
• Time:15 minutes

The first time I ever had an Orange Julius® the heavenly taste and texture stuck in my head forever. What made this drink so positively wonderful and unique? The answer is simply egg whites and vanilla. In 1926, Julius Freed had an orange juice stand that was making about $20 a day. However, this recipe dates back to 1929 when Bill Hamlin (Julius Freed’s real estate broker) developed a drink that would make orange juice creamier and less hard on the stomach.

Sales then jumped to $100 a day, which was a lot of money back then! There is a chance of getting salmonella from eating raw eggs, so many people now use egg white powder. Egg whites in a carton are pasteurized, so the chance of getting sick is much slimmer now. If you have a weakened immune system or are giving this to a child, you’ll definitely want to use powdered egg whites rather than the liquid. They do sell powdered egg whites online, but I have yet to see them in stores.

Oranges are higher on the glycemic index, so it would probably be most advantageous to have this shake after a good workout. Everyone knows that oranges have a lot of vitamin C (85-93% of the RDA), but they also contain fiber, folate, B1, B5, copper, potassium, and calcium. According to Medical News Today, oranges contain over 170 different phytochemicals and more than 60 flavonoids!

Good news for your immune system, which could use a boost if you’ve been training hard. There have been studies that concluded that vitamin C alone does not provide the same benefits as orange juice: research by Italian researchers in the Division of Human Nutrition at the University of Milan, Italy (Guarnieri S, Riso P, et al., British Journal of Nutrition).

Ingredients:

• 1 scoop vanilla EFX Sports Protein
• 1-2 oranges (I used 1)
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup pasteurized egg whites or the powdered equivalent
• 1 packet of stevia sweetener
• 1 packet of monk fruit sweetener
• 1 tray of ice cubes
• ¼ tsp xanthan gum (optional, it’s a gluten-free thickener)
• 1-2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt (less than 1/8 tsp.))

Directions:

Put the water in the blender, the powders (whey, egg whites, etc.) the orange, ice cubes, then the rest of the liquids. I put the ingredients in the blender in this order to ‘hold down’ the powder so it gets blended well and doesn’t end up cemented to the sides or bottom of the blender. Once it looks blended, then let it take you back to the 1920’s—or the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s etc. while your muscles grow!

Nutrition: