Summer Smoothie Time!

I love me some smoothies! The bf has the most fantastic professional blender, it has a metal drive! (Whatever that means, it sounds fancy though!) It works superbly, when I am not breaking it, and at this point we have shelved the ice-cream maker to make room for the blender to stay permanently (for now) on the counter top. I have a very simple smoothie recipe (can't remember if it came from Cosmo or from Women's Health), all you need is a couple of ingredients, which you can mix up to your liking.


Here is the recipe:

1 cup soymilk (plain or vanilla, or you could even use almond or coconut milk)
1 cup fresh berries
1 and a 1/2 cups frozen berries
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1 T maple syrup or honey
As a "booster" you could add 1 T ground flaxseed, which I have not done yet
I also throw in about a handful of ice to make it colder (be careful, once I added too much and it was watery and gross)


* New recipe the bf so ingeniously concocted:
1 cup soymilk
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1 banana
4-5 pieces of ice
2-3 cups of different fruits, frozen and/or fresh
1 tsp honey (optional)

The banana makes the smoothie extra-creamy; so far my favorite flavor of this version of smoothie included frozen mangoes and frozen peaches. Soooooo delish!

So far my fave of the original recipe has been blueberry and strawberry, but the options are practically unlimited. We have done pineapple and mango, peach and cherry, blueberry and raspberry. I absolutely love Dole's bags of frozen fruit, they stay good for a really long time, and are so easy to get and store to use anytime. I have also made smoothies with all fresh fruit, whatever I had on hand, and it was just as good.


The very best thing about smoothies is that they are good for you! Instead of having a bowl of ice cream or something calorie-packed and sugary for dessert, most weekdays I have taken to making a smoothie for my post-dinner sweet-fix. Chock full of nutrients and vitamins, you can be sure you are getting the recommended amount of fruits in your diet with these delicious refreshments.


Another great thing about smoothies is that there is a huge amount of room for improvisation. Once I had about a cup of silken tofu left over from Alton Brown's Protein Bar recipe, so I threw it in the blender for some added protein. Yum! You could even use strawberry or chocolate-flavored tofu instead of the milk. Have fun, and enjoy!