Smoothies

Lotsa Fruit

Well, I did it again… I bought too much fruit. I went grocery shopping and planned to pick up some bananas and strawberries but then I saw dragon fruit, gorgeous navel oranges, and a pretty display of little tubs of blueberries marked buy-one-get-one-free. I certainly couldn’t resist getting extra blueberries for free!

After a few days of enjoying fruit with breakfast, making banana bread and blueberry muffins, I still had a lot of fruit left. I know I could have frozen the strawberries and blueberries but my freezer is already full of fruit. I could have dehydrated the berries as well but didn’t want to take the time to slowly dry them.

Then I came up with the answer: SMOOTHIES! I don’t think I’d ever actually made one before unless you consider a strawberry daiquiri or a margarita cocktail to be a smoothie. Luckily I still had my daiquiri-making blender…

At breakfast buffets you used to have the same basic selection of juices: orange, apple, grapefruit and grape - remember that bright purple concord grape juice? If you were at a very fancy place they might even offer pineapple juice or cranberry juice. But that was it – one type of fruit per juice. If you wanted a blend you had to mix it yourself.

Now breakfast buffets offer smoothies with names like Power Burst, Clean Green, Day Break, Sweet Sunrise and Tutti Fruiti. In addition to fruits they generally contain vegetables, protein powder (whey) and added vitamins. I’m not into all those additives. I like a plain puréed fruit bowl with perhaps a handful of salad greens and yogurt.

Although we think of smoothies as a relatively new phenomenon that’s become the breakfast of choice for millennials, they were developed in health food stores on west coast in the 1930’s associated with the invention of the electric blender.

I have to admit it made quite a dent in my abundance of fruit when I made smoothies but I’d offer a word of caution. Don’t be too enthusiastic with adding a variety of fruits. With my first attempt I made the mistake of adding spinach along with bananas, strawberries and blueberries to my first smoothie – too many colors. Although it tasted delicious the color was unappealing, perfectly matching my speckled brown granite countertop. It looked like it had been designed by a four-year-old with a new set of watercolor paints.

Nonetheless, I don’t want to curb your enthusiasm for smoothies! If you’re fond of chia seeds, flax seeds or oats by all means add a tablespoon of each to your blend. Some folks even add honey or maple syrup although I believe the fruit is sweet enough on its own. Note that the fruits don’t have to be fresh – frozen fruits make perfect smoothies. Here’s my basic recipe - it’s more about the proportions of the ingredients rather than the specifics.

SMOOTHIES

1 cup fruit (suggestions: berries, pineapple, mango, peaches)
1 ripe banana, sliced
½ cup packed greens – optional (suggestions: spinach, kale, watercress or arugula)
1 small container (5 ounce) plain yogurt
1 cup liquid (suggestions: orange juice, or you can substitute water or nut milk such as almond milk – choose your favorite or use what you have on hand)
Special equipment: Electric blender

Put the fruit and greens into your blender. Top with the yogurt then pour on the liquid.
Cover and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.