Over the past year, I have been trying to eat a little better. As the idea of having children looms in the very near future, I have decided it may be time to start taking care of myself. Including more vegetables into my diet has been an easy task as they are easy to hide in cooked foods and as my cooking has evolved, thankfully so has my palette. Foods that I used to scoff at now rank among my favorites. Alas, there is always a challenge and for me, it has been incorporating more fruit into my diet. Now, for the most part, I actually like fruit. I have just found that when we do buy it, we end up throwing half of it away because we either forget about it or just don't want to eat it before its time has come.
So, I have decided to take two problems and find a single solution. Thanks to Alton Brown, I learned that by using frozen fruit, I could put all of the ingredients together the night before and have breakfast ready the next morning in a matter of three minutes. What is this miraculous fruity breakfast you ask? Why, it's the Smoothie! For the last week, Erin and I have started our day with a homemade smoothie and it has gotten to the point where I now look forward to getting up in the morning. This is no easy feat for Erin and I considering the two of us are anything but morning people. The formula is pretty simple: 8 oz of liquid to 16 oz of mixed frozen fruit. Try it out and let me know what you think! Here are a few of our favorites from this week:
Erin's Strawberry Banana Smoothie
4oz Grape Juice (Pomegranate/Acai/or really any juice you are fond of)
4oz Fat Free Soy Milk
4oz Bananas (Frozen)
4oz Blueberries (Frozen)
4oz Strawberries (Frozen)
4oz Mangoes (Frozen)
Place all of the ingredients into your blender carafe and cover. Refrigerate overnight or up to 8 hours.
In the morning, or when the fruit is partially thawed, place the carafe on the base of the blender and start blending at the lowest speed. After all of the fruit is blended, increase the speed to medium (if you have it) until you achieve a vortex. Blend on medium (or low) for 1 minute. Increase speed to high and blend for 1 minute. Serve immediately, paper umbrella optional.
Michael's Banana-less smoothie (Because seriously, those things are just gross)
4oz Apple Juice
4oz Fat Free Soy Milk
4oz Peaches (Frozen)
4oz Mangoes (Frozen)
4oz Strawberries (Frozen)
4oz Blueberries (Frozen)
Place all of the ingredients into your blender carafe and cover. Refrigerate overnight or up to 8 hours.
In the morning, or when the fruit is partially thawed, place the carafe on the base of the blender and start blending at the lowest speed. After all of the fruit is blended, increase the speed to medium (if you have it) until you achieve a vortex. Blend on medium (or low) for 1 minute. Increase speed to high and blend for 1 minute. Serve immediately. Enjoy!
