BEFORE FRUIT GOES BAD, I DRINK IT!

I am a big fan of fruit, but sometimes I don’t feel like eating it. This is a problem, especially when I have a lot of fruit on hand and biological forces are threatening ruin.

So I drink my fruit instead.

A lot of times, I freeze fruit if I know that I will not eat it before it goes bad, but I will use it in the near future. Not because I like goopy, mushy, thawed fruit, but instead because it is absolutely perfect for smoothies. In fact, I sometimes peel and cut up bananas and stick them in the freezer as a way to have frozen bananas in stock. It helps give a more frozen consistency to the smoothie without using as much ice.

I love smoothies. They have the nutritional benefit of 3-4 pieces of whole fruit and you don’t even have to horse chew your way through each piece. I don’t like adding extra sugar or ice cream or sherbet because I think that it takes away from the nutritional value. Instead, I use light vanilla yogurt, which I find is more than enough. Yogurt is also very healthy for you, and I sometimes have a problem eating this by itself as well.

It is not anything complex or even a new, groundbreaking idea, but I wanted to share my base recipe. The best thing about a smoothie recipe is that it can be tweaked at any time with a variety of fruits, and each time you get a delightfully different but tasty result!

¼ c. of orange juice
Actually, for an even healthier version, use water. I found this out when I had no OJ on hand. I couldn’t even taste the difference.

Approx. ½ c. of light vanilla yogurt
I use Great Value light vanilla yogurt that has less than 100 calories per container. I even sometimes use half of a Yoplait Light 100-calorie yogurt. Heck, sometimes I even use a different flavor of yogurt. The possibilities are endless.

¾ - 1 c. of frozen fruit
I use this lovely 6-lb bag of mixed frozen fruit from Sam’s Club. It contains strawberries, pineapple, mangoes, and peaches and is a bargain at $9.00 compared to the 1-lb bags at grocery stores that sell for $3.00 or more.


3-5 cubes of ice
More, if needed.

In addition, I often add a banana, a whole orange or clementine, a whole peach, and practically anything I have on hand. Tonight I had the base with a banana, clementine, blueberries, fresh pineapple, and a peach.

Mix in a blender and Voila!

Suck on that, recommended daily allowance.