Smoothies Again!

As you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of a morning smoothie. Over the past eight months or so  I have had a smoothie for most of my breakfasts. You may also know that I'm a sucker for a good time saver. In fact, if you are holding out some great time saving secret you better tell me because if I discover it and find out you knew about it all along, well I will be mighty disgruntled for at least three whole minutes.

I have evidence to support that claim, I truly do. When I was about 20, just trying to make everything work as a preschool teacher and a full time college student, I felt so overwhelmed by household duties. All that cleaning and cooking and bill paying was just dreadful. Cleaning was especially awful because of our horrible hard water. The ring in the bathtub was so incredibly disgusting. I had never seen anything like that nasty bathtub ring. At first I was sure something was wrong with the bathtub, not with my cleaning routine. When it finally dawned on me that the filthy, white and yet brown, rough ring around the tub was caused by my water and my washing, well I was infinitely grossed out.

I resolved to clean it up right quick and be done with it forever. I would be a preventative cleaner, proactive not reactive. I tried every cleaner I could reasonably afford. I used lemon juice and baking soda and all manner of household combinations. I even resorted to scrapping it with a soup spoon. In the end, that spoon was the only thing that left a dent- and that was more literal than figurative. I was near my wits end, almost a year of trying fruitlessly to clean this stubborn ring, when one of my coworkers just happened to mention her undying love for the mr. clean magic eraser. She proudly mentioned its wonderful ability to clean her bathroom to a sprightly shimmer. I could hardly believe her, I was so skeptical of the commercial's claims. I realize now that I should have been happy to hear this. Thrilled. Ecstatic. Enthralled. But my very first thought was that she had been holding out on me. She had this amazing secret and was scrubbing away her bathtub ring within minutes while I grabbed my trusty soup spoon and spent what felt like hours chipping away at those hard water deposits. About three minutes later, after much brooding and begrudgingly nodding as the conversation moved forward, I decided I had to try this thing out. I did and it was awesome and although I now buy the target version of this wondrous scrubber, I'm grateful for that conversation but now I know to ask in advance.

Speaking of asking, any ideas on how to get a floor to sweep itself? Or how to get Shelby to wipe her own paws after running through the muddy backyard?

Well, this is my newest trick and I'm here to share. My morning smoothie revamped. About a month or so ago I was tempted by the idea of buying a large case of Odwalla premade smoothies from Costco. I saw the big box of them and thought of all the time I would save each morning (about 3 minutes, yeah, seriously, three whole minutes my friend). Then I took one look at the ingredients (sugar! yikes!) and put that thought out of my mind. Instead, I decided to make an entire batch of smoothies for the week on that Sunday night. And I did just that. But by friday the top of my smoothie had a brown tint and tasted vaguely of bad bananas. Um. gross. You should have seen the look on my students' faces as I tried to swallow that initial Friday-old-banana-yuckiness. I must have had quite a look on my face too, it was a priceless moment. We laughed. I threw the smoothie away.

For the past few weeks I have been trying to figure out how to make the smoothies ahead of time but retain their fresh Monday/Tuesday look and taste. The answer was in my backyard: lemons. So simple!

That's my freshly squeezed lemon juice in the jar up front. So many lemons, so little time..

Here's how I work it:
1) Fill up your blender with an assortment of fruit and maybe some greens. I prefer 3 fairly fresh bananas, about one bag of frozen berries, 1/3 bag of frozen spinach and some blueberries.
2) Pour in some liquid, about halfway filling up the blender. I used some beet/carrot juice and some pomegranate juice and a little citrus juice of your choice. 
3) Let it sit for a bit, an hour or two, to make it easier to blend.
4) Get your jars ready!
5) Blend up the smoothie and pour equal amounts in each jar.
6) Pour about a tablespoon of lemon juice on the top of each smoothie before placing the lid on top.
7) Place them all in the fridge and enjoy three more minutes of blissful coffee sipping in the morning!

Tips:
1) I have found that using fresher bananas results in a fresher taste come Friday
2) Orange juice seems to work well in place of the lemon juice
3) Wash out the jar as soon as you get home, wooowweee does mold grow fast in those suckers

I have been making my smoothies each Sunday night this way for about three weeks and so far, so good. I added apples and pineapples and loved it. I also added coconut oil and did not love it. Live and learn!

Enjoy!
-m

Breakfast Smoothie

Thar she be. My breakfast of champions. My on-the-go companion of hectic mornings and lazy summers. I make a smoothie like this for breakfast six out of seven days a week. Even during the school year, I put it in some plastic cup/container thing and sip it while I teach. I'm still auditioning for the part of 'serious smoothie holder', as most of my plastic cup things fall short in the 'easy to clean' category and thus get nasty quick.

I have added all kinds of things to the smoothie in order to make it more 'healthy' or basically, more than just a smoothie. I added protein powder, spinach, kale, milk. In the end, I usually don't add much other than fruit. Today I added greek yogurt though, and it was edible so I'll say it's a 'do'. The original recipe came from Alton Brown and it's a keeper.




Let me just say that I adore my immersion blender. I lubadubdub it. I highly suggest you get one. I use it every day, sometimes more than once! For example: I was making that veggie curry, and the canned diced tomato had to be put through a food processor *one thing I don't have yet* and so, I busted out the immersion blender and stuck it in the opened can for a quick second and boom. Done. No extra dishes either!



I start with a fresh, not frozen, banana. I'm a firm believer in this- I don't like it all to be too cold. I know, it's a smoothie, yadda yadda, you do it your way and I'll do it mine. :) I also believe in putting the banana at the bottom of this particular blending apparatus. After the banana, I pile in about 1/2 cup of three other (usually frozen) fruits. I like mango, strawberries and some other berry blend. I just picked up some frozen pineapple that I'm aching to try. Then I pour in some purple juice, another 1/2 cup or so. Today I also added a dollop of yogurt on top and then blended the wild heck out of it.
Sometimes, during the crazy school year, I make it at night and then right before the point where I would blend it, I toss it in the fridge and the next morning it's so easy to whip up. It feels to easy to be true. But it's not. Shh..



I love when it looks like this. Firm, like sorbet almost, and shiny. I regret all those years when I used ice, and had to suffer through icey smoothies. Oh, the tragedy. (hand must be on forehead, eyes looking somewhere to the left, so you can get the full extent of the drama)





Smoothie Recipe
adapted from Alton Brown

1/2 cup banana (fresh or frozen, I use one small banana or half of a large one)
1/2 cup frozen mango
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 cup frozen blueberries (or any other frozen fruit of your choice! Go wild!)
1/4-1/2 cup 100% fruit juice (I like blueberry or cranberry)
a dollop (heaping tablespoon or more depending on your desired consistency) plain greek yogurt

Put all the ingredients in a blender and mix away. Pulse at first, then blend continuously for about a minute to get the smooth texture. Enjoy!

-m