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This past week Ryan has been in South Africa for work. He’s been busy working, but not too busy to send me photos of him hanging out by the pool in 80°/27° weather. Needless to say, I’ve been jealous.
So yesterday, Ryan was having an awesome day. I won’t tell you any more about that because I’m saving it for later. Anyway… I was at home in very rainy London doing chores. Not nearly as exciting as South Africa, but to toot my own horn, I dominated those chores. I did everything on my list, which hardly ever happens. I trudged to the super market in my wellies, I did all the laundry, I cleaned the bathroom, I snaked the drain, and I vacuumed. After all that productivity, I wanted a treat to make myself feel like I was on vacation in a warm and sunny place.
When I think warm and sunny, I think cold drinks and lots of fruit. I wanted this to be pure fun and delicious, and not secretly healthy. (You know how I like to sneak veggies into drinks, but this isn’t one of those times) For whatever reason, I have limes on the brain so I bought a bag at the store. I then thought about what to go with it – because lime alone is too tart. I thought of strawberries, which are my favorite fruit. I went to the frozen aisle to pick some up, because fresh strawberries in February are gross, but the store was out of frozen! They did have frozen raspberries, and I thought, “yeah that’ll work.”
To add a little more depth to the flavors, I used coconut water. You can of course replace the coconut water with regular water, but I think the coconut adds a nice hint of nutty flavor. Besides, coconut water can make you feel fancy since it’s so popular right now. And, it’s a good source of potassium, so that’s good too.
The limes, raspberries, and coconut water all together are nice, but pretty tart. I added a healthy amount of agave nectar to balance the tartness and add some sweetness. I choose agave over honey because it’s a little runnier and I think mixes in more smoothly. But, mostly, I choose it because I was going for hot weather foods and the agave plant comes from the dessert.
Add a little white rum, and you’d have a delicious beach side cocktail. I left it as a virgin slushy, and enjoyed it as a rainy afternoon treat.
Messy level: One spoon. Blended drinks are the easiest thing to clean up – even though cleaning the blender can be really annoying.
- 5 limes, plus one more for garnish
- 2 cups frozen raspberries
- 1½ cups coconut water
- ¼ cup light agave nectar
- white rum, optional
- Juice the limes, and add the juice to a blender.
- Add the raspberries, coconut water, and agave to the blender.
- Blend until smooth.
- Taste and adjust as you see fit.
- If you're using the rum, add it to the blender a little bit at a time. Blend, then taste, and adjust.
- Serve with a straw and lime wedge.
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The smell of cilantro reminds me of my mom. When I was a kid, in our backyard my family had a small vegetable garden. My parents would let my brother and I pick one vegetable each and we would pick something tangible and familiar like tomatoes or cucumbers. My mom, always picked lots of herbs and her favorite was cilantro. She always talked about how nice it smelled (and it does smell good) and how good it was. And I always thought, “you can’t even eat it!” But now, the smell of cilantro always makes me think of my mom and preparing our backyard garden.
Today, I know you can eat cilantro, but I always use it just as an herb to flavor a recipe. I use it with beans, arroz con gandules, and salsas. But, I had never thought about using cilantro in a non-savory way until I looked through Green Smoothies for Every Season
And as I said when I wrote about Farmington, I ate a ton over the holidays and so I am trying to eat a little bit better in January. That means, eating healthier and eating more fruits and vegetables. One way I like doing that is with green smoothies. I know that green smoothies don’t solve it all, and I know that to be really great they should have 50% greens, but I think any way you can get to your 5-a-day you should do it.
I’ve used Kristine Miles’ combo of pineapple and cilantro as inspiration, but I’ve decided to make it my own by pumping up the green with some spinach and also sweetening it a bit with pineapple juice. Not only is it pretty healthy, but it has a tropical feel which is so nice during dreary winter days. Since it’s winter, I used canned pineapples in juice, but feel free to use fresh or frozen pineapple. There’s a banana in this recipe too and I highly recommend freezing it. Frozen bananas make smoothies so luscious and creamy. Overall, this is totally delicious, you’ll drink it down so fast – and then, if you’re like me, you’ll feel like you’re doing yourself some good in January.
Messy level: Nothing is easier or cleaner to make than a smoothie. The messiest part is clearing up all the cilantro stalks after you’ve picked off the leaves.
- 1 cup pineapple juice
- ½ cup spinach leaves
- ½ cup tightly packed cilantro leaves
- 1½-2 cup chopped pineapples
- 1 banana, peeled (frozen is preferable)
- If your blender is weak, add the juice, spinach, and cilantro leaves to the blender first. Blend this until the greens have been chopped fairly small.
- Add the pineapple and banana to the blender and blend until smooth and the greens are cut into small flecks.
- Pour into glasses and serve with a straw. Somehow smoothies taste better through a straw.
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Sometimes in January, when the weather is cold and blustery, and the glitter and excitement of the holidays are over, I need something tropical and bright. I need something to remind me that warm weather is out there. But, I also need something that isn’t crazy heavy because the holidays just ended and I may or may not have gone overboard. Seriously, since Thanksgiving, I’ve partied, gone out to eat, and had as many cookies as I wanted.
Enter this banana kiwi mango green smoothie. The perfect balance of sweet, summery, and healthy.
This recipe is adapted from one I originally found in Runner’s World magazine. I’ve added more fruit and I use vanilla almond milk to give it a bit of sweetness, but not too much. You could of course use cow or soy milk if that’s what you have in the house. Also, I heartily recommend that you freeze your bananas. Of course you can use fresh, but there’s something lovely about using frozen ones. You won’t have to use ice and they make the smoothie so wonderfully creamy.
Finally, as you can see, this smoothie is green. Ryan said it looked scary, and I get it. I mean spinach in a smoothie? I know, it’s not for everyone. But, adding spinach is great because it makes your smoothie thick, you get all the healthy nutrients, and you can’t taste its flavor. This smoothie tastes like fruit I promise. It’s really quite delightful and helps get rid of those January blues.
Messy level: One spoon. So easy, everything goes in the blender and you hardly have to cut or peel anything.
- 1 banana, preferrably frozen
- 2 kiwis
- ½ cup cubed mangos (I used frozen, you could use fresh)
- ½ cup almond milk
- ¾ cup spinach loosely packe
- Peel and slice your kiwis
- Take your frozen fruit out of the freezer. Or if you’re using fresh, peel them and chop them so your blender can efficiently blend them.
- Put all ingredients in your blender and blend until smooth.
- Taste. If needed, add more fruit, milk, or spinach, to your taste and blend again.
- Serve!
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