Super Smoothie

About a year ago my husband and I tasted a fruit smoothie while at a friend's house.  It was delicious, but had artificial flavorings and water along with a small amount of fresh fruit in it.  We decided to try it at home, adding more fresh fruit and less flavoring.  About that same time we heard about green smoothies, where you add a handful of fresh spinach to the fruit smoothie, turning it green.  I liked them, but my husband had an allergic reaction to the spinach, so that was out.  We tried different fruit combinations, all of which tasted good, but eventually decided to emphasize blueberries, which were, at the time, the darling of the antioxidant world.  Since we both love strawberries, and also found frozen mixed berries at the store, we tried those three together and have been drinking these fruit smoothies every day since.  A few months ago, Dr. Oz said that strawberries were the new antioxidant super food, even better than blueberries.  Guess we were ahead of the curve! We've also completely cut out the artificial flavorings, so there's nothing but good-for-you ingredients in it now.  At any rate, we never tire of them, we rarely get sick, and spending money on fruit instead of doctors seems like a good choice.  We buy all the frozen berries at Costco.  We've tried other brands, but they don't have nearly the great flavor that the Costco berries have.  So, here's how my husband makes our super smoothie every day:

Super Smoothie

1/2-3/4 Cups water
1  peeled orange or 1 cored, quartered apple

Put into blender.

8 frozen strawberries (the Costco ones are huge)

1 Cup frozen blueberries

1 Cup frozen mixed berries

Put frozen berries in a colander and partially thaw by running warm water over them.  Put on top of orange or apple in blender.

Mix in blender until smooth.

Pour into glasses and serve immediately.  Lots of vitamins oxidize quickly, so drink up!

Here's to good health!  (That's light reflected in the glass on the right :)

Did you know that you can freeze bananas?  You can!  Just peel the banana, break it into pieces, pop the pieces in a freezer bag, and put them in your freezer.  A great way to use up overripe bananas!  The reason I bring this up now is because if you add a frozen banana to a fruit smoothie, it changes the texture of the whole thing -- it's comes out just like a milkshake, but without the sugar and calories!  Amazing and delicious.  You may have to add a little more water to get the consistency right.  Or if you want to try the green smoothie thing, just throw in a handful of fresh spinach on top of the berries.  Because the berries have so much color, it won't be really green, just kind of odd colored.  Amazingly, though, you won't taste the spinach at all!  What an easy way to sneak in a vegetable.