Banana Based Smoothies

Berry, Berry Smooth!

Wowee! Heaven! I think last Spring I invented our own mind-blowing health drink that tastes sooo good, it tastes like it should be bad! How can that be?  Well, I had a basket-full of fast-ripening home-grown bananas, so what to do with them? I hate to waste food, especially food that we grow ourselves. Banana bread has been the obvious answer in the past but I didn’t feel very bread-bakerish at that time, so I thought – “SMOOOTHIES“!  Now there’s the answer to world tension!  I spent the week making a recipe of sorts, which I tended to repeat, based on it being much like a mousse pudding rather than a smoothie. It went something like this:

BERRY, BERRY SMOOTHie

• 2 handsful of brazil nuts – blended till fairly smooth, then add:
• 8-9 small bananas (or 3 large store bought bananas)
• One cupful frozen strawberries (from last summer’s surplus)
• 1 TBspn honey
• 1/2 tspn stevia powder (optional)
• 1 TBspn LSC (linseed, sesame seed and chia seed, ground)
• 1 TBspn wheatgerm (optional)
• 1/2 cupful preserved feijoa puree or frozen ones (optional)
• 1 cupful of soya, oat or dairy milk

• Blend all together until smooth. Most of my smoothies had to be eaten with a spoon as they were fairly thick! Hence, the mousse idea!  Pudding for breakfast!  Yay!

Fast forward a week later and I had just used up the last of the frozen berries to make a gooseberry/strawberry jam when I got the inspiration to do a chocolate smoothie instead. Here it is:

OUT OF THIS WORLD CHOCOLATE SMOOTHIE

(or otherwise to be known as Feckin’ Delishus Smoothie!)

• 2 handsful of brazil nuts, blended till smoothish
• Add 9 small bananas (or 3 large store-bought ones)
• 1 TBspn honey
• 1/2 tspn stevia powder (green leaf)
• 1 TBspn LSA (Linseed, Sesame and Almond meal)
• 1/2 tspn vanilla essence
• 3 heaped tspn carob powder
• 1 cup oat, soya or dairy milk

• Blend all above ingredients till smooth.

Be prepared to be blown away! Such decadence and sensory opulence! Ought to be banned! It tastes fattening! Utterly insane, to drink something that you know is packed with such a powerhouse range of nutrients, but your brain is telling you it tastes too good to be healthy!  As it’s Spring once again in Aotearoa, I have started making smoothies again, this time, adding a leaf or two of kale for added nutrition.  Play around with a basic recipe, add substitutes if you don’t have one ingredient, say, use cacao instead of carob powder.  Use any nuts or seeds for the protein factor.  Substitute maple syrup for honey if you’re keeping it Vegan.  

This is liquid food which allows the body to digest it without having to chew and process all the ingredients. Great when you’re on the run and need an energy boost!  After a minor operation last week, we replaced breakfasts with a carrot, lemon, apple and beetroot juice {Cabala Juice},with a light cooked lunch and then replaced our evening meals for the week with smoothies.  Great to allow the body to concerntrate on healing.  This Spring our bananas are slow in ripening but I spy a bunch of home-grown bananas and am looking forward to those but until then, I have been using store-bought ones from fair-trading, organic Ecuador or some-such-place.  I have even substituted avocados for bananas.  It’s a hit!

Bon appetite!  Jizzy