Smoothie Time

I think several people out there have gone through a smoothie phase where you get obsessed with blending yummy fruit drinks (or as Greg calls them, fruit frappés). I was in this phase a few summers ago but just recently I've been thinking about making smoothies more often.

This was my concoction this morning:

• a container of strawberry yogurt
• about 1/2 cup apple juice
• about 5 frozen fresh pineapple chunks
• a sliced frozen banana
• a squeeze of light agave nectar (a little goes a long way)

All into a blender and out comes a sweet drink with a large portion of your daily dairy and fruits.

I decided to experiment with the agave and it gave it a surprisingly sweet tinge, similar but distinctly different than honey.

Whenever our bananas over rippen and we don't have time to make banana bread, we throw the entire banana into the freezer. Then just let it sit for a few minutes to thaw a bit before it's peeled and thrown into the blender (frozen banana is always the base to my smoothies).

Have fun playing with whatever fruits you have in your kitchen! The sky is the limit with combinations. I almost always use yogurt, a frozen banana and orange juice (we just didn't have any this morning).