smoothies

[lynsosaurus]

I think I had just had my 5-a-day in one glass. I had raspberries, melon, and a little bit of honey, and there is the same amount again left for breakfast tomorrow.

Smoothie recipes, please!

[squirrelboutique]

Hee. Everytime I think of smoothies I giggle a little thinking about those sort of chunky ones in Leeds.

I like ones with soy milk, banana, honey and a little cinnamon.

[Sootyzilla]

I think I had just had my 5-a-day in one glass. I had raspberries, melon, and a little bit of honey, and there is the same amount again left for breakfast tomorrow.

Honey isn't fruit!

Anyway, raspberries and melon are only two. You might have had lots of them, but more than one portion of the same thing DOESN'T COUNT. I don't know why, because they never bother to explain why it DOESN'T COUNT, but it DOESN'T COUNT.

i'm not getting anywhere near five a day anyway, unless Nutella is a vegetable.

[lynsosaurus]

Hah! Those smoothies were awful!

I am thoroughly fucking pissed off that I can't count more than one portion of things. That means I have probably had no more than two a day for the past three years.

[jayen_aitch]

I also am confused by this whole thing.

How dis-similar do two fruits actually need to be before they count separately?

What about one satsuma and one tangerine? is that one fruit or two?

How about some honey-dew melon and some water melon?

Some red and some green grapes?

Two different types of apple?

Am I making this too complicated?

[Sootyzilla]

I imagine the idea is so that people have different kinds of fruit and veg and don't just say "Oh well, if a glass of orange juice is one portion, I'll just drink five glasses of orange juice a day then".

But for some reason the powers that be think we're stupid and wouldn't understand that, so they come up with some nonsense about more than one portion not counting.

It's much the same as the units of alcohol. One unit is 10ml of pure alcohol. That's not difficult to understand. Apparently it is though, because we get subjected to all sorts of rubbish about half a pint of beer or a small glass of wine because someone somewhere thinks we can't comprehend 10 ml.

[Kerrykerry]

How dis-similar do two fruits actually need to be before they count separately?

This needs addressing, certainly.

I think 2 lots of juice dosen't count because juce has lots of the goodness (fiber etc) filtered out. Smoothie on the other hand is just mashed up fruit*. So, I think you can get away with counting it as more than 1 portion. Especially if you find yourself drinking half a carton at a time, as I frequently do.

*or it should be, my flatmate made me one with ice cream in the other day, that was just WRONG.

[RITH]

Me and my blender, we're best friends. I'm not very creative however. I just throw in whatever is available: kiwi's, strawberries, cucumber, apple, mint... the only two constants are yoghurt and banana. And most often I throw in a tiny bit of orange juice from the carton to make it somewhat more juicier (I'm too lazy to actually make juice from an orange).

I do agree with lynsosaurus' request at the start of this thread: recipes please! I don't mind my pieces of experimental smoothie art, but some actual tasteful combinations might be nice for a change.

[schlump]

mm: i think it's that smoothies are liquid, and you can't retain a drastic amount of what you drink. you know. what with it being liquid and all, and not spending as much time getting pummelled and squished up inside you as food does. smoothies have recently started claiming that they're two portions, but generally liquids have always counted as one, not necessarily per-fruit, but just because you can't retain the goodness.

also: ginger is a great smoothie ingredient. frozen berries and ginger.

[susanb]

Frozen berries are great for smoothies (and dead handy too). I've never tried ginger in a smoothie though, it sounds interesting.

My usual smoothie has yoghurt, banana (the only way I'll eat bananas is in a smoothie or mashed on toast), some apple juice if I have some to water it down a bit, then some frozen berries, mango, papaya, melon, kiwi, or any other fruit that is lying about and needs used up. I've been using my flatmate's blender as I don't have my own, but he's moving out in a couple of months so I'm going to have to get my own.

[Emilie]

Usually I just use frozen berries, frozen yogurt, and juice. That's tasty...

[roundbitsofplastic]

This morning I had a smoothie comprising of:

Soya milk
Quinoa
Banana
Peanut butter.

Gertcha.

I have that combination quite often (and often sans peanut butter). It's reet good for breakfast.

[Sylvie]

I had a lovely smoothie this afternoon. I still find it quite difficult to eat a lot of the time, but drinking doesn't seem so scary. If I know I'm getting some fruit then at least I can justify it to myself that it's nutritious. I blended a peach, 16 blueberries, 200ml light soya milk and 2tbsp oats. I thought the oats added a nice texture to the end result.

I should make more smoothies, they're so much nicer than the shop-bought cartons.

[roundbitsofplastic]

My breakfast smoothie this week is

dates (chopped and soaked overnight)
soya milk
banana

Gerrin'

[RITH]

I´ve tried something along those lines once, now you remind me. It was quite nice! I have dates and banana, so I´ll give that another try tomorrow (only with oatmilk). Is it necessary to soak the dates?

[roundbitsofplastic]

I find that if you don't chop & soak the dates (in whatever mil you intend to use for the smoothie) they are too hard to blend up properly. Soaking them should give you a smoother texture.

[Sylvie]

This will possibly just sound wrong and I wouldn't normally recommend using instant coffee, but it actually tasted really nice! I dissolved some maple walnut instant coffee in some soya milk the other day, then blended it with a banana and a small amount of oats. It reminded me of the coffee and banana milkshake I used to love at Ed's Diner.