smoothie with coffee and banana

I made another smoothie today. I wasn't planning on doing so but when a recipe calls for two bananas and you have two bananas on the kitchen side and they are beyond eating (too, too soft for me), then rather than throw them out, or give them to the birds (I have been told blackbirds like bananas but haven't tried this yet), I decided the right course of action was to follow this recipe, kindly mailed to me by Mademoiselle Poirot, after my initial foray into smoothie-ville.

I'll repeat the recipe here as my version differed very slightly, but I do recommend following the link above, not least because the photos that accompany the post are just what a breakfast smoothie should be about.

I don't have a photo of the smoothie I made today. This is partly because I was slightly surprised to discover that, in terms of colour, it was nearly exactly the same as the smoothie I made at the start of the month, that contained spinach. So at least I know I will make a third smoothie, one that is not brown...

This is what I did:

I added 2 heaped teaspoons of instant coffee (decaff variety) to what should have been 100ml of boiling water but was slightly more than that. I gave it a stir to dissolve and put it to one side.

I then added one roughly sliced banana to the blender, poured the coffee on top and gave it a blend. I then added 150ml of Alpro Hazelnut drink, and whizzed the mixture again. I then added the second banana. And blended. And finally I added 30 grams of oat meal (not oat bran as in the original recipe). And blended.

The little blender was at capacity at this point and not all the mixture remained inside it. In fact, it made quite a mess. Well, I made quite a mess. I think the trick is not to overfill and not to rush...

And the result? It looked chocolatey and coffeey, and smelt very bananay. I liked the texture (the oat meal didn't blend down much but added a nice touch, I thought), I liked the strong coffee taste, but this smoothie is definitely one for banana lovers as the taste and aroma were as strong as the coffee. The Alpro provided a subtle background and I'm going to try some on its own later. I did feel a little naughty about including something with refined sugar into a smoothie though. Tut tut. I think I may have done better with a little less banana, and I also think I need to check measurements before filling the blender so high next time...

drink more greens

I've been meaning to drink smoothies for a while. I've still not got around to it. I have a bag of frozen raspberries and blackberries in the freezer, just waiting for me. But I want to add greens to that, as I've heard that they give you far more benefits than 'sweet' smoothies, with a lower sugar content, and that they don't taste, erm, green , when mixed with sweeter fruit.

And so I've bought some fresh spinach. Because it's fresh it means I have to make the smoothie. And soon.

I'm not a big fan of spinach, and spinach is in a lot of green smoothies. But everyone says you can't taste it when it's in a smoothie. They do. It's true. So they say.

I've made a collection of recipes that I'm going to try, that I will try ... after all, if I don't then the frozen fruit will go out of date ... and the spinach will just wilt.

Prepare for a lot of green in this post.

This green apple smoothie is just the thing to get started with - after all, if its green, then it's apple, and not spinach, and so cannot taste at all of spinach...

This smoothie from The Culinary Chronicles has berries, Greek yoghurt ... and spinach.

Yes, this smoothie also has spinach in.
Also, the creator of this recipe has the best ever profile photo on her blog. And she promises you can't taste the spinach ...

Papaya is a main ingredient in this smoothie. Doesn't stop it still having spinach in it though. But you can substitute it for kale! I'm not sure if that's any better.

If you're serious about green smoothies then take a look at this 30 day challenge. I know I really should ...










Also, if you fancy reading about a whole year of green smoothie experiences, then check out this blog.


By the way, when researching this post I discovered some slightly more negative information about green smoothies. If you want to take a look at the other side of the argument, I found this post, this one and this one pretty helpful, but if you are embarking on a change of diet then do some searching around, and get yourself informed. I am no expert at all, but it seems that a bit of sense can go a long way in such matters ... and I can't believe a helping of greens a day can be less healthy than a chocolate bar and can of something fizzy which so many of us consume so regularly. I also believe that everything in moderation and a bit of variety in ingredients is a wise way to go.

For information on making sure your smoothie is healthy, have a look at this.

I'd love to hear your experiences of smoothies, green or otherwise, or if, like me, you've yet to take the plunge.

And this week, either I'll post about the smoothie I made, or I'll be too embarrassed to ever mention it again ...