Cooking! and a smoothie.

Cooking! and a smoothie.

Cooking is a fun, creative exercise for me.  I'm always trying something funky; the only requirement is that it sounds yummy.  I love playing with spices and ingredients, and changing things up each time to try to make it better.

So.....  today's discovery:

Awesome, and Probably Healthier, Triple-berry Orange Julius

1 cup frozen berry medley (raz, black, and blue-berries)

1.5 bananas

3 Tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate

1 cup milk

optional: a tablespoon ground almonds

blend and serve.  super creamy and delicious!

I love to use ground almonds in any smoothie that has berries in it.  They add a natural sweetness that pairs really well with the berry flavor.  (I just pop a cup of them in my nutribullet and pulse it a few times until it's a coarse powder, then store in a little container with a lid in the fridge for a month or longer)

p.s. a couple tips on smoothies:  I find that if I: 1, try to match the fruits by volume, and 2, try not to mix too many flavors, it usually turns out tasty.

1. Match the fruits by volume.  I'll often use a banana as a gauge.  If I put 

1 banana in, then I try to put some berries that would make up the same volume. A cup of juice would be pretty close in volume to either of those ingredients.  (exception: I usually do less with veggies so my kids taste more of the fruity flavor).

2. Don't mix too many flavors.  Mango is yummy with pineapple.  Berries are also yummy with pineapple.  Orange can taste great with berries.  BUT mango, pineapple, berries, and orange would probably be a huge conglomeration of conflicting flavors, and wouldn't taste very good.

One more random tip--making a julius.  The basis of a julius is combining frozen orange juice concentrate and milk in the same proportion that you'd combine the concentrate with water to make juice (1 part concentrate to 3 parts milk).  Then you can play around with adding other things to make different kinds of orange juliuses.

Make some yummy smoothies, and share!  or just share a favorite smoothie recipe!