The beauty of smoothies

Wikipedia has an article on smoothies, but that really doesn't do this delicious treat justice.

There is a real elegance to the smoothie concept. The fruit is frozen for storage purposes, and that coldness is also used to cool down the treat and make it taste good.

There are 3 key components to making good smoothies.

First, you have to have a great blender. I really don't like traditional blenders because they are bulky, take up precious counter space, and most importantly, they're hard to clearn. Costco saved the day when they carried Cuisinart hand held blender of the gods. This little device is absolutely perfect for making a single smoothie. It's actually better than a table top blender because you can move it around and get those wayward bits of fruit.

Second, you must have vanilla flavored soy milk. Don't get me wrong, I do drink milk. Soy milk is pretty gross in most everything else (although it does work quite well in mashed potatoes, I must say!). But for smoothies, normal milk just won't do. It is important to add enough soy milk such that the fruit is almost covered. Any less, and it will be too thick to drink.

Third, you must have a good selection of frozen fruit. My personal favorites are mango and rasberry, and the local Trader Joe's stocks bags of this stuff for cheap. A recent discovery at Costco of a large (10lb) bag of 'berry mix' turned out to be quite delicious: Rasberry, Blueberry, and Marion berries. Mix a cup of that mix, one slightly overripe banana, vanilla soy-milk, blend well, and enjoy!

If you have the hand-held blender and the ingredients you like, you can make a smoothie in about 3 minutes (including cleanup which involves running the blade of the blender under hot water for about 10 seconds) for a cost of about $.50.

I suppose if you were quite ambitious and wanted to do the full "Jamba Juice" treatment, you could add other stuff (mix-ins). But who wants a femm boost anyway - the soy milk has enough estrogen for that. :(

Seriously, avoid ice for two reasons: first, it's unnecessary because the fruit is it's own ice. Second, unless you eat a lot of ice in your drinks or other foods, it tends to sit in the freezer and evaporate very slowly out of its tray, tending to ice up the freezer and humidify the thing quite badly.

As for other ingredients, I must wonder, why bother? The soy milk gives you the creaminess, the fruit gives you sweetness, flavorfullness, and coolness. And these are the essential properties of a smoothy: creamy, sweet, flavorfull, and cool.