Now that winter is upon us (me that is), I don’t feel bad about using frozen fruits in my smoothies! Normally, I advocate using fresh fruits rather than frozen for the molecular structure of the fruit has not been altered by low temperatures. But when it gets cold outside, I like to bring back the feeling of warm season fruit in a way that warms me up. Nothing fits that bill better than Ice Cream!
Ice Cream it is! At least for the first few seconds of the life of this drink. Well, ok, I give, it might not really be iced cream (diary), but it sure does taste like it. And, if it doesn’t, I keep working it until it does. Ultimately, I LOVE to experience great tasting smoothies, thus I’m always working to bring out the best flavors.
So, here we go, a creamy strawberry surprise.
Recipe:
- 1 ½ cup Coconut milk with Vanilla flavor (ok, ok, it’s not raw, but it isn’t dairy!)
- 10-12 frozen strawberries
- 1 banana
- 1 ripe (if you can find them) mango
- 2 Medjool dates (don’t eat the seeds)
- About 1 large Tbs Flax seed
- 1 probiotic
And, of course, you can’t forget the greens:
- 1 bunch Swiss chard
When I did my shopping the other day I weighed the Swiss Chard before bagging it. Each bunch came in just under a pound. Yep, that’s right. I use the full bunch and get the biggest ones that I can find. The green smoothies are all about re-mineralizing your body and sweeping out the toxins. So, even though you see all the fruit, it’s balanced by all the greens.
When putting this one together, I combine the coconut milk with all the fruit and blend. The Strawberries take just a few seconds to break down and you end up with something that looks like this:
If you were to look straight down on this, you’d notice that it’s more like a milk shake than ice cream. I probably should have added another few strawberries. That would have thickened it up. Never-the-less, it tasted like a strawberry milk shake – which was close enough for me.
The next step is to grind the flax seed. I love this function for me coffee grinder. Since I gave up making latte’s, that little grinder had sat unused. Now, it’s my flax seed grinder and it works great.
To the ‘milk shake’ I add the rest of the ingredients: ground flax, probiotic and Swiss chard. When I add the Swiss chard, I remove the main rib from the leaf. It’s got some great properties to it, but I don’t want anything in this drink that will distract from a smooth texture.
Now blend. If you’re using a vita-mix, you’ll most likely have to use the plunger to get the greens broken down, but once you’ve got it spinning, flip it on high and give is a whirl.
But don’t stop there! Because we’re using frozen strawberries, we can let the blender run longer and the heat is dissipated into the frozen fruit. And, because we get to let it run longer, we get a creamer feel in the end product.
You won’t get a strawberry seed as you enjoy this one.
Note that this makes about 6 cups!
Light is Life!
