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Mr Smooth

14:19 / 19.05.03

Mama Xoc came and went and awarded us a fruit smoothie maker for our hospitality. Yay! No more ruinously expensive little bottles from PJ or Innocent. Have only used it once and mighty fine my apples, grapes and black banana taste all churned up into a health-giving slurpfest.

Little recipé book came with it but they all include milk, yogurt or alcoholic liquids. Trying to avoid dairy stuff and don't keep the strong stuff in the house much, apart from wine, so anybody got any ideas for me to try?

Can I make a palatable concoction with only fruit and water? How much do I have to trim, peel and de-pith stuff? I like carrot juice but surely blending only those will give me but a little carrot juice and an awful lot of orange fibrous sludge?

Any suggestions welcome. Or should I just get off my lardy arse and go buy a book of smoothie recipés? Cheapness, availability of ingredients and, conversely, exotic pointers would be relished.

14:24 / 19.05.03

The Innocent ones all seem to be blended with orange juice for 'liquidity', flesh of my flesh...

14:28 / 19.05.03

yummm smoothies.
add different fruits to ice and/or bananas for consistency. or use soy or rice milk, if ya don't want dairy. it's good to get a little protein in there, makes it a little more stick-to-yr-ribs-esque.

14:33 / 19.05.03

Indeed. I should study the labels in supermarkets. Fortunately there was some milk left in the fridge that we had bought in for the Royal Visit but there wouldn't usually be. Will experiment with oranges plus what's still in the fruit bowl before you get home, my little fleshpot. How d'you fancy an orange /lemon /Chardonnay /apple and grape smoothie for your supper? Or must I bestir myself to go shop?

14:43 / 19.05.03

Can one make champagne smoothies, or would it fizz out of control?

14:48 / 19.05.03

As a bit of a smoothie fam myself i can heartily recommend getting your arse over to borough market and trying one of the smoothies there - and ripping off the recipies they have there. - they are even considerate enough to make it in fronmt of you so you can nick the recipe more easily...

15:45 / 19.05.03

I've made a great smoothie with just ginger ale and frozen strawberries, so I imagine champagne would work.

Frozen bananas are a vital component. Any fruit juice will do as a starter, and soy milk works fine. If you want it to taste fancy, add a splodge of honey right at the end. And if it's made of mostly very sweet fruits (mango, papaya, etc.) grate in a little ginger. Fresher the better, and definitely not the powdered stuff in the jar. Excellent.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

17:02 / 19.05.03

I usually go with 12 - 16 oz of orange juice, 5 frozen strawberries, a frozen banana and some frozen blueberries.

After a workout I add two scoops of protein powder, if it's breakfast, I don't.

But then, I'm lazy.

15:48 / 20.05.03

Ooh, Orange juice, a banana and a strawberry yoghurt (or soya yog). YYYUUUUMMMie.
Oh im so jealous- i want a mama Xoc, can i have one, can i keep her, can i, can i?

16:40 / 20.05.03

Cheers, you lovely helpful 'loids. Have bought every bit of bashed and half price fruit in Safeway on the way home and will try your recipes. We cannot freeze anything in this flat, sadly, but am going to attempt Rose's very precise blend of ingredients later. I shall just guess the quantities but have all the right stuff.

Forgot to buy the honey grant mentioned! Oh well, that treat can be anticipated.

Am having carrot, kiwi and orange at the moment and damn fine it is too. Haven't tried the soya milk yet, although I have bought some in. Have tried coconut milk and it works a treat. Strawberries and bananas seem to be the most perfectly textured for smoothie-making. And I have discovered that limes and lemons fair give it a tang without souring it too much.

I may have discovered proof of the creationists' intelligent design theory after a lifetime's atheism. Thank you for inventing the smoothie, God. Delicious, filling, cheap and no fat. Time you got something right, right enough.

17:21 / 20.05.03

Somewhere on the atomfilms.com site, there's a short film about a guy who sneaks out of Heaven's waiting room because he was about to get assigned to Hell. He spends a day running from vengeful angels and doing good deeds. The good deed that gets him over the hump... drinking a smoothie.

Mmm.

Unconditional Love

19:47 / 22.04.06

I cheat. I use full fruit jam.

Half a jar of full fruit fruits of the forest jam.
3 bananas
half a natural yogurt
2 cups of water

blend.

lovely.

20:08 / 22.04.06

I take a firm sand against the use of dairy products in smoothies... At their best, they are all about the fruit...

20:23 / 22.04.06

I love yogurt in smoothies. I have, however, also had a good smoothie made with silky tofu as a protein source.

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

00:16 / 23.04.06

Growing up, my father always made us strawberry-bannana smoothies out of frozen strawberries, a firm banana, and orange juice.

To DIE for.

I have a friend who's got a superfast metabolism, so he needs really, really filling stuff in the morning. He makes energy shakes out of frozen blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, orange juice, yogurt, and some kind of vanilla powder (Spyro-somethingorother). They're really good.

...oddly enough, his brother later began working at a smoothie stand in Union Station called Jugo Juice. Smoothies cost about $5 CDN (about two pounds fifty), and are actually FANTASTIC (and are made entirely with just fruit and juice, its actually pretty astounding).

I have longed to have a blender with me so as to throw together some frozen mangoes and juice. Mmmm...mango smooothie...

11:40 / 23.04.06

Gosh, what an old thread!

My smoothie-making prowess over the intervening years has been remarkable. Certain things are now estalished ritual on the fruit-blending front chez Xoc. Every good smoothie contains bananas aplenty. Strawberries, raspberries or blueberries are all excellent therewith. Yogurt, icecream, milk, coconut milk all good but I prefer a good apple juice base. Still find the juice of a lemon or lime does wonders to sharpen the savour, as does grant's tip about a tincture of honey.

I tend not to bother with pulpy fruit. Need to get a juicer for citrus fruits and apples. Don't bother with vegetables smoothies either now.

This morning, I made and chilled milkshakes for me, G, and hungover guests for breakfast from bananas, blueberries, some soft and squelchy pears, some firm plums, honey and lemon juice. To wash down the paracetamol. Nectar. Oh yes.

12:20 / 23.04.06

My favourite: warning, this might sounds gross. And it's for omnivores, not vegans or veggies. And perhaps not possible, if you have no freezer facilities Xoc, but maybe others will like to try it.

1 inch cube of fresh or frozen (organic, home-produced etc) chicken liver (I put it in the freezer until fully frozen, then get it out & bash the bag with a hammer on a hard surface until it breaks up into cubes of the right size.)

2 (organic, free-range, home produced etc) eggs

ripe (black spots) banana

either some berries enough to make it purple, or some spirulina powder to make it dark green

teaspoonful of honey

Blend quickly (before the liver gets half-defrosted & difficult for the blades of the smoothie-maker). It doesn't to me taste at all of liver - joyful nutrition.

07:53 / 06.05.06

I have a smoothie problem. My usual (ie three times a year) smoothie is bananas, soy milk and wheat germ. Nice and simple. And I've only ever made it with one of those handheld gizmos. Today for the first time I used a proper blender and the problem is it's all full of air bubbles. Every mouthful is froth, all the way down. What can I do?

07:55 / 06.05.06

Leave it to stand for a bit?

08:00 / 06.05.06

Hmm, that might require too much patience. I've tried adding a bit more milk which helped a little. Maybe next time I won't whizz it so much.

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

15:53 / 06.05.06

The milk's what's creating the froth. The problem is that when you blend milk it DOES get really frothy. Best to either let it sit or add another element to the smoothie, maybe something heavier? I dunno.