The Best Smoothies Ever

Back in middle school, I fell in love with Zuka Juice (which then became Jamba Juice).  I loved smoothies.  At my 15th birthday party, we tried to figure out how to make strawberry smoothies by mixing together ice cream, milk, and fresh strawberries.  It didn't work out so well - the smoothies were still pretty runny, and I was pretty sure just adding ice cubes wouldn't make the smoothies better.  When I was 16, I got my tonsils out, and my friend's mom gave me a recipe for fruit smoothies.

What?  You add FROZEN FRUIT?  That makes a lot more sense than fresh fruit and ice cubes!!

So that's the secret.  Frozen fruit.

Since then, unless I'm wanting some kind of exotic smoothie, I can't get myself to pay a premium to go to Jamba Juice and get a smoothie when I can make (a healthier!!) one at home for a fraction of the cost.  Okay, I can pay a premium to go to Jamba Juice, but nowhere else -- I'm afraid they'll add ice cream or something with lots of high fructose corn syrup to make the smoothies sweeter.  At home, I discovered I don't need to add any sugar to my smoothies to make them sweeter.  The fruit alone is good enough!

My favorite smoothie of all time was Jamba Juice's Peanut Butter Moo'd - which is just a chocolate peanut butter smoothie.  But I think it made its way onto the list of Worst Foods to Eat or Eat This, Not That! or something.  Yep, a quick Google search confirms that Men's Health hates Peanut Butter Moo'd.  Truly, what could be more high-cal in a smoothie than peanut butter and chocolate?  And why would you ever settle for peach when you're in the mood for peanut butter and chocolate?!  "Hmm, today I really want a Reese's Peanut Butter cup, but I think I'll just have a peach instead.  It's kind of the same thing, isn't it?"

So I decided I would go home and make up my own slightly healthier smoothie recipe.  Peanut butter, chocolate ... how would I get it frozen?  Bananas!  Frozen bananas are a great base for any smoothie recipe!  That got me thinking about Reese's peanut butter cups, bananas dipped in chocolate (and peanut butter), peanut butter and banana sandwiches, strawberry and peanut butter sandwiches (ever had a pb&j with fresh strawberries?  divine!), strawberries dipped in chocolate ... and somehow, strawberries, bananas, chocolate, and peanut butter sounded like the perfect combination for a smoothie.

And it was.

So here is my very precise, very exact, peanut-butter-chocolate-banana-and-strawberry-smoothie recipe.  I have yet to come up with a good name for it.

Ingredients:
~A frozen banana (I chop fresh bananas into halves or thirds and freeze them in sandwich bags)
~Frozen strawberries
~Peanut butter
~Chocolate syrup
~Milk

Directions:
~Put the frozen stuff into the blender, top it with the peanut butter and chocolate.  Fill the blender with milk until the frozen stuff is barely covered, then blend till smooth.

I don't provide any exact amounts because all that matters is that you decide how much smoothie you want and fill the blender with that much frozen fruit.  So if you're just making a little bit for yourself, only fill up the blender 1/4 of the way with frozen fruit.  If you're sharing with all of your friends, maybe you want to fill it up to the top.  If you don't add enough milk, the smoothie will be too thick and your blender will have a hard time mixing it and the smoothie will be really chunky.  When you have enough milk, it blends really easily.

When you're making a smoothie with all different kinds of fruit, it's really easy to put too much fruit in the blender.  "I'll just have a few strawberries and a few peaches and some pineapple and oh I should add some frozen orange juice concentrate, and .... wait!  The blender is completely full!"  Really, a single strawberry will be good enough.  You don't need half a cup of everything  It took me a long time to learn that.

When making smoothies, I hear you can add yogurt and stuff to make it thicker.  One thing I really like about making smoothies at home is that you know exactly what's in it and how much is in it.  My smoothies consist of real fruit and 1% lowfat milk (and the occasional chocolate syrup and peanut butter, which will soon be Adam's 100% natural peanut butter) - can you beat that ingredient list?  I think not!!