Fruit Shakes
Serves one adult or two kids
1 frozen banana
1 cup liquid
Additional fruit or flavoring
Optional sweetener -- grapes, dates, honey or sugar
To make, break frozen banana into pieces and put in blender.
Cover with liquid up to 1-cup line on blender. Add any additional
fruits, flavorings or sweeteners. Blend until consistency of
milk shake (usually 30 seconds). Serve immediately (banana will
start to brown if you don't). Enjoy!
NOTE: Clean out blender and cups immediately after drinking,
since the fruit particles tend to get stuck to the dishes.
The ingredients
This recipe is extremely versatile. You can vary them to comply
with your diet or special needs. These shakes are great
alternatives for those with diabetes, food allergies and
intolerances and vegetarians. Experiment and have fun! And
please e-mail me with your fun variations!
Here are descriptions and ideas for each ingredient:
Frozen bananas -- I buy them when they are dirt cheap, peel and
deep-freeze in Ziploc-type bags. In a deep-freezer, they
will keep up to a year without darkening, but in a regular
refrigerator freezer, they start turning at 3 months. Frozen
bananas give these shakes their creamy consistency, and you
generally can't taste them. If you don't like bananas and don't
want them in your drink, substitute crushed ice instead.
Liquid -- You can use milk, water, soy milk, rice milk or juice. All
work just fine. Milk will give you a creamier shake. If you use
water, add a little at a time until you get to the consistency
you like. Juice is a great way to sweeten these drinks, and it
adds some fun.
Sweenters -- Any fruit of your choice, extracts, drink mixes, syrups, jams or spices. You'll see lots of examples below. The possibilities are
only limited by your imagination! If your shake turns out on the tart side, you can
sweeten it naturally with honey, pitted or chopped dates,
raisins, grapes or juice. You could also use the traditional
method -- add sugar. If serving for breakfast, try to keep it as
healthy as possible.
Vanilla
1 frozen banana
1 cup milk/soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Blend together. Yummy!
Chocolate
1 frozen banana
1 cup milk/soy milk
A few squirts of chocolate syrup
Blend.
Strawberry Cream
1 frozen banana
1 cup milk/soy milk
1 handful of strawberries, washed and sliced
1 to 2 pitted dates to sweeten (optional)
Blend.
Blueberry Fool
1 frozen banana
1 cup milk/soy milk
A handful of blueberries (use as much as you want!)
Blend.
Purple Cow
1 frozen banana (or 1/4 cup crushed ice)
1/2 cup grape juice
1/2 cup milk
Blend.
Peanut Butter Dream
1 frozen banana
1 cup milk/soy milk
2 tsp of peanut butter, creamy or crunchy
Blend. (My oldest son loves this one -- it tastes like peanut
butter ice cream! Great with chocolate syrup too for a "Reese's" shake.)
Pina Colada
1 frozen banana
1 cup milk/soy milk
1 to 2 tsp. shredded coconut
1/4 cup chopped or crushed pineapple (fresh is best, but canned is pretty good too)
Blend. One of my personal favorites!
Apple Pie
1 frozen banana
1/2 peeled, chopped apple
1 cup apple juice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
Blend. Great substitute for applesauce! Control the consistency
by adding more or less chopped apple.
Key Lime Pie
1 frozen banana
Juice of one lime, diluted with water or milk to make 1 cup of liquid
Blend. Use milk if you want it to be creamy. This one is really good!
PBO -- Pineapple Banana Orange
1 frozen banana
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup fresh or canned pineapple
Blend.
Melon Coolers
1 to 2 cups chunks of frozen, seeded watermelon
1/2 to 1 cup of water (enough to thin consistency to milk shake)
Blend.
Note: Watermelon freezes very well and is ideal for summer
shakes. I like to deal with the storage problem of melons by
cutting into chunks and freezing. If you don't want to seed the
watermelon, you don't have to -- the seeds will float to the
bottom of the glass.
Julius Shakes
1 cup juice
1 cup water
1 egg white
3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup ice (crushed is best)
Blend at high speed. Serves 2.
Note:
The egg white is to make the drink frothy, which it is famous
for. You can omit the white, or use that powdered egg white (I
think it's called meringue powder) that is sold in the Wilton
baking section of most stores.
Here's what I do: I wait for a sale on eggs, then get them home,
separate into whites and yolks and freeze. I freeze the whites in
small ice cube trays. I put the yolks into juice cans with
1/2 tsp salt and once frozen, put in a Ziploc-type bag. When I
want to make a Julius or meringue, I take out the white in cubes
and throw them in. Variations: Try any juice. Some of my
favorites are pineapple, strawberry, lime or cranberry. Try
mixing different kinds too. Cranberry and orange would be great
together, and there are so many juice blends at the store. Experiment to your heart's content!
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