Smoothie Size Me

The months before our little star descended from the universe to bless us with her presence, I decided it was time to smooth out a few rough edges in my lifestyle. On the top of the list was my diet. With a challenging work & school schedule Leigh and I had slipped into the common habit of grabbing a bite at the drive through once or twice a week. The fast food phenomenon is quite curious really. You drive your car up to a little box, talk to a fuzzy sounding teenager and greasy food pops out of a window two minutes later. Talk about a society dependent on instant gratification! Well, every time I enjoyed these burgers in a box I knew I was hurting more than myself. I was afraid if we set up this pattern of behavior for ourselves, then we would certainly impose it on our children as well. This has got to stop. I decided I would mark my line in the sand here and now, and I had a secret weapon. My advocate's name was Morgan Spurlock. Some of you may know him as the producer of 30 days, but I was more interested in his earlier work, Supersize Me. Leigh, Rita and I all gathered for a screening of his eye opening documentary. It was just the reminder we needed to drop the take-out dependency. 6 weeks later, and I've got to admit, it just feels so much better to drive by those franchise food factories without a craving. And I soon realized although is seems convenient to drive-through, it actually takes more time and energy compared to opening the fridge, gathering a few ingredients and boiling some water. Plus food you've prepared ALWAYS tastes better.

Well, at this point you're probably wondering what any of this has to do with smoothies, right? There seems to be one small side effect to dropping junk-food cold turkey: I have a craving for blended fruit drinks every few days. Leigh seems to have avoided this, but I have a suspicion it's due to her regular injections - er ingestion of chocolate which I don't share a passion for. So after a couple of trips to JambaJuice I realized there was a more economical way to satiate my hunger and have fun too. So on my next unavoidable outing to the UN-happiest place on earth Wal-Mart, I shopped the small appliances isle for a blender. When I arrived home with new toy in hand I scoured as many fruits as I could to toss into the machine.
What fun to prepare all of these wonderful fresh fruits for liquification. Other than a little sherbet ice cream, there is no artificial sugar added, and what a treat it makes! So far I've thrown in bananas, strawberries, pineapple, oranges, lemons, ice cream, and ice with different proportions. I'm also going to try carrots, lime, and just about any other fruit I can get my hands on. I got a suggestion from a friend to freeze some of the fruit before blending for a different texture. So now I've extended an open invitation to all my friends to stop by anytime and bring something interesting to toss into my blender for a smoothie and good conversation.