The Best Damn Smoothie Recipe

I’ve been reading A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table. I highly recommend! This beautiful and charming book is a cross between a cookbook of delicious recipes and a moving recount of a woman’s life impacted by her family’s and her own love of food and food preparation. Everyone should read this and realize that it’s important to cook with your kids, and it’s important to eat meals as a family. I’m not surprised that the author’s blog is so popular- she write in a way that is honest, simple, and compelling, just like her recipes.

I love to cook and bake, but my apartment’s oven is a shameful disappointment- it heats really unevenly, and I pretty much have to rotate everything that goes in there several times, as well as play with the bake vs. broil settings to prevent the bottom from getting burned while the top is undercooked. I know it sounds silly, but when I cook something and it turns out badly, I take it personally. I can handle bad knits, I can handle a bad day at work, but a bad turn in the kitchen? Makes me want to sob like a little child.

A recent baking success has been Snickerdoodles. Have you ever eaten a Snickerdoodle? I made a batch on the weekend and they were AMAZING. Like the perfect cross between a doughnut and a cookie. Simple, sugary, lovely. I wish I had snapped some pictures before they all got eaten! Recipe (and an accurate photo) are here. But here is a recent winning recipe from my kitchen (possibly because it doesn’t involve the oven). My husband is in LOVE with this. Heck, I’m in love with this! It is, without question, the beast smoothie I’ve ever had, anywhere.

The Best Damn Chocolate/PB/Banana Smoothie You’ll Ever Have

Ingredients:

1 banana

3 cups of skim milk

7-10 ice cubes (if you want it really thick, add more ice cubes)

1/3 cup of smooth peanut butter

1/4 cup chocolate syrup

Directions: through it all into a blender and let ‘er rip for about 4 minutes, or until all your ice has been fully incorporated into the smoothie. The long your blend, the frothier it gets.

Servings: 4. Or two huge portions that pretty much make you full for hours, which is what happens in our home.

G is a total chocoholic, so you might be happier with a bit less syrup, but in my house that would be sacrilege. If you try it, let me know what you think.