Summer Smoothies

Vitamin packed indulgence in a glass

The summer sun swelters outside. Inside it is warm, the fruit bowl sits lusciously on the window sill, bursting with seasonal abundance - peaches, mangoes, grapes as well as the year round banana. All of the fruit is at point of perfect ripeness, begging to be eaten right now before it descends into a pool of pulp. It could have stayed in the fridge and been brought out in thrifty relays to ripen for a day, but there is something about a full fruit bowl, a promise of condition and succulence, that time and again makes me arrange it as a still life, as I unpack the shopping, only to be wrong-footed when it all ripens at the same time. Typically the children are only bothering to eat apples, which last forever in the fridge. Desperate measures are called for.

Ice Indulgence

It is time to make smoothies. Even children, who wouldn't give a second discern to raw fruit, can normally be beguiled by a smoothy. It is also a special treat for adults, an easy thing to do for visitors who drop by, when it's too hot for tea. Any ripe fruit can be used, even if it is slightly overripe, as long as it still smells good and not fermenting. You get a mega-dose of vitamins, plus calcium from the yoghurt and milk, almost a meal in itself. Healthy eating in a glass!

Giving a method for a smoothy is hardly necessary. It depends on what you have in the house already. Use this example as a template and adapt and convert it as you like. As long as you use fruit that is truly ripe, it'll be delicious. The one valuable piece of equipment is a liquidiser or food processor, without that I'd just have to force feed the children the fruit as is, it is far too laborious to puree fruit by hand on a hot summer's day. The joy making smoothies is the effortlessness.

No set quantities, but as a guide I'd use one mango with one or two bananas. Just peel and stone the fruit, fling it into the liquidiser with a large dollop of plain yoghurt and a cup of milk and blitz. If it is too thick for your liking add more milk. Chuck in some ice cubes for instant chill factor.

A tip for dealing with mangoes: without peeling, slice off both the long sides as close to the stone as you can., cut the flesh in a criss-cross fashion to make 1cm cubes, without going right through the skin, then push the skin up to invert the cubes into a mango hedgehog! The children eat them like this and a very messy firm it is, needing a bath afterwards.

Suggestions for fruit combinations:

• Mango and banana
• Pear, berry and banana
• Peach and berry
• Strawberry and banana
• Peach, apricot and banana

Any fruit in the whole wide world can be added to this list, experiment with whatever is in season and make up your own combinations.

Bananas make a good background for most other fruits and give a good velvety texture, besides being the most likely fruit to have colse to overripe. If you want to move away from the Healthy fruit scenario, you can use bananas with a few teaspoons of hot chocolate to make a scrummy, decadent milkshake. Or go the whole way and put a blob of vanilla ice-cream in too. I remember as a child, my mother adding a raw egg to ours to build us up. It made it wonderfully frothy, but then nobody worried about salmonella in those days - I wouldn't advise it unless you have a guaranteed source of salmonella-free eggs.

If you have berries of any sort stashed in the freezer, you can throw in a handful still frozen and watch the colour transform as you blitz. Mulberries, blackberries, youngberries, blueberries all add deep colour and abundance of useful nutrients, loads of anti-oxidants - instant immune boosters in winter, if you can keep them until then. I normally freeze strawberries as puree, when the strawberry harvest overwhelms us, so can bring it out for a convert later on in the year. The other berries I freeze whole, stalks and leaves picked off, so they are ready to use. You can also buy frozen berries in mixed packs, which would work fine.

Whatever fruit you're using, let the children press the buttons on the liquidiser and then dole out the smoothie, in glasses with straws, easy in the knowledge that the vitamin quota for the day is being filled.

Copyright 2006 Kit Heathcock

Summer Smoothies

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Icy Tomato Granita - A Refreshing Summer Snack For Gastric Bypass Patients

Summer is prime time for enjoying sweet tomatoes plucked fresh from the vine. For the someone managing their weight with a bariatric surgical procedure such as gastric bypass or adjustable gastric band (lap-band) tomatoes can contribute a sweet treat full of nutrients and vitamins without the guilt connected with other sweet indulgences. Tomatoes, which are mostly water, are low in fat and low-glycemic. That means that even with all their sunshine sweet goodness they will not work on blood glucose levels the way processed sweets do.

Consider this: one cup of raw tomatoes provides 38 calories, 2 grams protein, 8 grams carbohydrate, 2 grams fiber and over 50% daily value Vitamin C, 22% daily value Vitamin A, and 13% daily value potassium. A large study confirmed that men who ate lots of tomato products had a greatly reduced risk of prostate cancer; the researches theorized that the lycopene in the tomatoes might be the protective factor.

Ice Indulgence

During the warm summer months tomatoes are inexpensive and widely ready freshly picked at roadside farm stands and community farmers markets. Look for a wide range of fresh varieties that include heirlooms, cherries, plums, and beefsteak tomatoes. Select tomatoes that are heavy for their size, evenly colored and unblemished. Even unripe they should be more pink than green.

Tomatoes should be kept for only a few days, stored at room temperature out on the counter. Wash under cool running water to remove dirt and debris. Tomatoes that are not fully ripe may be stored in a paper bag at room temperature which will promote ripening, but check often to avoid spoilage.

For a refreshing and surprisingly sweet treat use fresh ripe tomatoes to create this Tomato Granita ice sweetmeat that has no added sugar but is full of sweet vine-ripened tomato flavor. It is easy to prepare and elegant to serve.

Tomato Granita

Ingredients:

1pound beefsteak tomatoes, chopped

2 Tablespoons raspberry vinegar

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Place chopped tomatoes, raspberry vinegar, olive oil, and salt in a blender and puree until smooth. Pour the tomato puree straight through a fine sieve into an 8-inch quadrilateral glass or ceramic baking dish, discard the strained solids. Place, uncovered, in the freezer, for two hours, stirring occasionally until level and firm. To serve, scrape the blend with a fork to form snow-cone like ice crystals. Measure 1/2 cup servings and enjoy for a snack or sweetmeat as part of your wholesome weight loss surgical operation diet. A 1/2 cup serving of Tomato Granita provides 17 calories, 1 gram protein and 3 grams carbohydrate.

Icy Tomato Granita - A Refreshing Summer Snack For Gastric Bypass Patients

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Summer Smoothies

Vitamin packed indulgence in a glass

The summer sun swelters outside. Inside it is warm, the fruit bowl sits lusciously on the window sill, bursting with seasonal fullness - peaches, mangoes, grapes as well as the year round banana. All of the fruit is at point of perfect ripeness, begging to be eaten right now before it descends into a pool of pulp. It could have stayed in the fridge and been brought out in frugal relays to ripen for a day, but there is something about a full fruit bowl, a promise of condition and succulence, that time and again makes me arrange it as a still life, as I unpack the shopping, only to be wrong-footed when it all ripens at the same time. Typically the children are only bothering to eat apples, which last forever in the fridge. Desperate measures are called for.

Ice Indulgence

It is time to make smoothies. Even children, who wouldn't give a second discern to raw fruit, can ordinarily be beguiled by a smoothy. It is also a special treat for adults, an easy thing to do for visitors who drop by, when it's too hot for tea. Any ripe fruit can be used, even if it is slightly overripe, as long as it still smells good and not fermenting. You get a mega-dose of vitamins, plus calcium from the yoghurt and milk, approximately a meal in itself. Healthy eating in a glass!

Giving a formula for a smoothy is hardly necessary. It depends on what you have in the house already. Use this example as a template and adapt and convert it as you like. As long as you use fruit that is truly ripe, it'll be delicious. The one valuable piece of equipment is a liquidiser or food processor, without that I'd just have to force feed the children the fruit as is, it is far too laborious to puree fruit by hand on a hot summer's day. The joy development smoothies is the effortlessness.

No set quantities, but as a guide I'd use one mango with one or two bananas. Just peel and stone the fruit, fling it into the liquidiser with a large dollop of plain yoghurt and a cup of milk and blitz. If it is too thick for your liking add more milk. Chuck in some ice cubes for instant chill factor.

A tip for dealing with mangoes: without peeling, slice off both the long sides as close to the stone as you can., cut the flesh in a criss-cross fashion to make 1cm cubes, without going right straight through the skin, then push the skin up to invert the cubes into a mango hedgehog! The children eat them like this and a very messy company it is, needing a bath afterwards.

Suggestions for fruit combinations:

• Mango and banana
• Pear, berry and banana
• Peach and berry
• Strawberry and banana
• Peach, apricot and banana

Any fruit in the whole wide world can be added to this list, experiment with whatever is in season and make up your own combinations.

Bananas make a good background for most other fruits and give a good velvety texture, besides being the most likely fruit to have nearby overripe. If you want to move away from the Healthy fruit scenario, you can use bananas with a few teaspoons of hot chocolate to make a scrummy, decadent milkshake. Or go the whole way and put a blob of vanilla ice-cream in too. I remember as a child, my mum adding a raw egg to ours to build us up. It made it wonderfully frothy, but then nobody worried about salmonella in those days - I wouldn't propose it unless you have a guaranteed source of salmonella-free eggs.

If you have berries of any sort stashed in the freezer, you can throw in a handful still icy and watch the colour transform as you blitz. Mulberries, blackberries, youngberries, blueberries all add deep colour and fullness of beneficial nutrients, loads of anti-oxidants - instant immune boosters in winter, if you can keep them until then. I ordinarily freeze strawberries as puree, when the strawberry harvest overwhelms us, so can bring it out for a convert later on in the year. The other berries I freeze whole, stalks and leaves picked off, so they are ready to use. You can also buy icy berries in mixed packs, which would work fine.

Whatever fruit you're using, let the children press the buttons on the liquidiser and then dole out the smoothie, in glasses with straws, easy in the knowledge that the vitamin quota for the day is being filled.

Copyright 2006 Kit Heathcock

Summer Smoothies

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