Pineappuccino (or Home-made Pineapple Frozen Whip)

Pineappuccino image from Pixabay

This refreshing fruity drink is a take off on the frappiccino family of sweet frozen fruit drinks that my granddaughters love so much.  It is also a bit of a copy cat of a famous pineapple whip from one of the world's favourite amusement parks.

Here are the ingredients for making 4 servings of this delicious, cooling drink:

• 1 cup ice cubes
• 2 pineapples, peeled and cored (you can use the core too, if you have a Vitamix or Blendex)
• 1 organic lime, juiced
• 2 tablespoons raw honey or maple syrup (or sweetener of choice)
• 1 1/2 cups of coconut milk 

• Add all the above to the cannister of your Vitamix or Blendex blenders... other blenders may need to do this in a couple of batches.  
• Place on the lid securely
• Pulse or blend until a smooth, frozen consistency
• Pour into a tall glass and enjoy!

Locavor Black and Blue Smoothie

This delicious smoothie is made mostly from locally grown fruits: Black berries, our seedless green grapes, a friend's blue grapes (not Concords), and some apples from a farmer down the hill. The only non-local item is the coconut milk I used, that brought this all together more like a very flavourful shake!
Combine:
-1 C. Black and Green Grapes, washed and soaked in Apple Cider-Water, and picked off the stems (fussy, but worth it)
-Ripe, even mooshy, Blackberries
-Cored and cut up 1 - 2 Apples (your choice)
-1 - 3 C. Coconut Milk (the drinkable stuff)
NOTES:
I am careful to use organically-grown fruit just to cut down on the unnecessary toxins, and to amp up the flavour (I swear that organic produce tastes like "real fruit")

The blue grapes are very beautiful on the vine, etc., but they don't have a great flavour-- probably made just to make wine.  They also have seeds in them, which make a high speed blender a great tool and the seeds are good to consume this way.

The seedless green grapes are extremely flavourful and sweet.

The blackberries are from a cultivated, thornless variety and are sweet and very local-- our backyard. One or two bushes keeps us in frozen berries for a long while.  Anthony William, the Medical Medium, says that wild blueberries are the bomb, but if you can not get them, don't rely on cultivated blueberries-- use cultivated blackberries instead!  See his heavy metal detox here. 

My husband likes his smoothies a little sweeter than I like mine and adds in honey or stevia, and he often adds in superfoods (as I mention in other recipes on this site).

Even if you don't have grapes or blackberries, I know that you have some berries or other fruits that grow locally for you... use them in smoothies whenever there is an abundance of them... locally grown fruits and berries have the advantage of being fresher at the time of consumption if they are eaten at harvest time, and that means more nutrients are retained.  Enjoy!

Blueberry Ambrosia Green Smoothie

I got a little carried away with social networking this morning and forgot about eating.  Now, that tends to sound like a good thing for someone who could likely live on a desert island (but not a dessert island, haha) off the resources of several years of eating well, but what generally happens is that I get really hungry later into the evening and risk going into the *see-food diet until I finally haul myself off to bed. (*I see food, I eat it)  I am 64 years old.  I know now that if I skip meals, I end up hungry and hunting.

So, the best fast meal that I know of is a green smoothie.  And the most satisfying for me, in the place where I am at, sort of craving to feel full, but also wanting that not-too-sweet, fruit-and-greens combo, is a smoothie I refer to as Blueberry Ambrosia.  It has that plump silky yumminess of the old "fruit ambrosia" salad recipe that I remember from afternoon teas at some church as a young person.  My own mom actually never bothered fussing with dainty, yummy recipes, so I know that she didn't send it along with me (I was an inveterate tea-server as were all the young teens in my day who had any church connection in small-town Saskatchewan). But someone else's mother or grandmother took the time to make it, repeatedly, and I salute them with this thick smoothie (no, it is not 'thickalicious'-- there is no trademark oatmeal in this one).

INGREDIENTS:
1 Banana, Chunked (organic)
1 C. Frozen Blueberries (organic)
1 C. Frozen Mango (organic)
1 T. Chiaseed, ground in Coffee Bean Grinder
2 Handfuls of Tender Greens
2 C. Coconut Dream

Whirl up in your blender until thick and silky smooth.  Blueberries let no green shine through, so it will be a dark purply, brown colour.  The fruit and berries are filled with health phytonutrients that most of you are aware of, so don't be worried about "nasty carbs".  The coconut milk has medium chain fatty acids that help pump up the immune system, and the chia seed is the highest plant source of Omega-3 essential fatty acids, good for heart and brain health.

I think you'll love it!

Eggless Nog for a Cholesterol-Free Christmas

This Luscious Eggless Nog is #5 of the 7 Christmas Smoothie Recipes.  My husband says he likes this much better than the store-bought egg nog, or what we remember of it.  Hope you like it too!  Sign up for the recipes under the recipe itself!

LUSCIOUS Eggless Nog:

• Add 3 tbsp or so of Chia Seed soaked in 1 cup of Water- for 10 minutes before making nog. I pour this into blender and add 
• 3 cups of Coconut Dream or the milk of a young Thai Coconut,  
• 1 tbsp of Coconut oil, 
• a packet of Sweet Leaf  Stevia, 
• 6-8 frozen Bananas, 
• Blender may be topped up with more Water. 
• Blend up- add Pumpkin Pie Spice and Nutmeg to taste. It really does taste very similar to egg nog.

Perfect Merry Christmas drink for that health-conscious vegan sweetie! 

Here are the other 6 Christmas Smoothie Recipes for you to sample!

Cranberry-Apple, Green Grape and Chia Christmas Smoothie

Cranberry Lassi with Coconut Milk, Cumin, Chia and Ginger Smoothie

Mandaringo-Ginger Smoothie

Christmas Cake Smoothie

Sweet Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Chocolate-Mint Smoothie