How to Smoothie or Your Blender is not just for booze

Okie dokie... My new favorite thing to make is the Smooooooothieeee!

There's a gazillion different recipes out there and here's mine.

1 cup fat free vanilla yogurt

1/4-1/2 cup skim milk

1 cup frozen fruit

1/4 cup berry puree (I make this up in my "spare time" so there's no seeds in it)

2 tbsp ground flax

1 scoop protein powder.

2-3 tbsp agave or honey

add to blender, you might need more or less milk to get it going. Blend until smooooooth. Enjoy!

Now I can hear some of you thinking "Um WTF is with Lish and the Fat Free dairy!?"... well this year, I was told I had high cholesterol (saaad face). Which means low fat dairy, even less meat than I already eat, and enough bloody oatmeal to knock over a Scotsman. You will see some of this madness reflected in my recipes from now on. Besides that, I'm bloody FAT, so it's not going to kill me to eat the "light" crap for awhile. ALSO, this smoothie has between 400 and 500 calories AS IS! So if you're bent on using the full fat dairy, BEWARE! You could be blasting down a 700 calorie beverage just for breakfast. Some smoothie recipes can hide up to 1000 calories in their yummy yummy goodness... they are gooood though, aren't they ;)

On Fat, and Other Necessary Evils

You may have noticed, there is no tofu in my cooking. Nor is there likely to ever be any tofu. I've tried it, and it's nasty. It seems that no matter what one does to the stuff, it insists on having the consistency of crumbled erasers, and the vague taste of styrofoam. We eat enough soy indirectly to keep the industry running even without Toe Fue; think about it, what do chickens eat now? pigs and cows? what do we cook with? it's all soy based! ALL OF IT! gah. ok. I'm done with that...

Fat.Oh, did you know that tofu has more fat per serving than a porkchop?

Some fat is required in a diet. It is what makes meat taste so good. It assists the digestive process. It makes your brain work properly, and your joints move smoothly. It's alot easier to choke down a little fat on the edge of a steak now and then than it is to gulp fish oil supplements! So don't be a sissy! Just EAT!

The overall quality of diet in my house sucks. I've told you before that 4 nights out of 7 I have to rush to get dinner on the table. Sometimes that means I give convenience a place ahead of wholesomeness. Minute rice, for example, is something we eat more than we should. Canned condensed soups are also not the best thing- they contain more than 3/4 the reccomended daily intake per serving of sodium, and they're processed to smithereens. Cheese Whiz, and processed cheese slices; yes they are disgusting, full of salt, and empty of nutrition... BUT what I'm trying to say here is that when used in moderation, and to make the "yucky healthy" crap more palatable- WHO CARES! My 4 year old will eat ANYTHING if I give him ketchup on it. I mean ANYTHING. Brussels Sprouts. Fish. Liver. Whatever I want him to eat, goes down quite nicely with some tomato snot. My 35 year old, will eat his veggies with or without cheese, but he sure makes fewer faces about it when his broccoli is basted in molten cheese-like stuff. In the end, if it gets them eating, all's fair in love and cooking.

The moral of the story is- The devil is in your kitchen, keeping the scurvy at bay. Give the man a hand!