Orange Mango Berry Smoothie

Saturday morning! A morning for sleeping in, no demands, and general peace and harmony, right? Yeah. So Jacob was up at 6:00 playing Nerf guns with the cat, and when Emmaleine got up half an hour later, they decided it was a great time to come play in the living room. Our bedroom door (lovely french doors, keep absolutely no sound out) is right off the living room. Don't get me wrong, they're great kids! They just have one volume. Jacob remembered the rules ("Don't knock on our door unless the house is burning down or there's blood.") and stood outside our door asking, quietly, if he could use the computer. Then he asked louder. And put his mouth right up to the crack in the door...and asked again, louder. So he played Hero Factory online for awhile, with all the sound effects on high, and Emmie was a cheerleader for his achievements. I decided the bed wasn't that comfortable after all.
The clamor for food was immediate, but it was a toss up between smoothies, blueberry cobbler, leftover pizza, or pancakes. After a few moments of reasoning, we decided on smoothies and pancakes! This is a basic recipe for what we had this morning, but feel free to mix and match your fruits - just be wary of melons as they don't blend very well with other fruits. I'll be posting many other smoothie recipes, but this was a hit this morning.

Orange Mango Berry SmoothiesMakes 36 ounces

• 2 naval oranges

• 1 fresh banana

• 1 frozen banana

• 1 1/2 cups frozen mango berry fruit blend

• 1 cup soy milk

• 1/2 cup soy yogurt or greek yogurt

 "Frozen bananas???" Yes. When you buy a bunch of bananas, buy a lot. Peel three or four, slice them, and put them in individual freezer baggies, and freeze them. Take them out as needed. They add nutritional value to your smoothies, a great creamy texture, and negate the need for icecubes. You can also replace dairy/soy ingredients with frozen bananas in some recipes, which we'll talk about later.
You can either peel your oranges whole, or slice them - pick your battle, basically. I think peeling them first, as opposed to peeling them sliced, works much better, with less juice squirting in your eyes.

Put the oranges in the blender (I'm using a Vita-Mix) and pulse three or four times until they're getting chopped up. Puree for about 30 seconds, or until you have some lovely orange juice going on in the bottom.
Add the yogurt, soy milk, and a dash of vanilla, fresh banana, frozen banana, and frozen fruit in that order.

Pulse three or four times, make sure nothing gets stuck under the blades. If it does, use a rubber spatula to un-wedge it. Blend for about 30 seconds, check it, and blend again for another 30 seconds or until smooth and creamy. It will be a nice thick consistency. Pour into as many glasses as you'd like, and enjoy the yumminess!