Blueberry Smoothie

Katrina, my teenage granddaughter, loves to drink smoothies and helped me come up with this recipe. For the best flavour, use ripe bananas with sugar (brown) spots. The fresh berries and orange juice deliver vitamin C and other valuable antioxidants, and bananas give your children potassium. Makes four cups.

1/2 cup (125 ml) milk
2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup (125 ml) orange juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 tsp (2 ml) pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup (185 ml) natural yogurt or kefir
2 Tbsp (30 ml) honey
2 cups (500 ml) fresh blueberries (or frozen if not in season)

In a blender, blend milk and bananas until smooth. Add remaining ingredients, leaving the blueberries to the end.

Blend on low just long enough to mix ingredients well. Drink immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Variation: Substitute blueberries with raspberries or strawberries for a different flavour.

If you omit the orange juice and place the smoothie in the freezer for several hours, you will get frozen yogurt.

Source: alive #239, September 2002