To make the perfect smoothie you must have a FROZEN banana. 

Before I was involved in a food co-op, I would take a trip to Whole Foods or Kroger and look for banana deals.  Often grocery stores will sell you large amounts of over-ripe bananas.  And when you eat mostly organic like we do . . . any sale helps!

I wait until the bananas are a little past ripe.  Typically I break the peeled banana in half.  (By being smaller we have found that our VitaMix does a better job pulverizing them.)  I stick the bananas on a plate and place them in the freezer.  You could also use a cookie sheet.  When the bananas are frozen I place them in a Ziploc back for later use.

When it comes time to make a smoothie, forget the ice . . . give me a frozen banana!  It adds flavor, thickness, and sweetness.

And what do I put in our smoothies?  Do you want the healthy version or our splurge smoothie?

I’ll give you the ingredients for our splurge (for a family of 5):

• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 cups homemade kefir
• a gigantic blob of peanut butter
• 4-5 tbls cocoa
• lots of frozen bananas

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