Two weeks from today I will be having my wisdom teeth removed. For some reason, waiting until I was 26 years old sounded like a good idea – yaaa not! As you get older this widely preformed surgery can get pretty difficult, and it also becomes harder and slower to recover from. So I have been plotting meals, vitamins and nutrients for probably the last month. My mom says she doesn’t think it will be as bad as I am planning on it being. But I’d rather have a bath tubs worth of applesauce ready to go.
Basically my diet during this time will consist of the above mentioned applesauce and pots and pots and pots full of mashed potatoes. I’m also going to try my hardest to consume as many smoothies as humanly possible to make sure I’m getting as well of a balanced diet one can with three (yes I only have three wisdom teeth) less teeth and chipmunk cheeks. And, I can tell you right now this smoothie will by far be the most consumed.
If I could only have one smoothie for the rest of my dog gone life it would be this one. As I mentioned last week, my breakfast is pretty much always this smoothie and toast. I love the sweetness that is naturally occurring from the banana and the strawberries. The texture, and of course flavor the oats give it, which also might I add helps fill you up and keep you full. Oats = fiber. Fiber = full belly. And the almond butter helps bring it all together.
The trick to having a creamy or thick smoothie is… banana. But more precisely… frozen banana. Bananas when frozen and blended create a creamy texture as opposed to ice which just gives you an icey slushy like texture.
If you haven’t frozen bananas before it couldn’t get any easier.
How to Freeze Bananas:
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil (the easiest way to keeping a clean pan, as it doesn’t allow moisture to soak through). One at a time, peel each banana and then lay it onto the lined baking sheet. Make sure the bananas are in a single layer and not touching. Touching = frozen mass of banana. Place baking sheet in the freezer overnight, or for at least 4-6 hours. Remove the baking sheet and transfer bananas to a freezer safer container or plastic bag and pop back into the freezer until use.
When they freeze bananas, some people actually cut them up before freezing. I’ve personally found this unnecessary. I just simply break the frozen banana with my hands into quarters before blending (then I wash my hands, because yeah they get a little bananay). If you struggle with strength in your hands or wrists from arthritis or something similar you may want to consider slicing your bananas before freezing just for ease. One other reason I like to leave them whole, is so that I can easily see how much banana I am using. A whole banana is a whole banana instead of 4-6 pieces. It’s just easier and involves less brain work when it comes down to it.
Logan and I buy probably 2-5 bunches of bananas weekly. Yes, weekly. We eat probably a third of them and freeze the rest. At any given time I usually have three or more bags of frozen bananas hanging out in the freezer, all dated, otherwise it’s just mass banana chaos.
With frozen bananas you can make smoothies, nice’ cream (frozen bananas blended to make ice cream) or thaw them to bake with. We usually allow our bananas to ripen to the point where they’re spotty like a giraffe. This allows them to be sweet but not a mushy mess when removing them from their peels. This is also my favorite stage to eat bananas as well.
Well there you have it… my favorite smoothie. And since I’m only weeks away from having my teeth yanked, I’d love to hear what your favorites are so I can add them to my smoothie rotation for a little variety.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 bananas, frozen
- 8 ounces fresh strawberries, hulled
- 3/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used So Delicious Original Coconut Milk)
- 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats (gluten free, if desired)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons almond butter
Directions:
Place all ingredients into a high speed blender and blend until creamy smooth. Drink immediately.
NOTES:1 1/2 bananas = 1 banana and 1/2 of another banana. 8 ounces of strawberries is roughly 8 medium strawberries (a little extra strawberry is a-okay). For a thicker smoothie reduce coconut milk to 2/3 cup. Please see post for a how to on freezing bananas.
