Recipe time: real smoothies

We haven't done a recipe in awhile... let's fix that, shall we?

With the rather incredible heat of the Carolina summer upon me, I've been trying to find easy ways to stay cool (that don't involve blasting the AC for hours on end). I normally enjoy cooking and eating hot and filling food but when the weather makes the slightest movement feel like swimming through a giant ocean of hot maple syrup, eating a huge plate of hot chicken loses much of its appeal.

Smoothies can come to our rescue - they are cool, refreshing, and can be quite filling.  The past few years have seen the growth of many smoothie vendors like Jamba Juice.  As an Operations geek, I appreciate the systems and lack of quality variance in these places, but I think their smoothies universally taste like sugared fruit ice cubes - there's not much "smooth" in there.

More than most recipes, the smoothie formula needs to be played with.  Everyone has their own preferred thickness and flavors.  Experiment with the amount of liquid you use and try many combinations of fruit.  I've included one of my favorites below as an example.  Here we go:

Ingredients:  1 banana, cut into slices; half cup blueberries; half cup mangos, diced; half cup whole milk; half cup vanilla yogurt (not frozen yogurt... but that would probably work well too)

1.  First thing is first - all fruit must be frozen.  ALL of it.  using unfrozen fruit will give you something that may taste ok, but has the consistency of snot, which is just as unappealing to consume as you would imagine.  Peel the banana and put it in the freezer whole.  Dice the mango and put in the freezer.  The blueberries can go in as they are.  I'm not sure why, but freezing the banana whole seems to work better than freezing it in pieces. It takes many hours for full freezing so this is something that should be planned for ahead of time.  I buy, prep, and freeze large quantities of fruit so I always have materials on hand.  You can use store-frozen fruit if you want, but I've had better results freezing my own.  Trader Joe's frozen fruit works pretty well.

2.  You have a Cuisinart, or similar style food processor, right?  If not, get one... they are a good investment and much better/more useful than standard blenders or "smoothie makers."

Get one of these. The cow shaped creamer is not required, but all the cool kids have one.

3.  Set up your food processor, then add the milk and yogurt in first.  Next goes the banana.  Then the mango.  Then the blueberries.

4. Seal the processor up and turn it on.  It may buck a little at first as the larger pieces of fruit are chopped up, but it should smooth out quickly.  Let it run for about 30 seconds, then power down, open up the top and stir the contents around with a spoon.  If desired you can thicken the smoothie with more fruit or thin it out with more milk.  A super secret step I do here sometimes is to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Blend for another 20-30 seconds, pour it into a tall glass, and enjoy.

This will yield a very smooth, somewhat creamy smoothie - I've heard it described as "like a milkshake"  which I think is a good thing.

Some may object to the dairy and the sugar.  I'd counter that the ingredients are all "real" food, and most of it is plant based.  Relax, it's summer time.

Health cannot be bought or sold

My friend Frank Forencich of Exuberant Animal just wrote a brilliant blog post about a recent Newsweek cover story.  You should ready what he had to say... right now.  I'll wait.

...

You back?  Pretty great, ya?  You should read his books.

I am a big fan of Ray Kurtzweil and I think he is right - the singularity is near.  But even when we have fully merged with our technology and have medicine that would seem like magic to us today - even then, true health will not be purchasable.  

That's because health is about much more than your blood chemistry and muscle tone.  It's about your relationship to the environment and the cultivation of your spirit.  Frank addressed the former in his post and I'll take a shot at the latter now.

Here's a business question to get things started:  What is the relationship between risk and reward?

The answer, as we all know, is that the two are directly related - an increased reward must come at an increased risk.  The trick is to understand and intelligently manage risks to maximize the chance of a favorable outcome.

The same holds true for vibrant health.  You must push yourself beyond where you were.  You must confront obstacles and do your best to overcome them.  You can only really value something you've worked for - if everything is simply handed to you the instant you desire it, you will always want more.  

This is not the same as "no pain, no gain."  Push too hard and you will injure yourself.  Push an injury too far and you will be crippled.  On a related note, do not force yourself to do an activity you hate.  If you cannot stand swimming, don't swim.  The challenge - and the joy - should come from testing your limits, not forcing yourself out the door.

 Arnulfo Quimare and Scott Jurek. Look at the joy on their faces.

Parkour is a great example of the risk/reward relationship. To the general public, parkour is high-risk, even dangerous.  What they don't see are the hours of training and preparation that go into each big jump.  The risk is certainly there and, to a large extent, is the whole point.  There cannot be growth (and therefore health) without it.  But a good traceur is never reckless.  I would write a lot more on the subject but I found the following video from Michigan Parkour that sums it all up nicely:

You cannot buy this kind of health from the doctor, a diet book, or a pill.  Technology may be able to some day grant you a beautiful body on demand and you may be able to "download" parkour abilities faster than you can say "I know kung fu," but you will never be healthy until you get out there and test your mettle.  If you honestly push your limits I think you'll be surprised at what you are capable of.  

Update on Monday, June 28, 2010 at 8:39PM by Colin Pistell

Tristan just tore me apart in the comments and I have tried to recover my honor with a reply.  Check it out below and let me know where you stand on all of this?

Hot like fire

To say it's been hot down here in Chapel Hill would be a bit of an understatement.  I think we've crossed into HAWT territory.

I am a cool weather person.  I like it when you need to put on a light jacket when you go outside.  Once the thermometer crosses the 90 degree point I revert back to some hard coded primal monkey behavior - all I want to do is lie in the shade, sleep, and eat fruit.

Training, therefore, has been a big challenge for me these past two weeks.  I feel slower and fatigue much faster. I tend to do better when others are out there to push me, so I was grateful to be joined by Sean on Wednesday. We had a blast, despite the heat, thanks in large part to some sprinklers.  Check it out: