Smoothie Lab: Lemon Express Smoothie

For our second smoothie session, we made up our own combinations instead of using recipes in the book. One of our young men dreamed up a lemon smoothie that would contain the whole, peeled fruit. To add flavor, we also added lemonade concentrate, lemon yogurt, and a mango-flavored soy milk. Results? Phenomenal. Here's a recreation of that experiment from our lab. This is a good jumping-off place for you to make your own invention!

2 servings

Drinks

Ingredients

1 whole, washed lemon
1 cup frozen lemonade concentrate
2 6 oz. containers lemon yogurt (we used Yoplait, fat free)
1/2 cup mango-flavored soy milk (from Safeway)
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
4 ice cubes
touch of sugar or honey if needed

Instructions

Grate some of the lemon peel to make 1 teaspoon and set aside.
Peel the lemon, and cut in chunks. Remove seeds.
Put ice in blender, then lemon chunks, then lemonade concentrate, yogurt, soy milk and peel.
Blend on medium to high setting in pulses until the ice is crushed and the smoothie looks all one color. Taste for flavor and sweetness; adjust if needed.

More Information

Here are some fun things to consider putting in your lab experiment, I mean, smoothie. You can work around allergies or lactose intolerance, as there are tons of good substitutes for milk, including soy, almond and coconut milk. We use approximately a cup of fruit to a cup of liquid to a cup or so of yogurt or frozen yogurt, ice cream, etc. See what you like. Freezing the fruit first is a great way to go.

Juices such as Cran-Raspberry for berry flavors
OJ blends, i.e., with mango
Pomegranate juice
Chocolate milk (preferably low-fat)
popsicles or fruit bars
Fruit n Cream bars from Trader Joe’s
Soy Creamy Cherry Chocolate Chip ice cream (also from Trader J0e’s – adds great dimension even in fruit smoothies!)
shredded coconut
chocolate chips
vanilla
decaf coffee
small cookies
frozen yogurt (Fat-free, sugar-free or otherwise)
ice cream (preferably light)
sorbet
gelato
fresh or frozen fruit of all kinds
cranberry sauce
pumpkin (great with vanilla ice milk and nutmeg!)

Let me know what else you come up with! Maybe we can hold a contest for the best, and most creative, and most unpredictable combinations.

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