notes, quotes & anecdotes of a year fast passing

in the midst of this insanely snowy winter, there are days that i want traditional winter foods (read: hot cocoa and soup), but other days, i want to ignore the weather and pretend i’m somewhere warm. enter a random craving for a creamsicle smoothie!

smoothies are one of the easiest things to make, as long as you’ve got a trusty blender. i always like to experiment with different frozen fruits, yogurts, boosters and more. one blog that i religiously read suggests always adding a handful of SPINACH to your smoothies. she swears you’d never taste it in there, but it offers tons of vitamins. well, this was more of a dessert-treat smoothie, though, so i nixed the extra healthy boost and stuck with fat free, vitamin c-packed ingredients.

after weeks of waiting, i finally grabbed all the necessary ingredients (not many!) from the grocery store, so excited to start creating. i then realized, though, that i LEFT MY CAMERA AT HOME IN CONNECTICUT.  as of thursday night, my solution was to take pictures with my iphone (please excuse all the non-zoomed, vertical photos for this recipe), but thanks to my roommate, the things i created on friday were taken with a real-live camera. PHEW. (thanks, karen!) until those, though, here are some simple camera phone pictures… which, in hindsight, didn’t come out too bad.

3/4 cup (one 6 oz. container) fat free vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup mandarin oranges in 100% juice

1/4 cup skim milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 heaping Tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate

ice cubes

a couple of hours before you are ready to make your smoothie, pour the 1/2 cup of mandarin oranges (and the juice they come in) into an ice cube tray. pop it in the freezer and let them solidify until you are ready to blend.

in your blender, combine the yogurt, mandarine cubes, milk, vanilla and frozen orange juice concentrate. blend until it’s well-mixed. add the ice cubes and blend some more until they are chopped up and mixed throughout the smoothie.

pour into a glass and drink as is, or dress it up with some whipped topping and an orange. if i had some fresh oranges, i definitely would have added a slice to the rim of the glass :)

click here for a printable version of the recipe!