Cooking recipes

Lip-smacking cranberry banana smoothie.

Heres a quick and simple cranberry infused recipe for breakfast that is refreshing, tart and food allergy friendly (around our humble casita, anyway). Its dairy-free, soy-free, egg, corn and nut free. And naturally, its you-know-what free. Spring is around the corner, Babycakes.

Are you ready? Are you feeling a little bloated and pasty? Do you crave something light and refreshing?

Something to wake up your winter saturated taste buds?

I knew it. Pucker up.

Cranberry-Banana Smoothie - A Dairy-Free Recipe 

You dont have to be a vegan to appreciate this quick and easy breakfast. Cranberries make it tart- so please taste test and adjust the sweetness to your liking.

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup frozen organic cranberries
1 small ripe banana, peeled, sliced (frozen bananas rock)
1 cup cold non-dairy milk
A splash of cranberry juice
1 tablespoon raw agave nectar, to taste
1-2 tablespoons vanilla rice protein powder, to taste

Instructions: 

Combine the ingredients in a blender, cover and blend on a lower speed to process the cranberries. Add an ice cube or two if you like it super cold.

Rev it up to high till smooth and frothy.

Grab a straw.

Sip.

Feel the cranberry love.

Serves 1.

Ive made versions of this simple, all-fruit sorbet before, with raspberries and peaches and with sour cherries and apricots. You can add a little sugar if you feel it needs it, but really just the fruit is usually sweet enough by itself.



Strawberries are not really in season right now, but maybe you froze some earlier, or if not, maybe you will be lucky and find some of the day-neutral strawberries that continue to produce through the summer at a farmers market.



6 to 8 servings

15 minutes prep time, plus time to freeze





1 quart (4 cups) strawberries

2 large bananas



Wash and hull the strawberries, and spread them on a tray to freeze. Freeze until solidly frozen.



The bananas should be nicely ripe. They can be frozen whole, with the peels on, or peeled and frozen.



Once the fruit is frozen, let it sit out of the freezer for 10 minutes (I know, I know) then put it into a food processor. Obviously, if you left the peel on the bananas they should be peeled first. Cut off the ends, and cut a slit from end to end. It should come off fairly easily. At any rate, cut the bananas into chunks before putting them in the food processor.



Process the fruit until very smoothly blended, probably about 5 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides regularly.



Thats it! Serve at once, or put the sorbet into a container to return to the freezer. If it is left in the freezer for any length of time, it will likely need to be tempered in the fridge for 10 or 15 minutes before serving.









Last year at this time I made Pizza-Style Zucchini and Chocolate Icebox Cake with Raspberries and ranted about the quality of whipping cream nowadays.