DFW Mama

Summer Fruit Smoothies

Pineapple smoothie with strawberries!

Even with the 100+ degree weather in Dallas, we’re still trying our hardest to enjoy the summer. For my kids, it means they are pretty much living in the pool in our backyard.

Overall, there hasn’t been much cooking going on in our house.  We’re outside many hours a day and it’s simply too hot to have the oven on all the time.  We’ve been experimenting a lot with summer foods–fruit sushi, healthy, homemade popsicles, and, on one cooler morning, French Toast & fruit kebabs.  The underlying theme?  Fresh summer fruit of course!

In that vein, what might we be enjoying this week?  Summer fruit smoothies!  They are the perfect treat to enjoy outside by the pool, especially on really hot days.  Since that is where one would find my children on any given day, smoothies have been lifesavers to keep them hydrated and nourished.

Smoothies involve very little prep work and absolutely no heating apparatus. And, at ages 4 & 7, my kids are pretty adept at making these for themselves. Even at younger ages, they loved to pour things into the blender and press the buttons.

While we typically make our smoothies from whatever is in the house and ready to be used, a recent favorite was pineapple smoothies.  We had a lovely fresh pineapple just begging to be used somehow and this seemed like a great option.  The pineapple itself was sweet enough that other sweeteners didn’t seem necessary.  We added a floating strawberry or two for color just because.

Make your own!

I’m sorry to say that there isn’t one perfect secret recipe. Every batch we make turns out just a little bit different, depending on the ingredients in the house

For these specific pineapple smoothies, we used:
1 pineapple, peeled, cored, cut into chunks
1 cup of natural yogurt (plain)
Dash of vanilla
About 1 tsp of brown sugar

Puree the pineapple in a blender till smooth.

Add in yogurt, vanilla & brown sugar, continue to puree.

Test for thickness. If more liquid is needed, a splash of milk or water will thin it out. Pour extra liquid slowly, adding only a bit at a time until desired thickness is reached.

Serve immediately, garnish with fresh berries.

Leftovers, if you actually have them, make great popsicles too!

Other favorites include strawberry (my husband’s favorite), mango, watermelon, and blueberry. We also have discovered that natural vanilla yogurt provides a sweeter smoothie than natural plain yogurt. With vanilla yogurt, you can typically eliminate the dash of vanilla & brown sugar.