Taste Test: Pineberry Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 medium ripe banana
1 6 oz. can of pineapple juice
1/2 cup vanilla non-fat yogurt
1 cup frozen raspberries, partially thawed

Thought the smoothie to the right may look exactly like the one I made yesterday, it is actually from a different recipe and includes some alternate ingredients. While the texture was consistent with yesterday's Runner's Delight Smoothie, the Dole Pineberry Smoothie has, as its name suggests, a six ounce can of pineapple juice, as well as employing vanilla yogurt rather than milk.

One thing I had not considered, mostly I suppose because the information as not available with the online recipe, is the total calorie count for the Runner's Delight. The Dole Pineberry, however, was clipped from a newspaper by my wife, so it had much more nutritional information with it. As you can see from the image to the left, the he recipe makes 2 servings, each containing 180 calories.

The glass pictured above is actually a 2 serving glass which I prepared and drank following the 6.6 mile run I completed just minutes prior. Also, I erred in purchasing regular vanilla yogurt rather than non-fat. This drink served as both my breakfast and recovery drink, so the total calories was not a concern for me.

I greatly enjoyed the flavor and consistency of the Pineberry Smoothie. The pineapple juice was not overpowering but added a pleasant citrus aspect to the taste. I also did not anticipate enjoying the including of vanilla yogurt (something I've never tried on its own), but my anti-yogurt bias was wrestled into submission by the overall flavor of the smoothie. I'll be making this one again!

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Taste Test: Runner's Delight Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1 small banana (fresh or frozen)
1 cup milk
2 tbsp orange juice concentrate

Just one more dance I'm a little late to is the homemade smoothie craze, which I came to when searching for suitable post-run recovery drinks. For the past week or so I have been recovering from my runs with a Slim Fast Optima Shake, and while remarkable satisfying (and tasty, too) I want to continue to expand my horizons.

Smoothies are ridiculously easy to make, as evidenced by the fact that I can make them! While making my own definitely qualifies as "expanding my horizons," this first smoothie is pretty tame and contain none of the "weirder" (like whey) ingredients more serious runners/athletes employ. Perhaps, the desire to include more adventurous ingredients will come in time...

The first smoothie recipe (pictured to the right) I made (just this morning following an eight mile run), was found online at Divine Caroline. Pretty simple really, and one which probably could have been figured out through experimentation--something I will now do using this as a basis. This standard smoothie was very easy to make, and delicious too, probably not too dissimilar to the smoothies one can buy at McFastfood--though I have no personal basis for that idea.

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!