Easy Banana Smoothie Recipe:
This delicious, pretty healthy recipe can be customized to please pretty much everyone’s individual taste. It’s versatile in that you can make the smoothies with the freshest in-season fruits or enjoy the convenience of using frozen fruit if you wouldn’t use all the fresh fruit before it goes bad. I do prefer to use fresh bananas in my recipe but they can also be sliced and frozen. The ingredients are pretty simple and can be adjusted for sweetness by using less sugar or if you like a slushy smoothie, like I do, add more ice - which also cuts the sweetness a bit. The banana makes for a pretty creamy smoothie so I don’t add milk or yogurt to mine. After you’ve used the recipe a few times, experimenting with your favorite fruits, you’re sure to find a winner. We made three today, Banana Berry & Pineapple, Banana Mango Peachy Pineapple, and my favorite Banana Berry Blend. Each batch makes 2 servings and you can freeze one for later, it’ll defrost in about 2 hours at room temperature.
Banana Berry & Pineapple:
1 Whole Medium Banana
1 Cup Strawberry
1 Cup Pineapple
2 Tbsp Turbinado sugar
1/3 Cup Orange juice
8 Ice cubes (or more if you want a slushier smoothie)
Break up the banana, or slice if you must and drop into the blender. Wash your fruit and slice if necessary, not such a big deal with the berries but a must for the pineapple. My pineapple had directions on the back of the label for the correct way to slice it up. Drop your sliced fruit into the blender. Add the sugar, though I have to say, if I am saving my sugar intake for dessert later - I forgo the extra sugar. A lot of fruit is ripe enough to sweeten the smoothie anyway. Add the orange juice, and here, I think a little pulp adds more flavor. Finally, add the ice and blend it up until it’s smooth!
Banana Mango Peachy Pineapple:
1 Whole Medium Banana
1 Cup Mango
1/2 Cup Peach (I removed the skin when I sliced it)
1/2 Cup Pineapple
2 Tbsp Turbinado sugar
1/3 Cup Orange juice
8 Ice cubes (or more if you want a slushier smoothie)
Banana Berry Blend:
1 Half Medium Banana
1 Cup Strawberry
1 Cup Blueberries
2 Tbsp Turbinado sugar
1/3 Cup Orange juice
8 Ice cubes (or more if you want a slushier smoothie)
Adjustments that can be made to this recipe include:
It’s basically a 1 Banana: 2 Cups Fruit recipe - so try what you like, the possibilities are endless!
Try eliminating the extra sugar, the riper the fruit, the sweeter the smoothie.
Use another fruit juice or add a splash of water instead (necessary for the blender blades to move freely)
Add more ice, an easy way to sneak more water into your day and stay hydrated!
Peel the Love!
Dole has set out to remind everyone that bananas aren't just for brown bag lunches or looking good in the fruit arrangements. “The Peel the Love" “Banana Cabana” Tour is traveling around the county in custom food trucks that will offer recipes, samples and even swag—t-shirts, sunglasses, etc... using Dole bananas and other fruit. They've also reached out to regional bloggers, like myself, to help put the word out. In the Virginia Beach/Norfolk area, they'll be visiting the following locations within the next few days:
- Sunday, 29 June - Norfolk Naval Commissary, 1588 Mall Drive, Norfolk, VA, 11:00am – 5:00pm
- Monday, 30 June – Oceana Naval Commissary, 1300 Oceana Blvd, Virginia Beach, VA, 3:00pm – 6:00pm
If you're outside of the Hampton Roads area, they'll be stopping at these spots too:
- Saturday, 28 June – 7Th Annual Chesty Puller Memorial Bridge 10K and Kids Fun Run, Historic Downtown, West Point, VA (Town Square), 7:00am – 10:00am
- Thursday, 3 July – Fort Lee VA. Commissary, 400 Shop Rd., Fort Lee, VA, 11:00am – 5:00pm
The events are free and ID cards are not required to visit the NOB and Oceana cabana stops. Grilled, blended, sliced—however you might like them, delicious treats made from bananas will be available for visitors to try. You can grab a merch item if you bring by a receipt displaying a purchase of 3 lbs. of Dole bananas too! You' might possibly see a walking banana if you stop by the food truck—who wouldn't want to see a huge walking banana?
Dole selected cities that have shown to have a great appreciation for the yellow fruit when planning out stops on the Peel the Love tour. In all, 26 banana-loving cities will be visited by the Banana Cabana Memorial Day through Labor Day.
To help celebrate the banana, make a cold, refreshing smoothie using the recipes my wife and I use here at home. Click the photo below:
Follow this link for more information on Peel the Love
Here is the official blurb from Dole:
Peel the Love is a year-long Dole campaign that celebrates the fun, irreverence and whimsical side of bananas and other tropical fruit. The program includes everything from delicious new banana recipes, serving, pairing and entertaining tips.
About DOLE Bananas
DOLE® Bananas are the top-selling banana in America and the world — in both conventional and organic product categories. From its founding by James Drummond Dole, the company has built its reputation on a ceaseless commitment to quality. Today, the DOLE® brand stands for more than 150 years of quality produce — and the world’s largest supplier of fresh fruits and vegetables, including bananas. Dole strives to grow, produce, harvest, transport and distribute its bananas and other produce in the most environmentally and socially conscious way possible. Dole Fresh Fruit Company is based in Westlake Village, Calif.
About Dole Food Company, Inc.
Dole Food Company, Inc., with 2013 revenues from continuing operations of $4.5 billion, is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. Dole is an industry leader in many of the products it sells, as well as in nutrition education and research. For more information, please visit www.dole.com.
Cheap and Cheery - June 2014
Grape and Gourmet's monthly open house for beer and wine tasting. I love this event. It's homey, friendly and I always find something I like on the tables. In addition to the pouring they have a spread for cheese, crackers and dips. We dropped off some of Sloane's Smoked Gouda Dip from The Creative Wedge. I bumped into Barbara earlier that day at the Old Beach Farmer's Market, she asked if I would take one with me to share. I love that stuff, they're lucky it even made to a table.
Happy Father's Day
Happy Father's Day to the dads out there. The blog at my daughter's workplace, Need Supply Co., collected photos and quotes to celebrate the day.
Here's a shot of me and my father:
July 1972, Tacoma, WA
O'Connoroo!
The new O'Connor Brewing Company facility is huge, especially compared to the old building the next street over. Standing on top of the roof you can see for miles over the low rooftops of the industrial area, past the neighborhoods and beyond. Taking in everything around the building, getting a bead on the location. What caught my interest was the old coffee roasting plant a couple blocks away. It used to house First Colony Coffee & Tea, the 109-year-old business closed it's doors in 2011. I asked brewer Skylar Sickles what he thought about the new place.
“I love it.” he said.
I stopped by O'Connor Brewing Co. to check out the new spot before the huge grand opening dubbed “O'Connoroo.” I was greeted by their marketing director, Hannah Serrano, who gave me a quick tour around the warehouse. She then handed me off to the brewers, James Moriarty, Brian Mandeville, and Skylar Sickles who were there getting the new tanks hooked-up. The 211 W. 24th Street location started out as a food processing plant, then furniture warehouse before being converted into a brewery. The wide, open space allowed O'Connor to triple the annual output to 15,000 barrels. The building houses a cooler and docking area too; this will allow them to produce and hold more beer in addition to convenient shipping. This all equals higher product output.
The extra space will allow the brewers to experiment with small batches. They've done this in the past, but they'll have more to share and they can test out barrel aging. Barrels are going to be brought in from distilleries in the surrounding area. The brewers said they're going to love the extra space and the large windows that line the brewery's walls can be opened to let air in. I remember spending a couple hours with the brewers in the old location a few years ago. It was summer and it was hot, damp—the new space will be a lot more comfortable. The old spot on 25th Street has been shuttered up and the tanks there will be going to Midnight Brewery outside of Richmond, another craft brewery that started in 2011.
Kevin O'Connor, said, “I just love the way the place looked, architecturally, and how the place felt.” I can understand the feeling. The space allows the brewery to add a lot more the O'Connor experience. There is a mezzanine “VIP” area above the taproom bar. The bar is housed in what was formerly a refrigeration area—you can still see the large doors that was used to access the units. Twenty-one taps will be behind the warmly lit, wood-worked and corked lined walls. For the curious, the cork walls are original to the building, insulation for refrigeration units. As I was leaving I couldn't wait see how this place would be put together in a week for O'Connoroo!
The weather was perfect. We showed up to O'Connoroo around 3:30 PM, this was the official grand opening of the new location. We missed the 2:00 PM kick-off—pipers, ribbon cutting and the small crowds. The place was packed already with lines for beer tickets winding out of the gate! The docking courtyard was lined with food trucks and pop-up restaurants. The trucks included Karnage Asada, CXB BBQ and Eats, Granby Street Hot Dogs; the pop-ups were from Waffletina, Belmont House of Smoke (the brisket was very good!), Cogan's Pizza, 80/20 Burger Bar and Colley Cantina. In the center were spots to hang out and play cornhole. Speaking of games, if you go inside, there is a gameroom. They still have their oversized Jenga from the old joint and there is a shuffleboard court to boot. More games will be added in the future.
A proper stage has been built in the brewery to host their weekly performers. The O'Connoroo had four bands to check-out: The Framers, DJP and MrT, The Dahus, Big Virginia Sky. Between the stage and taproom are long tables and a bar with stools that runs the length of the lined-up tanks. The seating allows patrons to check out the brewing area and equipment in addition to anyone on stage. We moved around the facility a bit and made our way up to the mezzanine. A smaller bar was up stairs to cater the VIP area. A good number of people from the area's craft beer scene were there to help celebrate O'Connor's big day.
DJP & MrT
Approximately there were 5,000-6,000 people who walked through the gates to attend O'Connoroo. This made for long lines for beer and the brewery posted an apology and promised to make good in futures events. They will definitely honor any beer tickets people held onto. So if you have some, don't throw them away! All the tickets O'Connor had available were sold by 8:15 PM that night. 42.5 barrels of beer was consumed, which roughly translates to over 10,500 pints poured! So much beer was pulled that the tasting room will only be open Friday and Saturday the week after O'Connoroo to allow them to refill the kegs.
Even though there were lines for drinks, everyone took it in stride. It was great seeing the community come out and support the area's spearhead unit into the craft beer scene. They've come a long way since opening in March 2010. Here's a little traditional Irish toast to close:
May you always have walls for the winds,
a roof for the rain, beer beside the fire,
laughter to cheer you, those you love near you,
and all your heart might desire.
I changed that a little bit, hope you don't mind. See all the photos from the event here.
(Special thanks to Michael Palfrey Jr., OBC Tasting Room Mgr., who let me ping him for information.)