Sometimes you have in mind the perfect meal, an effortless combination of the four major food groups that is tasty, easy to make, and nutritious. And sometimes you open the fridge and stare unblinking for a half minute while your brain tries to figure out how to make a meal with milk, olives, and old celery. Last night I had a pile of healthy ingredients on the counter: tofu, raspberries that were on their last legs, soy milk, frozen strawberries and blueberries, a banana, spinach, flax seed. The solution: throw it in a blender and hit “frappe”.
The smoothie is a quintessential California creation because it starts with good intentions and ends with lazy follow-through. “Yeah, I’d love a healthy meal that ties together wheat grass, honey, and fresh fruit! Wait, I have to chop it up and prepare it? Bummer, dude. Maybe I’ll just chuck it into a blender and make something I can suck through a straw while I stumble to the beach.”
Toddler Harbat loves smoothies. And I get to feel good because she’s secretly eating spinach and other healthy things that have been chopped into invisible atom-sized pieces by the screaming appliance on our counter. And yes, two straws are more than twice as better as one straw. Especially when you bite down the end in the enthusiasm to drink it AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.
TH has a liquid dinner
Verdict? Delicious. The mighty mastodon trumpets approval of smoothies.
Straw tusks
Writer, architect, father, husband.
That picture is a keeper to share with the boyfriend in high school.