THREE SMOOTHIES

Then again, despite how rich and indulgent a lot of my recipes may be, my weekday breakfasts do tend to surprise a lot of people.

My weekday breakfasts do tend to consist of Overnight Oats, which I soak up and prepare themselves while I sleep. More often than not the blueprint is oats, almond milk, maple syrup, cinnamon and some kind of chopped fruit.

This has absolutely nothing to do with health or indulgent virtue, but more to do with laziness. A two minute potter before bed saves me preparation time in the morning so I can do more important things like lie in and dread the day.

Join me, won’t you?

But I do enjoy a smoothie. It’s what I call a ‘Sometimes Thing’. Smoothies are absolutely not part of my everyday routine because cleaning that damn blender is the bane of my life. But sometimes, when the mood takes me, I do like to blitz up some bits and make a mini batch of smoothies so that I have something to sip on while I drive to work.

There is nothing complicated here, it’s hardly even a recipe, just some combinations I throw together now and then. And I always use frozen fruit. This keeps that consistency super silky and creamy but also makes sure everything stays cold. But if you find this is playing havoc with your blender and you can’t seem to cream it down, a drop of warm water never hurt anybody.

Another tip is always start with the liquid ingredient in the blender first. This makes sure that when those blades get whizzing, it whips the liquid around first and softens all the other ingredients, making it easier to slush them up.

The only other annoying thing here is, you kind of need a blender. I’m militant about the fact you don’t need a factory’s worth of equipment to make a meal, but a blender here is pretty essential.

HONEY YOGURT & WATERMELON

Drop four tablespoons of Greek yogurt into the blender followed by a drizzle of honey. Throw in a handful of frozen watermelon and blitz everything. As there’s not a lot of liquid here, you may need to stop the blender now and then and push everything down with a spoon. Keep going. It took me 4 whizzes and all of 10 minutes.

COCONUT & PINEAPPLE

Drop a cupful of almond milk into the blender. Now take a can of coconut milk and take about ¾ tablespoons of the thick coconut cream from the top of the can and drop it in. Add a handful of frozen pineapple and give everything a blitz.

CHERRY & PEANUT BUTTER

Pour a cup of almond milk into the blender along with two tablespoons of plain yogurt. Throw in two tablespoons of smooth peanut butter followed by a handful of frozen cherries. Blitz!