Nearly-Perfect Smoothies

Happy New Year friends! I hope yours has started off wonderfully. Are you a resolution-maker?? If so, more power to you! I'm thinking of doing a half marathon this year...just for kicks and giggles. Stay tuned, I'll let you know if (okay, when) I officially sign up for one! Anyways. Can you believe its Thursday already? All these Tuesday holidays are making for short weeks! But who is complaining? I know I'm not ;) I hope you're staying warm in this frigid air; I hear 35 degrees and sunshine is on the way! I'll take advantage of not having to wear 5 layers for a day or two yes, please!

Unfortunately, my recipe for today won't help the chilliness of winter, but it is so good it is worth putting on an extra sweater! Hence the near-perfection of this smoothie; it would be perfect if only it didn't make you cold ;) I make my smoothies in a Magic Bullet, but I know there are lots of fun gadgets out there for smoothie-making; use whatever you've got!

Banana-Berry Smoothie

serves 1

1/4 - 1/3 C plain nonfat greek yogurt (I use 1/4 cup of Fage but if you are wanting to pack in the protein, plop some more in!)
1/2 frozen banana, broke in 2-4 smaller pieces (this can be unfrozen if you like less thick smoothies)
15-20 frozen blackberries
5 frozen strawberries
orange juice (you can also use milk or almondmilk, I switch it up!)

Plop your yogurt into the bottom of your cup/blender, then add all frozen fruit on top. Pour your OJ or milk over the fruit and yogurt. If you want a thick smoothie, pour until it reaches almost the top of the frozen fruit, but you can still see it a little bit. If you want a more liquid-y smoothie, cover the fruit with your liquid. Blend 1-2 minutes (on high if you're using a blender) until there are no more chunks. Toss on a sweatshirt and eat up!

Here's a bonus to this recipe: blackberries are on sale for $1 at Hy-Vee, and Greek yogurt is 89 cents! Hooray for cheap yummy smoothies! I ate mine before I remembered to take a picture, so I'll post one next time to entice you to blend one up :)

I'm headed back to work; have a fabulous Thursday night! :)

--KQ