Smoothie du Jour. 100 Days of Recipes: Day 7

Smoothie du Jour

I love packing smoothies to take to the studio. I also love cooking at the studio, but sometimes you just don't want to stop work long enough for the fun of prep and cooking. I have learned, however, that it's worse yet to keep working until the 'hangry' stage, so I try to have something on hand when that scenario approaches.

My smoothies vary, depending on what's in the fridge/freezer, but today's smoothie features something I just learned: you can eat banana peels!!! I feel like I should have known this - I know often times the best nutrients can be found in the skin/peels of foods, and I know bananas are jam packed with nutrients! Till now, I considered bananas only for wrapping other foods in them to cook, tossing on a compost heap, or putting them in a pit fire for potassium flashes - I never thought of edible uses. My recent focus on 'what to do with the scraps' has made me more attentive to all the scraps I create, and a quick google later, I learned I can, indeed, eat the peels. Even better, I learned that over-ripe peels are more tender and sweeter, and good for smoothies. 

Frozen spinach, frozen blueberries, frozen sliced bananas (with peels!),
cacao nibs, chia seeds. I added some Forager Project's Cashew Yogurt
drink and a bit of coconut milk to thin it all out.

 Lucky for me, I'm often too lazy to peel my bananas before freezing them, and usually just wait until they're past the ripeness that I care to eat, and toss them whole in the freezer. No more frozen fingers trying to get the peels off before using them!!

The finished batch - a bit for now, and more for the studio.

The smoothie tastes as good as it ever does, and I've added fiber and other nutrients to the mix. And the only part now that goes to compost are the very ends and stems. If I ever get a Vitamix, there will be much banana peel cooking in the kitchen!