When it comes to quick and simple recipes with high nutritional benefits, smoothies are at the top of my list. In an almost unbelievable stroke of good fortune I happened to be looking in a part of the freezer section of my local supermarket that I usually ignore. The supermarket has recently moved everything around, and in my hunt for my favorite organic frozen blueberries I happened to see a few boxes of frozen acai berry puree for less than a quarter of their normal retail price. What!? True. I bought 3 boxes, but I wish now, after having come up with this awesomely delicious smoothie, that I had grabbed all of them. Even though this is yet another blueberry smoothie recipe (and I put blueberries in almost all my smoothies), the fresh, tart flavor of the freshly squeezed orange juice and acai berry make this my favorite so far.
In case you're one of the dozen or so people who have managed to escape the hype spread by MLM marketers pushing expensive acai berry drinks, let me just give you a quick summary so you know what all the hype is about. The acai berry is one of those ‘recently discovered' superfoods from the Amazon basin that the native people of the region have known about forever. It turns out that this little dark purple berry doesn't taste all that great, in my opinion, but it's super-high in wonderful, health-promoting antioxidants. Like off the scales, higher than any other food, according to the popular O.R.A.C antioxidant rating scale. Blueberries are too, as a matter of fact. So, blend raw frozen blueberries and acai berries with some high in vitamin C freshly squeezed orange juice and you've got something that not only tastes great, but is more nutritious than the watered down, pasteurized, expensive drinks those MLM companies are selling. So, without any further ranting, here's my best blueberry smoothie recipe yet…
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh squeezed organic orange juice
1 cup frozen organic blueberries
100gm frozen acai berry puree
2 ripe bananas (fresh or frozen)
Instructions:
Peel the bananas, toss them and everything else into the blender. Blend thoroughly. Serve. Enjoy!