Smoothie Cubes

I’ve been making smoothies – yes, even during winter. It’s an easy way to get dairy, fruit and weet-bix into the little girl.

I originally started by blending weetbix, frozen bananas, and frozen strawberries with lots of milk and a dollop or two of yoghurt, enough to make a 600ml smoothie. The problem with this was that I’d sometimes end up with a strawberry that was still whole.

So, I changed the technique. No milk. I’d blend up the other ingredients so it was like I was grating / chopping it. Then I would add the milk. It was not entirely successful. I’d end up with chunks all over the bowl which I then had to scrape down.

So, I changed the method again. This time, just enough milk to make the weetbix soggy. 2 weetbix, 1 cavendish banana, 6 medium strawberries and about 250ml milk. I’d slowly mix until the weetbix was all soggy and then slowly increase the speed until it turned into something like melting ice cream. Then I’d add milk to make it the right consistency. This would make enough for about 1.5 smoothies. One for me, and half for the little girl.

Then, I figured out, I could leave out the final addition of milk. Why? Because I didn’t really want to have a smoothie every time I made one for the little girl. So, I’d make smoothie “concentrate” so I could spoon out enough to make a smoothie for her, and just add some more milk.

It occurred to me that even after a day or two in the fridge, the “concentrate” still retained its bubbles after I added milk to it. So, I tried freezing it.

The final recipe has been 3 weetbix, 3 frozen lady finger bananas, half a dozen frozen medium strawberries and about 250ml milk. I spread it out on a baking tray that has baking paper on it, freeze it, then slice it up and store in freezer bags.

We had smoothies this afternoon. The little girl had one that was about 250ml, and I had a 600ml one. And there was still plenty of bubbles in it. 😀

Pizza bites

I saw this on my google reader a little while ago, and the link in that article to the “pizza bites”.

I figured they were going to be entertaining enough for my little girl to eat.

So, I made one batch of thermomix pizza dough, and while I waited for the dough to rise, I sliced up some chorizo for the filling. I divided the dough into 32 pieces and filled each ball with a squeeze of tomato paste, a slice of chorizo, and a cube of tasty cheese. I put them into a roasting pan in one layer and baked them in the oven for just 15 minutes.

They were tasty! And our little girl ate 3 of them! They were just the right size for her little hands.