21 September 2012

Vanilla Honey Pear: Smoothie of the Week

What on earth do you do with pears that have beaten to death in your lunch bag? By the time lunch rolls around, if your ripe pears haven't been protected, they are a brown, mushy, unpalatable mess. My husband brought one home in his lunch bag a couple days ago that was certainly worse for wear. However, considering that pear was organic and expensive, I wasn't going to throw it out! I remembered a Vanilla Honey Pear pudding recipe from "Foods" class in high school and decided to whip out the ingredients and modify them to make a nice, afternoon smoothie for the Smoothie of the Week.

Vanilla Honey Pear Smoothie

Ingredients

1 regular, ripe or overripe pair (organic preferred)
1/2 large vanilla bean (organic preferred)
1 Tbsp. honey
Crushed ice (to preference)
1 scoop protein powder (optional; I left it out this week)
1 1/4 c. milk

Wash and cut pear and put into blender. Scrape half of a large vanilla bean (first score with a knife and then scrape insides out) and place into blender. Add honey, milk, protein powder (if desired) and ice. Protein powder will thicken this recipe. Because honey, pears and vanilla are delicate, I left it out this week.

In the photo, the dark spot is the vanilla floating in the pear/honey/milk mixture. It's very strong! Vanilla extract can be used instead (~1 tsp.).

Blending Tips: When blending, make sure to give it a few extra spins to break up the pear. You will get a little skin in here, but it is fiber-rich. Also, blending the milk will leave this recipe light and frothy. Leave room in the blender for it to "grow"!

I really enjoyed this light smoothie. It was good for a post-lunch treat and is reasonably lower in calories for a smoothie, especially if you use skim milk like I did today. If I wanted it for breakfast, I would've added the protein powder to give me more "staying power". You can see another black dot in the finished product on top... That's the split half of the vanilla bean I used. I popped it into the drink for extra flavor. Drinking this in your favorite glass helps, too. This "Cafe Loveless" souvenir glass is the one drinking vessel my husband and I fight over!