I'm feeling kind of tired and achey this evening, so I went for really simple foods needing little preparation. I thawed out an IQF boneless/skinless chicken thigh, threw it on the Foreman Grill, and had it between two slices of sprouted-grain bread. It was a pretty humongous chickie thigh, so that made a decent sandwich.
And right now I'm sipping on what may be the world's simplest smoothie. I had some cubed almost-too-ripe papaya in the fridge, so I chucked about two cups of that in the blender along with a cup of apple juice. No ice cubes, no yogurt (frozen or otherwise), no fancy-schmancy add-ins, and absolutely no additional sweeteners of any sort needed. The papaya and apple juice were plenty sweet on their own, the papaya provided ample body to the mix, and as the ingredients were chilled, so was the product.
I never understood why people felt the need to muck up a perfectly good smoothie with all that other stuff anyway. Especially the frozen yogurt--yeah, it's yummy, but if you're thinking it's "diet" food just because it's lowfat, think again folks--yogurt doesn't come that sweet on its own. And while I like an ice-filled smoothie on a super-hot day, in the cool of the evening it just makes my teeth hurt. And all the "power" add-ins--the powdered proteins, the greens, the potions, and on and on--well, okay, if you're looking for a full meal in a glass, I guess that's groovy. But c'mon--fruit is plenty nutritious on its own without all that gussying-up. I'm sucking down four full servings of fruit in my minimalist smoothie here, and that's nothing to sneeze at.
I've noticed that Jamba Juice, a chain that has built its business on elaborate smoothies chock-full of healthy add-ins of this sort, has recently added a whole new category to their menus: fruit-only smoothies. Obviously there must have been demand from a whole bunch of customers who, like me, feel that there are times when less is indeed more.
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