I’m going to try to share a different smoothie with you each week. I’m always drinking them, usually for breakfast, and I love to come up with different combinations. Whenever I have a fresh pineapple around, I make at least one a day, but usually more. Because I have a pineapple right now, I’ll be drinking pineapple coconut smoothies practically around the clock.

I’ve heard that one great thing about drinking smoothies (with healthy and fresh ingredients, of course) is that the blender has done all of the chewing, which we usually do a pretty poor job at in our rush to fill our stomachs. The more the food is chewed, or in this case blended, the more available the nutrients are. That’s what I heard, or read…somewhere….and it sounded pretty good to me! Alright, so onto our smoothie!

Step 1:

Cut up some pineapple. Don’t bother about cutting off the hard center part. Because it will be blended up, you won’t have to experience its toughness or lack of flavor. Plus, I also read somewhere (if only I could remember where I read these things!) that most of the enzymes in a pineapple are concentrated around the middle. Now wouldn’t it be a shame to get rid of them? Enzymes are proteins that help break down food, aiding in digestion and metabolism. (They speed up processes that would otherwise be quite slow). I don’t know about you, but I’d like to keep ‘em. Be sure to cut off the outer skin though, we don’t want THAT in our smoothie.

Step 2:

Put the pineapple and some almond milk in the blender. Sometimes I make my own almond milk, but I’m not usually that good. It’s so much easier to buy this stuff at Trader Joe’s. If you add a lot of almond milk, it will be easier to blend, but the finished product will also be thinner and less smoothie-like. Experiment with amounts. Start with less and add more if needed!

This is what the ratio of pineapple to almond milk looked like when I made it:

Step 3:

I add some raw honey, because pineapple can be a little tart. You can add dates instead, but they blend up much better if they have been soaked in water for a while. Otherwise, you might get some date chunks in your smoothie. Yuck. I mean, I really do love dates, but not when a chunk unexpectedly flows into my mouth when I’m drinking a smoothie. I find that kind of disturbing.

Step 4:

Pour in some coconut oil (virgin, unrefined, unheated). I really have no idea how much I put in…maybe a Tbsp. or 2? Sometimes, I also put in a little bit of vanilla extract. You could add some ice now too, but I usually don’t. This might make it more like a “real” smoothie, whatever that means.

Step 5:

Blend it all up! That is Tim’s hand on the button, by the way. He offered his services, and I couldn’t tell him no. He has great veins. If he ever needs to get an IV inserted, he’ll be golden.

Step 6:

Put it in a fun cup. Okay, okay, a regular one will probably be fine. (Please, pay no attention to the water marks on this glass. I blame it on the dishwasher). Now drink it! yum!

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