Tuesday Table Topics #7: One fruit forever

Today's question: If you could only eat one fruit for the rest of your life, what would it be?

This is a rather cruel question. Fruit ranks so high on my list of favorite things to eat, period. The thought that I would have to narrow it down is just plain sad. Horrifying. So we'll all just be happy that this is one dream I'll wake up from, and give the best answer I can in the meantime, which is: blueberries.

I know, this may be shocking to some of you. After all, I have done nothing but profess a great love for all things fig. And that love still exists. It is pure and passionate and I have four flats of figs in my fridge right now. Yes, right now! This very second. Can't you just feel the fig excitement?

However, (and can't you tell a great deal of thought has gone into this?) when thinking about the usefulness of the fig over time, I can't help but feel that it pales next to the blueberry. Blueberries are fabulous fresh, but they are also able to withstand baking and cooking in many forms. There would be blueberry cobbler, blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, blueberry buckle, blueberry jam and blueberries in salads and over cereal... the uses are really quite endless. And while all the same things I just rhapsodized re: blueberries could be said for raspberries as well, there is just somethin' somethin' about the blueberry that speaks to my little berry soul.

As luck would have it, the house is currently devoid of any blueberry happiness. We scarfed the last of a bunch after supper night before last, and I have yet to wend my way out to Klickers again. But it will happen very soon, as blueberry season is too short, and my love is way big.

Wordless Wednesday #9: Honkin' big blueberries

What passes for supper around here

Others may have breakfast in bed. Around here, any meal will do...


All the while singing, "Heaven, I'm in heaven. And my heart beats so that I can hardly think..." Yum.

For goodness sake!

How else would you finish that headline than with "I love my hippie hippie shake?" Time for a little (blue)berry love.

This shake/smoothie is so great, it's like breakfast nirvana. If I've missed it in the morning for some nutty thing like an early appointment, I've made it for lunch, or dinner. I have even fallen asleep at night thinking, "Oh goodie, in the morning I'll get my yummy shake." That's addiction, folks. Also, a tad pathetic.
Here's how it happens, daily. In our house we make it to serve two. It gets whizzed up in a Vita Mixer; if you have a regular blender, you'll definitely want to halve it (as I've listed the portions below), unless the smell of a small appliance motor overheating adds an extra-special dash of joy to your morning...

Start with the apple (1, cored, not peeled) and half a banana (peeled, duh!).

Add OJ (1.5 cups) and start the whizzing.

Have your flax seed ground and ready to go (2 T.). You can buy it ground, or do that deed yourself. The benefits of the omega-3s are best with the seeds ground; whole flaxseeds are not absorbed with the same efficacy. Just saying.

I add the wheat germ (2 T) and oat bran (1/3 cup) and the aforementioned flax seed one at a time to the blender while it's going. Depending on your blender strength, you may want to stop, add, then put the lid on and keep going--it's a lot to add at once. I have had a couple of oopsie moments with the blender sending smoothie all the way to the ceiling! Lids are good.

Next, add the frozen blueberries (1.5 cups) (or mixed berries--we've alternated depending on the Costco price, and right now the mixed are somehow back to being more expensive) and the soy milk (1/2-1 cup, depending on your desired consistency) and turn the blender on high. It might take a bit of poking around (carefully) to get the berries pulled down into the rest of the mixture, but once you get it started it should blend well.



My basic approximations put this gem at a little over 600 calories, which, granted, is a hefty breakfast. But, it also has about 24.5 grams of fiber, which meets females-my-size daily nutritional fiber needs. So the rest of the day I can eat cheese and Twinkies... or not.

Total credit for this recipe goes to the husband, who tweaked and fiddled with the ingredients for about a year before he talked me into trying it. Instant convert! If I haven't persuaded you here, just come visit. I have been known to "batch" this to feed more than two; shakes for everyone!