Green smoothies

Recently I started experimenting with our smoothies. I want my older daughter, who is dairy-free, to have more calcium in her diet from food (not supplements).

Somehow I stumbled onto the idea of Green Smoothies. These are very popular among people who are on a raw food diet, but truly would be a wonderful addition to any person's diet.

The concept of a green smoothie is pretty simple: leafy green vegetables blended with fruit into a smoothie. Many green smoothies are actually green in color, but I found that when strawberries are in it, that overpowers the green. Especially if the leafy green is spinach. When I use kale, the smoothie looks more brown.

Do you think this sounds gross yet? I promise you, it's not. With both spinach and kale (the only two greens I've tried so far), there is no taste difference.

The truth of that can be seen in the fact that my 5 year old daughter will drink it down and ask for more. And she knows there is a leafy green in it, I didn't try to hide that fact.

There are, I'm sure, a million different leafy green and fruit combos you can try. Someone recommended swiss chard, an apple and orange juice saying it was divine (but definitely green).

I have used kale with strawberries or mixed berries (frozen) and bananas, and I've used spinach with the same and added fresh pear as well.

For my part, I decided to start with what I know the girls will drink: strawberry and banana smoothie. At first, I added just one leaf of kale. Then two, and now it's up to three leaves which is roughly two 1 1/2 to 2 cups.

And truly, my daughter doesn't care. She adores these smoothies. My younger daughter - not so much. But she never was a big smoothie drinker in the first place.

I start by blending the kale first with 1/4 cup of milk (we use rice). Then add in the frozen strawberries, then the banana. There's no real recipe here - just make your smoothie the way you normally do, but use a little less fruit and add a leafy green.

I usually add a little bit of sugar and some additional rice milk if I feel like it needs to be smoother and thinner. You can add a protein powder or anything else you would normally put in a smoothie.

I have read it suggested that a green smoothie should be 40% leafy green and 60% fruit. I strive for that, loosely, but I don't follow it hard and fast. I figure any amount of leafy green we can add to our diet is a good thing.

My preferred leafy green is kale because it is such a nutritional powerhouse, but spinach and romaine lettuce work well.

The smoothie below contains 2 cups of spinach, 1 cup of frozen strawberries, 1 fresh pear, and 1 small banana. There is also some rice milk and about 2 teaspoons of sugar. It yielded about 2 1/2 cups of smoothie that I split with my daughter.


My exploration with green smoothies is by no means complete. I want to try adding fresh apple and using orange juice. I find them to be seriously delicious.

Help me out and tell me: how do you make YOUR smoothie?

Apple/pear galette

There are all sorts of reasons to love a galette. Not the least of which is that it is super easy to make and exceptionally delicious. It must have been about four years ago when I first saw a recipe in a magazine for this free-form pie/tart, and I've been making it ever since. In the summer, I use blueberries; during colder months, apples or pears.

Though the recipe works well with any of the same fruits you would use to make a pie, I will offer a word or two of caution. Because the galette is really just a rustic pie without the pan to hold it's shape or catch any of that yummy syrup that comes from mixing fruit and sugar and high temperatures, don't be surprised to find that some fruits (like really ripe pears or blueberries, for example) will cause the whole thing to ooze and bubble and spill over its edges. It's no less delicious, just not as pretty as say, an apple galette, that tends to hold its juices better.

Okay. One last thing. I use store bought pie crust. I know. I don't make my own pie crusts. Pie crusts are finicky and dependent on air temperature and all sorts of other things, and I don't have the patience for that. Besides, the Pillsbury crust is good. And I'm okay with that.

Place the crust on a sheet of parchment paper and give it a couple of hits with the rolling pin to even it out. Then slide the parchment onto a cookie sheet and set aside.

Next, peel and slice the fruit into a large bowl. I used a mix of one very ripe pear and three apples. I also tossed in a handful of raisins.

Squeeze about two tablespoons of lemon over the fruit. If you don't have one of these handy tool things, you should get one. I love it. It gets every ounce of juice out of a lemon or lime and considering I now pay $1.00 each for lemons in the grocery store, that's a very good thing.

Add about 1/2 cup of sugar. I went easy on the sugar this time. The pear was VERY ripe. Add about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, plus 2 tablespoons of flour. I'll be honest, I don't measure the spices. (If you use the red box of ready-made Pillsbury pie crust, there's a good recipe for an apple filling on the side.)

Mix well, making sure the flour and the sugar and spices are evenly distributed.

Then spoon the filling into the center of the pie crust. Make sure you have enough crust around the edge to fold up and over.

You can fold the edges neatly, or just sort of scrunch the whole thing together. I tried to be neat this time.  Bake in a 425 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on it toward the end of baking time, you don't want the crust to brown too much. And, again, don't worry if the juices ooze and spread, the parchment paper should protect your pan and trust me, it's going to taste yummy no matter how it looks.

Serve with vanilla ice cream, or whip cream, or both, and if you want to get all fancy, you could drizzle a little caramel sauce over the top. 

Pear banana yogurt smoothie

I am a terrible breakfast person. I never do the right thing. Most of the time, I skip the meal completely, only to find myself starved and reaching for whatever is quick and easy (and often loaded with carbs) sometime before lunch.

And so when my mother introduced me to the idea of a breakfast smoothie (yes, I can be slow to think of some of the more obvious solutions on my own), I jumped at the idea. When I was in California for the summer, we kept the fridge loaded with frozen berries and bananas, yogurt and that really expensive pomegranate juice. But back home in NY, and once the weather began to turn, the idea of an icy cold breakfast loaded with berries was a bit hard to take. I needed to figure out a seasonal solution.

I got the idea to substitute frozen pear for the berries and pear nectar or apple juice for the pomegranate juice. Yes, it's still an icy cold breakfast in the middle of winter, but it's delicious and loaded with cinnamon and nutmeg and honey and a generous serving of fruit (something I often forget to eat later in the day). Best of all, the kids will love it, too (call it a milkshake!). And it's absolutely portable—so whether I'm rushing off to help build sets for the class play or to do a little last minute Christmas shopping, I can sip and go!

Here's what you need for one generous serving:

1 chopped and frozen pear (I do this task myself ahead of time)

1 banana (can also be frozen, but not necessary)

1 cup of pear nectar or apple juice (white grape would also work well here)

1 container of yogurt (I like to use Activia vanilla)

1 teaspoon of honey

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of cinnamon

Put everything in the blender: first the liquid, then the frozen fruit, then layer in the other ingredients. Blend until smooth. Pour into a tall glass, garnish with a bit more cinnamon, insert straw, and you're good to go.

Pear bread

Can you tell how much I love this recipe? Just look at that tattered cookbook page. I will never forget the first time I made this. Thanksgiving 1988. We had been dating for a few months and James (knowing how much I missed my family in California) invited me to spend Thanksgiving with his family on Long Island. I was living in the city in a teeny tiny shared one bedroom on the upper east side. The kitchen was a closet. But I was determined not to arrive at my future in-laws home empty-handed.

Anyway, over 20 years later, and this recipe is still opening doors.

Here's what you need to get started:

1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup yogurt or buttermilk (I use vanilla yogurt)
1 coarsely chopped pear (about 1 cup)
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350, and prepare your loaf pan. I like to use parchment paper for this, but you can grease and flour, or use a cooking spray.

Here's a trick I recently learned: Instead of trying to soften butter in the microwave (if you're at all like me, chances are you didn't plan ahead and your butter is hard as a rock...), cut the butter into small cubes. Set it out on a dish while you prepare the pan, gather your ingredients and chop the pear. By the time you're finished, the butter should be just the right texture.

Okay. Ready? Combine the dry ingredients (except for the sugar) in a bowl and set aside. I like to run a whisk through them to make sure there are no lumps and everything is incorporated. Easier than sifting.

Using a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and mix well. Now add the dry ingredients in batches, alternating with the yogurt.

Stir in the pears and vanilla by hand.

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and bake for about one hour. I like to sprinkle the top with crystallized sugar about 10 minutes before the loaf is ready to come out of the oven.

I've made this so often and been asked for the recipe so many times, that I think it just may be my signature baking item. Sometimes I add cranberries to the batter, sometimes I substitute apple for the pear, and it's always delicious.

I think this makes a great hostess gift during the holidays because it's the kind of thing that can be added to the desert table or tucked into the pantry to save for the next day. It's wonderful for breakfast, or tea time or whenever you're craving a little something that's not too sweet.

What's your signature baking item? Do you have something you love to bake and share during the holidays?