Banana-Berry Smoothie

Photo: Rachel Simpson

This smoothie was responsible for a momentous occasion in the kitchen this morning: My husband ingested tofu for the very first time.

He's refused to eat it for as long as I've known him. I make a recipe for soy-glazed tofu that's really, really, good, and he won't even try it. So on nights when he's out at PTO meetings (my husband is the president of the school PTO), I'll make it for me and my daughter. He has no idea what he' s missing. Which is okay so far -- more for us!

But after this smoothie, maybe there's hope that he'll take the plunge. He watched me make it and when I casually asked if he wanted some, he said, "sure, give me an inch or so in a glass." I nearly fell down.

His comment? "It's not bad." (That's actually high praise, coming from him.) "Tofu has no flavor, so it's fine," he added. I consider getting fruit and healthy protein into him first thing in the morning a minor victory, since he's the kind of guy who pretends not to know that mayonnaise is not the healthiest condiment there is. Or that you shouldn't eat red meat every day.
I make a lot of smoothies, but I tend not to follow recipes. I throw in some ice, some yogurt, some orange juice, a banana, and some frozen fruit, if I have any. I'm never sure, though, how they'll come out. Sometimes they're too thick to drink through a straw, sometimes so watery that we don't even want to try them (watery yogurt, yuck).

How nice to have an actual recipe this time. I mis-measured the orange juice and used a quarter-cup more than is called for, but the drink was still thick, if a bit orangey. And rather than a single type of berry, I used a combo of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries (the bag was on sale at the grocery store). The berries were not sweetened, and there was absolutely no need to add any sugar to the drink. Two last things: I didn't know whether soft tofu and silken tofu are the same thing (they are), so I had to Google them to make sure. And I never pre-crush ice, as this recipe suggest, before putting it in the blender. The blender crushes it just fine.

My daughter Michaela was pretty surly and uncommunicative this morning-adolescence is killing me here -- but she drank the whole thing. "What do you think?," I asked her. She rolled her eyes (Why? What did I do that necessitated this? Oh right, I exist.) "I like it," she finally allowed. "You can make it again."