It's all about the smoothies

For the past five years the girls have attended the 4H Mini Forum. It's an all day conference held at USM for kids in the 4H program in Cumberland County. Workshops are taught by volunteers and teen 4Hers on a variety of topics - from crafts to cooking to GPS/technology to wood working, etc. The kids choose the workshops they'd like to attend and the finale includes the Fashion Revue Showcase (kids model their sewing or crochet/knitting projects in a fashion show). Mini Forum is a great event and my kids have a ton of fun every year.

L. was 6 years old the first time she attended this conference and took her first "Groovy Smoothies" class. She absolutely loved it. I mean LOVED it. She was inspired to make all sorts of fruit concoctions in our blender at home for weeks afterward and talked about that being her favorite class to anyone who would listen.

The following year when the time came to choose workshops again, she *had* to take Groovy Smoothies. It was the same class with the same recipes but L. didn't care.

"That class is great!"

And every year since she has taken that Groovy Smoothies class in spite of a wide variety of other workshop options to choose from.

Every. Single. Year.

Now that L. is 12, she has agreed to co-teach a class with her dad on cat anatomy at Mini Forum. She's nervous but excited to be on the other side of the conference table this year. But she only wanted to teach the workshop for one time block so she could take some other classes at the conference, including (of course) Groovy Smoothies.

During a 4H meeting in January she was asked to explain to the new club members what Mini Forum was like and as expected by every adult there, she talked about how great the Groovy Smoothies class was. (This is an on-going joke of predictability that my 4H leader cohorts and I find very amusing.)

But her 4H leader broke the news that the woman who taught that class (obviously, for years) had moved away and thus would not be part of the workshop options at Mini Forum this year.

L. was distraught, "But mom, I LOVE that class! I'm so sad I can't do it this year!"

Tonight she was lamenting for the umpteenth time about that class' demise (L. is a serious dweller) so I asked her if she'd like to teach her own smoothies class. She had plenty of experience with the topic and she'd already agreed to teach another class, why not add this one too?

In an overly dramatic voice she said, "No mom, (big sigh) it just won't be the same."

In my attempt to coax her in to teaching her own version of Groovy Smoothies, I asked her about her favorite recipes and things she's learned about how to make them tasty. She didn't agreed to teach the class this year but she did come up with a good list of "tips" I thought I'd share.

* Powdered sugar makes smoothies taste smoother than using other sweeteners (like granulated sugar). And you don't need to use too much to make it sweet and smooth.
* If you use some frozen fruit, you don't need to add too many ice cubes so your smoothie will be more fruity and not too watery.
* You can use spices in your smoothies so they can taste like apple pie (see recipes below)
* Tropical fruit taste smoother and don't have as many seeds as berries. So mango, pineapple, papaya, peach and orange make really good smoothies. But you can add a bit of berries to sweeten it without making the mix too seedy.

L. has a lot of 'favorite' recipes but when pressed to give me only two, she settled on these:

Two Fruit Frosty
from UMaine Cooperative Extension's "Groovy Smoothies" recipe book

1-1 1/2 cups frozen (or fresh) blueberries
1 cup canned (drained) or frozen peaches
1 cup low-fat milk
1 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 Tablespoon honey
1/2 cup ice cubes
Blend and serve.

Witches' Brew
from "Silly Snacks" recipe book

2 cups apple cider (apple juice isn't as good as cider in this recipe)
1 1/2 cups low-fat vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt**
2 Tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Blend and serve.

** You need to use frozen yogurt because the recipe doesn't call for ice cubes and really does taste better without the ice.

When we don't have all the ingredients in the house for the recipes above, L. makes up something based on what's available. Typically that includes a frozen berry (blueberry or strawberries from our summer picking season), a canned fruit (peaches, pineapple or mandarin oranges because we almost always have a can in our pantry), 1/2 cup of ice, 1 cup of water and 2 Tablespoons of powdered sugar.

I'm not so disappointed that the Groovy Smoothies class isn't happening this year because it will be good for L. to expand her (workshop) horizons. But I doubt I (or the Mini Forum coordinators) have heard the last about this issue from L.