Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Oh, there are some things that need no introduction, no stories, nothing. It is so simple and elegant. Just one thing- it is so soooo good!

Just another thing: This will be so lovely on Valentine's day morning. Right? Lovely pink color with the heart shaped strawberry slice at the edge of the cup. #Romantic

Oh! and another thing: You can even make a milkshake with this. Just swap the milk with some vanilla ice-cream!

And one final thing (I promise, it's the last thing, next is the recipe): This is dairy free- as I used almond milk. But go with the regular milk if you are ok with it.

So, here's what you need (Serves 2):

1 ripe banana

1 cup of strawberry syrup  OR 10-12 large strawberries and 2 tablespoon sugar

½ cup almond milk (You may use rice milk or regular milk- keep in mind the rice milk is much thinner in consistency than almond milk, so add according to your desired consistency)

1-2 drops of vanilla extract

How:

Put the banana in the blender and blend it. It will be like a cream (This prevents the banana to be chunky in your smoothie). Then add all the other ingredients and blend to a smooth consistency. Add more sugar if you like you like your smoothie to be more sweet. It also depends on how ripe your strawberries are. Also add more milk if you would ike a thinner smothie. Chill and enjoy it with some chocolate shavings on top. I don't mind a little chocolate in the morning. What do you say?

If you love strawberries as much as I do, you may also like:

Maple Walnut Muesli with Strawberries

Gluten free, Dairy free, Eggless Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup

Gluten free, Dairy free, Eggless Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup

This is not by choice. My husband has recently moved to a gluten free diet. Also quit dairy and eggs. He is doing great with these restrictions. But this has challenged my cooking, specially breakfast.

I didn't have much knowledge about gluten free diet until recently. Well, in short, you can't have oats, cereal, granola, pancakes, cookies or anything for that matter unless it is specially made gluten free.

For now, we are buying gluten free cookies and cereal. We were also buying gluten free pancakes mixes. They don't taste quite like pancakes nor do they look like one. They look brownish rather than yellowish!

Now in a family of two (me and my husband), I am not making two different breakfasts, hence I started eating gluten free pancakes too. Dissatisfied by a few of the gluten free pancakes mixes available at the store, I started looking up recipes online and perfecting them over time. Here are the things I learned:

Flour: If you plan to buy all purpose flour mix, King Arthur has a nice gluten free all-purpose flour. However, if you want to make your own mix, some of the great gluten free blogs such as Gluten-free goddess, gluten free on a shoe string, gluten free girl are great places to get ideas.

Dairy free milk: Rice milk and almond milk are great options. However note that rice milk is thin (quite like skimmed milk) while almond milk is thicker (quite like full fat milk) in consistency. So, you might need to adjust recipe accordingly.

We were kind of getting tired of having maple syrup with pancakes every morning. 

The other day, my grocery store had the most beautiful looking strawberries. Also, I love strawberries! Made a very simple syrup with strawberries. Loved them on our pancakes. In fact, it was so good, I had a few spoonfuls of syrup right out of the jar. Shhh!

You need (Makes 8 pancakes):

For pancakes:

1 cup of  GF all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur's)

2 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon maple syrup (You can use sugar or honey- note that the sweetness will differ)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

¼ cup unsweetened apple sauce (I used Mott's natural apple sauce. You can definitely use sweetened and flavored apple sauce, just note to adjust sweetness)

¾ dairy free milk (I used unsweetened almond milk here. I also use rice milk at times. Use as much as needed for the mix to come to the right consistency.)

For strawberry simple syrup:

1 lb strawberries, hulled, chopped

⅓ cup granulated sugar

⅓ water

pinch of salt

Method:

For pancakes:

Add all the ingredients in a bowl except milk and mix (I don't bother to separate dry and wet ingredients). Add the milk and whisk until there are no lumps. I first added ½ cup milk, and then slowly added ¼ cup milk to reach the right consistency (not too thick, not too runny, somewhere in the middle is the right consistency.)

Put a griddle or pan on your stovetop on medium heat. Add ¼ cup of the batter for each pancake.

Cook for a few minutes until you see bubbles in the middle of the pancake, takes a minute or two. Flip the pancake and cook the other side for about 30 seconds.

Serve with fresh fruits and homemade strawberry syrup.

For syrup:

Prepare the strawberries. Add the strawberries, sugar, water and salt in a small sauce pan on medium heat. 

Simmer for 15 min or until the sugar is dissolved and the berries become soft.

Transfer to a blender and blend to a smooth syrup. Chill before serving.

Maple Walnut Muesli with Strawberries

Walking through a farmer's market on one fine sunday morning introduced me to this Swiss breakfast cereal-muesli. I devoured that small little cup that morning. I figured it has oats, yogurt and fruits and exclaimed "Honey, I can make this at home" to my husband.

Coming home, the research started. Then I came to know that muesli does not just have oats, these are oats not cooked but soaked. Love it! Breakfast I don't have to cook. And, you can make this is large quantities, store it in your refrigerator and have it another time (those crazy - I am late- weekday mornings!).

I have made muesli a number of times but it wasn't quite hitting the right spot. It tasted great but something was missing. Then reading the muesli recipe on "Back to Basics" cookbook by Ina Garten gave me the idea of adding Granola to it. Right, it was missing the crunch. Without the granola it's too mushy mushy!

Coming to the flavor of muesli, it's very common to use strawberry flavored yogurt. That's great but there's nothing like fresh berries. Wouldn't you agree? I also added nuts for more bite into this recipe. Thinking of which nut to add, I thought of walnuts and my favorite flavor to go with that is maple. Hence, the maple walnut muesli. On a side note-I love maple walnut ice-cream!

You need:

¼ cup instant oats (I used Quaker 1-minute oats)

¼ cup granola (I used Quaker granola with raisins)

2 tablespoon chopped walnuts

1½ tablespoon pure maple syrup

pinch of salt

¼ cup hot water (I used the hottest water from my tap)

4-6 large strawberries, hulled and chopped/quartered

1½ teaspoon sugar

7oz plain greek yogurt (I used one 7 oz container of Chobani plain greek yogurt)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Method:

Soak the oats, granola, walnuts in the hot water with maple syrup and pinch of salt for 15 mins. While the oats are soaking, prepare the strawberries, add the sugar to them and allow to macerate. Mix the vanilla with the yogurt. Separate the oats in two parts, top with yogurt and berries and serve!