friday breakfast: round 3

Photo from Cooking Light, via myrecipes.com (Google image search)

Good morning and Happy Friday!  As you're reading this, I'm on an isolated cay in the Bahamas, sipping this delicious breakfast smoothie on a porch swing of a rustic bungalow and enjoying the breathtaking view:

April Fool's!

(I took that picture three years ago in Formentera, Spain.)

I'm in DC, where it has been 48 degrees and rainy since Tuesday.  To make matters worse, I have to join the legions of American cubicle-dwellers today and go into my office.  Woe is me.  I've got a deadline this afternoon, and unfortunately the work that needs to get done is not able to be completed from my kitchen table.  So, sorry to disappoint, but there's no eggy deliciousness this morning.

But it's April 1st!  Crazy!  Where's Spring?

Oh wait, that's right.  It's April.  In the mid-Atlantic.  That doesn't mean it's "Spring."  Let me explain something to you.  I am a realist and I always have been.  To me, the glass is neither half empty nor half full - it's an eight-ounce glass with four ounces of water in it.  Therefore, I fully understand that "Spring" in this area is practically non-existent - it's just a few weeks at the end of April with temperatures too warm for sweaters but too cold for shorts, and also chock full of rain clouds.  Spring is neither good nor bad - it just is what it is.  (Obviously.  What does that phrase even mean anyway?)

Because I take things at face value, and also because I've lived in this climate for twenty-something years, I generally accept this so-called "Spring" for what it is, and get on with my day.  But sometimes, I long for the springtime of classic novels and contemporary romcoms - a beautiful season in which people's bitterness melts away with the winter frost and men and women alike are smiley again. Hey, I may be a realist, but occasionally I let myself dream.

So what do you eat when your body screams "SPRING" but the weather is decidedly undecided?  Make this smoothie!  It is sure to transport you to a tropical paradise.  I've had this breakfast smoothie three times this week; I drink it on the way to work and I swear I'm actually happier when I walk in my office than when I walk out my door.

And that's sayin' a lot.

Mango-Banana Smoothie - A 40-day Vegetarian original
Serves 2-3 

1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) fat free or reduced-fat Greek yogurt
1 cup skim or reduced-fat milk
2 bananas
1 large ripe mango
3/4 cup frozen blueberries

Combine yogurt, milk, bananas, and mango in a blender.  If too thick, thin with 3/4 cup of water or more milk. 

Everyone have a delicious weekend! (and Happy Birthday, Rickey!)