Gary's Smoothies

As I sit here enjoying the fruits of his expertise, I wanted to share the recipe for Gary's new thing with you guys: smoothies. Start by running warm water in your blender pitcher. Empty that out and add 12 oz of liquid. Gary uses a can of Sunny D, but almost any juice or juice drink will work. Add frozen fruit until it is about 2 inches above the liquid. We buy the bags of Dole mixed fruit, mango chunks, and blueberries at Sam's and Walmart. We like mixed fruit with a handful of mango or blueberries, but you can experiment according to your own tastes. Blend on high until the blender starts to slow down due to the thickness of the blended fruit. Stop the blender and poke a whole banana in the center of the pitcher until it touches the blades. Blend on high until smooth. Using the banana to break up the frozen fruit in the final step is the real secret. We have a pretty powerful blender. If yours can't handle the fruit completely frozen, you may have to partially thaw it first. Beware, these are addictive! Enjoy!