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Summer in a
Cup!
by Helle Salin
Nielsen
Inspired by The Naked Chef (British cook, who has a show called The Naked Chef -
he is fully clothed, though), I tried making this smoothie today. It was lovely,
having a distinctly summer-like flavor and a soft, gentle feel. I modified his
recipe to make it a low-fat version. He was using cream and I'm using skim milk,
and I did not want to add peanut butter... that's a very dangerous source of
hidden fat.
Summer in a Cup!
Banana/Strawberry smoothie (3-4 servings)
2 bananas, preferably aged soft, but not dark-brown :-)
2 handful of strawberries (mine were frozen)
1 T. honey
3 T. applesauce
1-2 cups of skim milk
Blend until the texture is like milkshake. If no frozen strawberries are used, a cup of ice cubes can be added instead of one of the cups of skim milk, or you can refrigerate the mixture for a while.
During the summertime, a fresh strawberry can be added to each serving as the final touch. Of course, the fat-percentage will be largely determined by the skim milk, but this is still a very low-fat substitute for milkshake. Using 2 cups of skim milk and serving 4, each serving contains approximately 140 calories and 0,76 grams of fat, which equals a fat-energy percentage of 5%.
Substituting one cup of skim milk with ice cubes, each serving is 120 calories and only 0,6 grams of fat - a fat-energy percentage of 4,5%. Personally, I like to add two cups of skim milk - milk is healthy and skim-milk is so low-fat that it really does not make much of a difference.
How does this smoothie compare to a milkshake? A standard McDonald milkshake is 330 calories according to my calorie counter... If we consider it very likely that most of the difference in energy comes from fat, then an average McDonalds milkshake contains about 22 grams of fat, making the fat-energy percentage as high as 60%. I don't know for sure if this is indeed a fact, as I don't have a list of the ingredients of a McDonalds milkshake, but it is safe to say that it has a far higher portion of its energy from fat.
Worth remembering in the summer when the kids want a treat :-)