As a teenager I was that type of finicky eater who'd eat heaps of his own mother's cooking but who could hardly look at a morsel of somebody else's without shuddering. When my friends and I would go out to Taco Bell or McDonald's or someplace, I'd skip on the food and just order a soda. A teenager who doesn't eat McDonald's! — can you even imagine?
During freshman year of high school, when puberty started to ramp up, I asked my Mom to quit bagging my lunches for me, and that's when this whole finickiness thing finally came to a head. Listen, we could afford the school lunches, it's just that — you gotta understand that back when I was enrolled in the South Carolina public school system, cafeterias just weren't as culinary as they are today. I remember that the french fries tasted wet somehow. I remember paying for a $1.40 pizza meal and taking it to my table and putting the pizza in my mouth and it tasting like pepperonis and unsalted Play-doh.
So I began skipping lunch and each day by the time I got home, my body was begging for nutrition. I'd devour as much Mom-made dinner as I could without tearing a seam in my stomach lining... but still — oatmeal in the morning and dinner at night? That's not near enough food to keep a growing boy healthy.
Mom noticed that I was losing weight, which must have set her Maternal Dial to "cunning" because soon, every night, following dinner by about an hour, Mom would whip up one of these berry smoothies for my sister and me to drink. Mom made my sister's exactly as described below, but mine she mixed special. She was sly, Mom was. She knew that berry smoothies have the power to completely mask that talcum powder taste of whey protein, so while I wasn't looking, she'd scoop some whey into the blender, serve it to me, and I never noticed the difference; I simply thanked her and lapped up my delicious after-dinner drink. Years later when I found out how my mother had been secretly fattening me up, all I could say was "Clever one, Mom. Thanks, bud."
The Simple Berry Smoothie
Makes: 2 Servings
Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Ingredients:- 1/4 Cup Milk
- 1 Cup Lowfat Yogurt
- 2 Ripe, Medium Bananas (sliced)
- 1 Cup Fresh or Frozen Strawberries
- 1 Cup Fresh or Frozen Blueberries
- Add Milk and Yogurt to the blender. Pulse to combine.
- Add bananas and mix until blended.
- Add in berries and continue mixing.
- Scrape the edges occasionally to ensure an even texture. Continue mixing until desired consistency. Serve and enjoy.
- To store, split the mixture into individual bags and freeze.
- To unthaw, take out of the freezer and let sit for 15-30 minutes. Pour and enjoy a second time!
