peanut butter banana smoothie

• 2 bananas
• 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 scoop frozen vanilla yogurt
• milk

Place everything but milk in blender and begin to pulse. Slowly add milk and continue pulsing until you have a thick smoothie consistency.

The dish: I met Kim the Friday night before a Saturday St. Patrick's day. We hit it off pretty well and wanted to hang out again, but both had plans for the next day; she was going to a math conference and I was going to New York to drink green beer (telling?). We made plans to meet Sunday for lunch. In the beginning of a relationship when you know so little about someone, where they pick to eat can be pretty telling. I wasn't sure what to expect but was shocked when I met her out and she asked "do you like sandwiches". Turns out she wanted to take advantage of some unseasonably warm March weather and grab a quick lunch and go for a hike. The first sandwich shop we went to was closed on Sundays, so we ventured to the next. We wound up at Rocket Wraps (get a website people!!), where we had some kind of rolled up sandwich and smoothies. To this day, whenever Kim can find a reason to go there, she returns and she always has a peanut butter banana smoothie. We had some bananas that needed to be used and a new appliance to play with, so we came to the mutual conclusion that we should try to duplicate Rocket Wrap's concoction. I liked it, but really don't have the intimate knowledge of the real thing that Kim does, but she loved it. It was a perfect treat on a warm day and sharing the smoothie in our red kitchen brought back good memories of enjoying one together when we barely knew one another on that sunny day in March.

strawberry banana smoothie

• 2 bananas
• 1 lb of strawberries, stems removed
• 1/2 cup fat free vanilla flavored yogurt
• 1/2 cup skim milk

Peel bananas and cut in half, place in blender. Add strawberries and yogurt, begin to blend. Add in milk as machine is on until desired consistency is reached. Serve cold.

The dish: 2009 has been a crazy year. Way back in December I got an awesome Christmas gift; a Cuisinart Duet blender and food processor. I'm ashamed to say that up until recently it was sitting in its original box just begging me to break it out. I finally got around to playing with it (it had instructions on how to remove it from the box) and I'm loving it. Expect to see a few more recipes that pour out of its glass blender jar or get chopped in its processor. I think I might be a little late in hopping on the whole smoothie craze, but I'm going to make them all summer and maybe even pour a little spirits in one or two.