Cantaloupe-Banana Smoothie

I know, why act all pompous and call it smoothie when it’s just a milk-shake? Yeah, but doesn’t the term “smoothie” sound cute, funny, and babyish? I think some little kid at some point called a milk-shake a “smoothie” (“Mommy, I want that smoothy-smoothy drink”), and the dad who overheard it decided to revamp the term milk-shake to smoothie, because the people of this land always crave to establish their own unique identity. If the rest of the world calls something by a certain name, the people here will go to any lengths to rechristen it and adapt it to their ways.

So well, smoothie or milk-shake, the preparation of this drink cannot be more intuitive and easy. Of the several dreams and inane thoughts I have, starting a smoothie place used to be one such brainwave. It’s ridiculously easy to mash together a bunch of different combinations of fruits, add a splash of milk, cream, or yogurt, a bit of sweetness, and a few nuts or extra flavors, and you get an endless array of “healthy” drinks that people never tire of. Every time I wait in line at Jamba Juice, I sigh.

Every so often, I ambitiously buy a cartload of fresh fruits thinking that I would religiously eat them every single day. But time has a way of playing tricks on us. By the time I remember to pick out one huge fruit from the fridge, an unpleasant sight awaits me. I face an ultimatum posed by the fruits - eat us within the next two days before we hit the road to rapid decline. And so, driven by such desperation, I plonk all the assortment of fruits into a blender, pour some milk, add a dash of honey, give everything a whir, and I have four glasses of filling smoothie for breakfast and pre-dinner nourishment.

This time I picked a cantaloupe and watermelon, envisaging eating cubes of them after dinner. When I didn’t see that happening for the first two days, I decided to be proactive. The result was a cantaloupe-banana smoothie.

Ingredients:

1. Half of a medium-sized cantaloupe (peeled and cubed)
2. One banana
3. 4 cups of milk (or more depending on how thick you like your smoothie)
4. 1 teaspoon of chocolate powder (I use Ovaltine)
5. 1 Tablespoon of honey (optional; skip, if you like your smoothie to be a little less on sweet)
6. 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional)

Preparation:

Dump everything into a blender and puree till smooth.

As I mentioned, the adaptions are numerous. Get creative! I always like adding banana to most smoothies because I like the texture, the flavor and yummy consistency it brings to the drink. At one point, inspired by Anand’s words, I used to add a spoon of protein powder instead of chocolate powder. I could then call it a fruity-protein drink. 

You can also add yogurt along with a bit of milk, and you get Lassi! We tried cantaloupe lassi (without banana) recently, and it came out decently. I garnished the Lassi with a teaspoon of cardamom powder, and it tasted really good - almost like dessert! 

Also, I typically don’t use citrus fruits like orange, lemon, grapefruit etc. I fear that the acidity would curdle the milk. Berries and bananas are perfect for smoothies. Without the chocolate and the honey, a glass of this smoothie is a nutritious and filling drink. It’s a perfect and easy breakfast for non-morning people like me who have barely enough time to get ready and rush. But this is also an easy way of adding calories - just because something has healthy ingredients doesn’t make the resulting output always healthy. Everything in moderation - that’s the mantra!