I am on a green tea kick this week. In addition to my usual cold brew coffee in the morning, I've been sipping plenty of iced matcha lattes in the afternoon as a refresher. (My apartment has been getting really warm and stuffy this past week, even with the windows wide open.) Yesterday, I decided to deviate from the routine and make a green tea smoothie instead.
Or rather, a coconut green tea smoothie. I've started keeping a steady supply of coconut water in the fridge in addition to almond milk for blended drinks, and it's great on days when I'm in the mood for a lighter-than-usual smoothie.
I've been making smoothies non-stop these past few weeks. Maybe it's in anticipation of all the ripe late spring and summer fruits that will soon be in the markets. But lately my breakfasts have been looking more like the smoothie above instead of this or this. And that's a very good thing.
Until blueberries are in season, I'm making do with the the frozen kind. Frozen berries can often be too bland, so I was pretty happy to come across these, from Stahlbush Island Farms in Oregon. They're incredibly plump and tasty for frozen berries, plus the packaging is biodegradable to boot. Win win.
A few years ago I spent two weeks traveling through Vietnam and became hooked on a drink called sinh to bo, or Vietnamese avocado shake. When I got back to the US, I experimented with recreating the shake and wrote a recipe for my other blog Appetite for China.
Traditionally, Vietnamese avocado shake is made by mixing together mainly avocados and sweetened coconut, sometimes with a bit of ice and coconut milk added. As good as it tastes, the shake is also pretty thick and sweet, more of a spoonable dessert than a refreshing sip. So yesterday I decided to make lighter version of the avocado shake I loved from that summer.