sicko

There was a time when I got sick constantly. It probably didn't help matters that I lived with a roommate who had a disease that left her immune system weak and was always having colds & sniffles or that we lived in a damp basement suite or even that I was living a rock n' roll lifestyle. No really! I was working days at a record store and I played bass in a power-pop-punk band at night. Being sick was just something I dealt with every few months. But when I moved out on my own and got a career and finally started living my life with just a sprinkling how adults are supposed to live, then the sickness stopped. Now, I can proudly boast that I get sick once every two years which I think is a pretty nice record.

Unfortunately, that 2 year window closed on me a couple of days ago. On Monday I went to bed with a sore throat and a bit of random coughing. The next 2 days were worse with aches and pains that left me with just enough stamina to hit the forward button whenever the theme song or credits would play on Season Four of the Gilmore Girls DVD. I was hurtin'. Needless to say there was not much cooking being done in this household. The only real treat I could muster up was my morning breakfast smoothie. Really, there are no hard to find ingredients or complex instructions in this one. Which surprises me as to why there are smoothie blends found in grocery store freezer sections. Are people really struggling with the concept of a smoothie? Fruit + Yogurt + Juice + Spinning Blades = Smoothie. It's not a complex equation. Here's my top secret "recipe":

pretty in pink smoothie
frozen strawberries*
orange juice
vanilla yogurt

1. Take a handful of frozen strawberries and put them into a blender. If you are lucky, you will have a beautiful actual vintage model beehive style Osterizer found at Value Village for $4.

2. Add a few generous spoonfulls of yogurt overtop the strawberries. I use a delicious organic vanilla yogurt from Vancouver Island that is so tasty that it actually converted me to liking yogurt in the first place.

3. Then, pour some orange juice over everything and hit blend. You may need to add more orange juice if everything churns to a crawl.

Pour into a fun glass and drink with a straw (or not).

* If I make this for Cornelius, I add a frozen banana too. I hate bananas, so I don't add it in mine.