Chocolate Berry Smoothie

This chocolate berry smoothie is all about the berries, which are just starting to pop up at markets around the United States. I’ve been on a smoothie binge here of late, largely because I figured out how to make smoothies with just my immersion blender. I used to make smoothies in our large blender, but when the carafe broke, I didn’t bother replacing it and the base has been languishing away in our garage. Since we are likely moving soon, I’m doing my best not to buy more things for the kitchen. My quandary, of course, was how to make smoothies. Especially in the spring, I really love the combination of fruit and almond milk or fruit and juice. I also use a super easy technique of putting my smoothies into ½ pint jars and freezing them, which means they are ready to drink right around lunch time (I put them in the fridge the night before to start thawing). Enter the immersion blender. I really think this is the handiest tool I have. It doesn’t take up much space and it quickly blends fruit and liquids into perfect smoothie creaminess. I had very berry smoothies made up in no time at all this weekend.

Speaking of food prep and freezing, I’ve been doing a lot of writing here of late for Fix Me a Little Lunch about preserving. My main focus has been on canning, which, at least for me, most often comes to mind when I think about food storage. But freezing is also another great way to store fruits and veggies when they are in season. One of my favorite things to freeze is berries. We are lucky to live in a region where blueberries, in particular, are abundant. Blueberries freeze so well and are perfect to have on hand in fall and winter to make smoothies (like this very berry smoothie!) but also muffins, bread, pancakes, and so on. My kitchen hack for freezing berries is this: layout parchment paper on a baking sheet and, after washing the berries and inspecting for any bad berries, lay the berries out in a single layer and freeze them. Once they are frozen, they can be stored in freezer bags or containers. This way, they berries don’t freeze in one impossible to separate clump.

For this chocolate berry smoothie recipe, you can, of course, use fresh berries (or frozen berries from the store). I threw in just a scant teaspoon of cocoa powder in my chocolate berry smoothie this week to give it a bit of chocolate flavor.