It's raining as I'm writing this post, and that must be one of the many meanings of a blessing. Last Sunday, We had 37 degrees (Celsius) with a heat sensation of over 42, coupled with an incandescent sun and a weak and hot breeze. Yesterday I didn't feel like doing anything because the heat made me so lazy. But now our plants are overjoyed and so are we 😁 Energies, recharging...

After a week of hard work, we're taking it easy and have gone to the beach a couple of times and have had a variety of interesting smoothies and frappés to cool our bodies down. Today I want to share with you the recipe for one of those smoothies; although you might be right if you think it's more like a frappé.

It all started with some overripe oranges on the kitchen table. I thought I'd make some juice like my mother used to make it.

We were a family of eight living in a hot city and there was only one refrigerator in our kitchen, so we could never store enough fruit. If we left the fruit outside, the heat would spoil them in a day or two. Like any mother of six, I guess, my mother was a resourceful woman; she came up with a couple of tricks of her own inspiration to handle our family's food contingencies. Among those cooking hacks was her recipe for creamy orange juice; you could make a lot of juice with only a few oranges.

To make creamy orange juice, she removed only the outer skin of the orange and the seeds; everything else went into the blender with some water, lots of ice and a little sugar.

It was a hearty and refreshing juice, plus you could make juice for 8 with 6 oranges. Today I wanted to make it, but sometimes my hands seem to have a mind of their own, and so I started picking up ingredients here and there.

Finally, and after I was sure I was using the oldest ingredients in my kitchen, I made an orange, pineapple, and ginger smoothie with Malay Apple flowers.

Below are listed the ingredients I finally got to use.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups orange
• 1 cup frozen coconut water
• 4 tablespoons ginger
• 1 cup frozen pineaple
• 4 tablespoons petals from Malay apple flowers
• Ice to taste if needed--I needed it.

The thing is that economy comes first most of the time; I try to use what I already have before it's too late. Right in that moment, the flowers of our Malay apple tree were begining to die; it was time to use some in the kitchen while they were good. I picked some--used some for the smoothie and some for coleslaw.

They taste great, like pommegranates mixed with concord grapes. It's an exotic and pleasant flavor, excellent for vegetable and fruit salads.

It's funny how the ingredients of your food and drink end up in your menu. The day before, Paco had chosen to sacrifice the pineapple that was next to the oranges, so I had to use it; I peeled it, cut it into little pieces and stored it in the freezer. Sometimes Paco is like that; he kills fruit he won't eat 😒

Making the Smoothie

I picked up all the old and almost dry oranges left on the kitchen table and let them soak in water for half an hour: this way their peel would hydrate and would be easier to remove. Some fruits come back to life if you soak them in water.

After that, Iwashed them well, removed the outer peel and seeds and cut them into pieces. The ones which wouldn't go into the blender would be eaten anyway. Vitamin C is on fashion.

Then I took a ginger root, peeled it and cut it into little pieces.

Once I had added the oranges, I added the frozen coconut water, and the ginger root.

Once in the blender, the frozen coconut water is easily broken into small pieces with a pointed knife. Just be careful not to go too deep so as not to damage the blades.

Then I added the frozen pineapple.

...And let the blender do its job.

I'm telling you, the heat was intense. My smoothie was becoming liquid, as the frozen fruit was losing its coldness very quickly. I had to add some ice cubes and blend again to restore the texture; that's why could argue that this smoothie is half frappé 😁

I cut some Malay apple flower petals and put them in the bottom of each glass.

Then I poured the smoothie.

It was refreshing!!! One tip for super refreshing drinks: Never add sugar; while sugar may enhance the taste of your #amazinhdrink, it also makes you thirsty.

I was really happy to have added ginger; it made the aftertaste stay longer and this somehow made the experience more refreshing.

Also, the coconut water added natural sweet. Super pleasant.

Needless to say oranges and pineapples are a good source of vitamin C, great for our immune system.

Refreshing, refreshing...

Cheers!

Thank you so much for your visit :)

All text and images are my own. I have taken the pictures with my Redmi 9T cell phone. And if any GIFs here, I've used GIPHY for all them.