I am strictly a “slightly underripe” fruit eater - that is to say, if fruit gets too ripe for my liking, I just cannot bring myself to eat it. I know it’s sweeter, but something about the texture . . . At any rate, since I detest throwing out what I know is perfectly good fruit, I would freeze bananas in hopes of making banana bread at some future point. Needless to say, I had a lot of frozen bananas. Then one morning, I had an epiphany! My mother-in-law often makes a fruit drink out of overripe fruit and juice - combining everything in a blender and mixing it up. It’s really good - in fact, if you’re familiar with the chain store “Jamba Juice” it would taste like that, only not as thick. So I began experimenting…here’s the recipe for what I have come up with, and it’s definitely a family favourite. I call it “Mom-ba Juice” (see reference to chain store above).

Mom-ba Juice - Serves 3-4

In a blender mix:

1 c. fruit juice - apple works well, but I like the V8 veggie and fruit mix too.

3/4 - 1 c. yogurt (I use lowfat, low sugar, sweetened with Splenda to keep the calories down)

2-3 frozen bananas* - frozen works best, you’ll end up with a milkshake like thickness.

Blend well.

Then add and blend the following until smooth:

1 c. or more of frozen berries. You can stop here and serve if you want. (Note sometimes you might need a bit more juice and a quick mix since this stuff can get so thick!)

If you’re feeling brave, try adding whatever other fruit you want - fruit cocktail with the juice from the can, any overripe fruit you have in the house (sometimes I freeze overripe fruit to throw in later - half peaches frozen are tasty). Also, this is a great way to use that fruit that looks so good in the store, but has no taste when you get it home!

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*Regarding freezing bananas - I’m sure this goes without saying, but since it was a mistake I made once I’ll mention it anyway. Peel the bananas before you freeze them. Otherwise, as my husband and his friend once pointed out, they’re nothing more than icy boomerangs. I’m sure you could thaw and then peel them, but for this, you need solidly frozen bananas to make the drink thick.