Papaya and Banana Smoothie

So when someone recently gave me some papayas, I’ll admit I had to look them up to find out how healthy they are.  Turns out, they are high in vitamins C an A, have a decent amount of fiber and have healthy antioxidants like lycopene.  Sign me up!

So I went on a mad papaya spree!!! I added it to a savory quinoa dish (also here on the blog) for a bit of sweetness and nutrition, I chopped it up and put it in my rice pudding (learned to eat that right away, as papayas have a significant amount of liquid that really waters down the pudding–still tasty, but way messier), and I, of course, made a smoothie out of it!

The biggest problem I had when trying various smoothie combinations was that the papaya taste got overpowered by, well, almost anything.  I learned to accept that.  It still gives a sweetness as well as a nutritional boost and makes the smoothie drinkable if you don’t go with frozen ingredients, which means I can take it in my to-go container!

Ingredients:

• 1  1/2 cups papaya
• 1 container yogurt of choice
• 1/3 of a small banana
• 1/4- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• mint leaves (optional)

Directions:

Put everything in a high speed blender and puree till smooth.

Enjoy!