Orange Cream Smoothie

As the weather heats up nothing satisfies more than cold drinks and a dunk in the pool. I can’t help with the pool, but I can very much recommend making a pitcher of this orange-y smoothie. A definite knockoff of a popular chain’s signature drink, this is super simple and fast to make with the added bonus of not needing to gather everybody up to go to the mall to get one.

Experiment with different juice flavors if you like (apple is the only one I’ve found dissapointing), but this classic combination of orange and vanilla is a great place to start.
I give proportions for a single serving glass or a bullet-type blender cup here so that you can make as much or as little as you like. Just make what your blender can hold. If you want to disguise this as a more “healthy” type snack you can add some flax oil/meal or protein powder as well, though the meal will be noticeable in the finished drink and the oil or protein probably won’t be.

Orange Cream Smoothie

Per Person/Bullet blender cup
1 cup crushed ice
2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate
2/3 cup vanilla soy milk or rice milk*
few drops vanilla extract (optional)
1/2 banana, cut into chunks (optional)

Combine all ingredients in blender pitcher or bullet cup and blend until smooth. Taste and add more milk or water or orange concentrate to sweeten or thin if needed, blending once more to incorporate any additions. Serve immediately in frosty glasses.

*A word on the soy/rice milk–I use these because of the richness of the regular soy or rice milk and the lack of curdling when combined with the acid in the orange juice. The soy and rice milk especially make it taste like you’ve used sherbet as they do in the original, but without the added preservatives and fat usually present in commercial varieties. That said, my mom made us similar smoothies when we were kids with regular milk and they came out ok, though proportions might have had something to do with that. If you want to try this with regular milk, I’d recommend upping the banana to help emulsify the whole thing and drinking before it melts and separates so that if your milk does curdle it won’t be noticed. Taste-wise, it doesn’t make a huge difference if it does curdle. Definitely add the vanilla extract if you use regular milk since it will lack that extra creamy punch that comes with the vanilla orange combination.