Mango Lassie

After yesterday's gut-busting brownies, I thought perhaps I should put something up that's on the other end of the health spectrum.  Don't run away from me yet though!  I'm a firm believer that "healthy" does not have to be "bland."  Stick with me.  Trust me. :)

When it comes to smoothies, I'm pretty opinionated.  I like my smoothies with fruit and juice.  Period, end of discussion.  Once you start introducing dairy products to the blender, it ceases to be a smoothie to me.  Shakes have dairy in them.  Smoothies are juicy goodness.

Look!  A mango porcupine!

But (you knew that was coming didn't you), I was going through my cookbooks the other day and this one caught my eye.  For one, it did not claim to be a smoothie.  It also features mangoes, which I'd just picked up a couple from the store because they were on sale (yay sale!).  And being only four ingredients long (wahoo!!), I thought, "why not?"

Get ahead: cut up mangoes the night before and store in pre-portioned baggies

Prepare yourself.  These are like drinking sunshine.

Mango Lassies
Recipe from The Food You Crave

2 ripe mangoes
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
2 tbsp honey
2 cups ice

1. Mangoes have an oval-shaped core (I know, they're weird).  So to cut the fruit off the core, you basically just cut off the two sides.  I like to score the mango halves, invert the peel, and then cut out the juicy flesh.  Thanks to the scoring it cuts off in nice neat cubes.  Whatever your method, you want to get the mango away from the core, off the peel, and diced for the blender.

2. Blend the mango for a minute until the fruit is pureed.  Add the remaining ingredients and blend until ice is crushed and the drink is a gorgeous frothy pale yellow.

Mango meets yogurt meets honey.  Yummy!

As you can see, I like to pour this into my water bottle and take along as a standalone breakfast, or have with an egg sandwich or some kind of wrap.  It's cool, it's refreshing, it's happy to look at.  I like it. :)  The plain yogurt gives this drink a bit of tang, which I happen to like.  If you like your smoothie-esque beverages a little sweeter though I'd recommend using vanilla (or strawberry!  Ooo, strawberry-mango would be a tasty combo).