Raspberry Linzer Smoothie

I realized recently that I don’t often post recipes for all of the smoothies I make. It isn’t that I’m a huge smoothie drinker – I know people who have a glass every day – but I do work it into my morning routine at least every few weeks. I have posted a handful of recipes in the past, but in general I tend not to view them as recipes. More often than not, I toss ingredients into the blender and hit ‘puree,’ the ingredients a collection of flavors that I had in mind but actual measurements often fall to the way-side. I decided I should share some with you every once in a while, though, since a lot of them turn out pretty darn tasty.

One of my most recent creations I’m calling a Raspberry Linzer smoothie, though I’ll warn you that if you’re looking for a taste twin to its dessert cookie counterpart, you’ll be disappointed. This is a breakfast raspberry linzer treat, a just mildly sweet combination of almond and raspberry: no jam, minimal added sugar. You taste the raspberries and the almond milk, through and through. Originally I was going to add a sliced frozen banana to the smoothie to impart a natural sweetness, but either one of my roommates ate it (unlikely – in fact, borderline impossible), or it’s playing a formidable round of hide-and-go-seek in my pitifully disorganized freezer. So, I used some honey crème instead, but would encourage you to try the banana if you have an overly ripe one lying around. I also would recommend almond extract over the vanilla that I used. I planned to use almond extract, but the night before I had a kitchen accident that resulted in my wonderful almond extract, lid removed, flying across my kitchen floor and spilling everywhere. Cue Plan B. It still tasted very good, but can imagine that the extra almond flavor along with the subtleties of the frozen banana would take this smoothie to even greater heights.