Orange Delight

This one took a couple of tries to get right. Usually I drink it up anyway, because I'm cheap, and the HMR powder isn't. I think I have a good mix here, though - not too sweet, lots of flavor. My husband said it reminded him of an 'Orange Julius' shake from back about 25 years ago. My initial experiment was a little overzealous in the addition of both sweet potato AND carrots, along with the freshly peeled orange. It was just too heavy, and the sweet potato flavor was overwhelming. I also discovered that cooking carrots first makes them much easier to blend into the shake without burning out the blender motor, and still getting hard little carrot bits in your teeth. Cook up carrots the night before, peel and zest the orange, too. Then it's an easy morning shake before work. So, here's the recipe:

1/2 cup cooked baby carrots (either use some you've made for a previous meal, or cook them up in a bit of water in the microwave. If you cook them, then chill them IN THE COOKING WATER, I suspect there's higher nutritional value. Then, you can use the cooking water as part of the liquid.)

1 orange, peeled and sectioned - check for and discard seeds

optional 1/4 teaspoon of orange zest

3/4 cup liquid (baby carrot cooking water with additional water to make 3/4 cup)

1 scoop vanilla HMR shake powder

8 - 10 ice cubes

Start with the water. Add to the blender, and set to 'stir' (low power) add baby carrots and then orange sections a couple at a time.  Add orange zest, if you're using it. Add vanilla powder and increase blender speed to medium. Once the mixture is smooth, add the ice cubes one at a time, until desired consistency.

This is a great morning shake. I've done a breakfast of Orange Delight shake and a serving of the HMR multi-grain cereal to help me resist temptation at breakfast meetings. Then, I just drink a plain coffee at the meeting so I feel like I have something in front of me, but I can honestly say that I'm just too full to be very interested in doughnuts or pastries.