As today is supposedly the most depressing day of the year, I thought we could cheer ourselves up with some after-school cocktails. 

Before you get too excited, they were of the virgin kind and more of a smoothie than anything else, especially as you’d never put a banana near a real piña colada. All the same the kids loved them, (“ten out of ten!” from Daisy who is not a smoothie fan), and they’re pretty healthy too. 

Piña Colada Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1 cup pineapple chunks, fresh or frozen best but I used tinned 
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 large banana
• Half cup of ice cubes
• 1tsp honey (optional)
• Lime, a squeeze
• Pineapple & kiwi slices, for garnish
• Cocktail straws

Method

In a blender combine the pineapple, coconut milk, banana & ice. Purée until smooth.

Taste. Add lime juice or honey as desired. 

Pour into two large glasses. Garnish with the fruit slices & add some cocktail straws. 

Health kick

I added 1tbsp of Super Greens Mix to mine. It contains wheatgrass, spirulina & barley grass. Green barley grass was recommended to me by a nutritionalist because it has nearly five times the iron content of spinach. In this smoothie the powder was surprisingly palatable. 

If you have any other good smoothies in your repertoire, especially ones that could make such powders more drinkable, I’d love to hear about them. Any suggestions in the comments section are much appreciated. 

And to end: some fine art from Ollie. Enough to cheer anyone up!