Did I mention buying a juicer? I think I did. I must have, I mean, it’s a kitchen gadget!

Fresh juice doesn’t just taste fantastic and is super healthy, it’s also really comforting to know that if I can’t get my toddler to always eat right; I can definitely get him to drink right. It’s the mommy in me! I sneak vegetables & fruit into everything these days. It just makes me feel slightly victorious to see him drink broccoli, spinach, fennel or beet juice and not even realizing it, it’s an ego thing, I’ll admit it.

I recently happened upon a smoothie recipe book published by a company called Innocent. It’s written in a really fun, almost blogging kinda way. As far as I could tell the photos are mainly shot using natural light and the recipes are great, too. Some of them really basic—the kinda combinations you try the moment you first purchase a juicer, others are far more special. I really liked the book, it’s a good read. No, I’m in no way related to the company nor do they pay me (oh innocent people, my birthday is on September 15th!:)

Here’s one that really caught my eye. As simple as it may seem, it’s a really surprising combination. It’s fresh, sweet and acidic at the same time. Definitely a smoothie with a bite.

Ingredients:

1 juicy pear
fresh ginger
2 oranges
honey

Directions:

I’m blatantly stealing borrowing their recipe, so I might as well show you what the book looks like! They also sell bottled smoothies yet I have to confess I’ve never tried them.

The juicer came with a brand new addiction; fruit overload. Good thing I’ve Americanized and stuffed a huge side by side fridge in my kitchen! Here, take a peek inside part of my fridge, you’ll see what I mean.

Get yourself a nice big, juicy pear. Peel it, quarter it and take the core out. I love how the light falls on the knife in the last photo.

Put the pear quarters in a baking dish. No, I’m serious! Go on … I’ll wait. Now drizzle some honey on top and pop them underneath a hot grill for 5 to 10 minutes—just ’til the honey has caramelized and the pear is all nice and soft.

This is what my pear looked like after 10 minutes! Ok, now here’s what the innocent people don’t tell you in their book, but I will; let the pear cool off completely or you’ll be drinking a warm smoothie. It ain’t pretty. Warm smoothies are all kinds of wrong, unless they have some kind of chocolate in them, of course, but then they’re no longer considered a smoothie.

Normally I would have just put these through the juicer, but because not everyone has a juicer, I didn’t want to cheat.

So I made someone else squeeze them. Playing rule #1; delegate whenever possible :)

Two choices; leave the pulp in or run it through a sieve while pouring it in the blender.

Peel and finely chop a tiny piece of ginger (I went for a 1 inch piece), this will really liven up your smoothie. See how the angle I shot at makes the knife almost look like a guillotine? :)

Add the pear and ginger to the juice in the blender. Simply forgot to take a photo of me adding the pear *hangs head in shame*

But it’s really there, see! Now give it a few blitzes.

I was really surprised how well the flavors all came together at the end. Now you didn’t hear this from me, but squeezing out an additional orange and adding 1/3 banana is also really delicious!