fall smoothies, and where should we go?

M and I are in the middle of planing our little fall getaway. We're trying to decide whether we should just go north: Inverness, Bolinas, Point Reyes in search of delicious oysters and gorgeous views, or go down south, looking for warmer weather, and finally organize our fall picnic, we've been talking so much about. We usually hate planning, we just hop into the car and get on the road, but this time our getaway will be very short, so any ideas???

In the mean time, we've been also playing around with smoothies, a lot. Since our CSA boxes have been overflowing with apples, pears, carrots and oranges, more than we could ever eat, we decided to give our healthy summer sippers a little seasonal update.
So here are our three favorite recipes: carrot-apple for our nagging sweet tooth, spicy pear-orange for heat and energy, and heart healthy pomegranate-orange smoothie.

Carrot-apple smoothie is my healthy sugar fix. I usually use 2 small purple carrots, 1 apple, plum and freshly squeezed orange juice or cantaloupe, if available. Blend everything with plenty of ice until smooth. And, if I still want some extra fiber I also add flax seed.

Spicy pear-orange smoothie is my pick-me-up concoction. I mix pear with freshly squeezed orange juice and spice things up with a Thai pepper. I usually just use half of it, as it has a really strong "kick" to it. Blend everything with ice and enjoy it's fiery flavor.

And just in case you missed it, here is the fall smoothie #1, pomegranate-orange:

enjoy!

Posted by M. at 2:40 PM