Fruit Party!

I am not what you would necessarily call a healthy eater. I like a good meal as good, if not better, than the rest of them. But I work a lot, and when I'm not working, I usually have homework to do for grad school, or I'm on the train on my hour-and-a-half-each-way commute. It's a busy lifestyle. And when I get home, cooking a fancy meal, and usually, cooking at all, is not really how I want to spend my free time. So I eat out a lot.

Japan is notoriously short on vegetables. The bulk of them are imported, and especially with a good deal of the farmland near Tokyo ruined post-nuclear disaster, the prices have gone up to boot. Getting your greens when eating out is usually insufficient.

When I was home in the States this summer, my sister-in-law got me on a huge smoothie kick. The two of us would make smoothies nearly every day we were home together, and the habit stuck back here in Japan. They're like a fruit festival! And to boot, they're always a splash of color on the mornings when I leave for work when the sun is still rising behind the buildings.

So what kind of smoothies do you like to make, you might ask? Anything and everything! The more interesting the mixture, the more fun they are to drink!

So today, in front of me, I have a honeydew-pear-peach smoothie. It's a little on the watery side, but that's what you get for having the juiciest pears you could wish for (Thanks to my awesome in-laws who send bags of fruit home with my lovely man.)

But the combinations are pretty much endless. Banana-kiwi-pineapple, anyone? Or banana-peach-strawberry-blueberry? Why not peach-banana-canteloupe? And of course cucumber-melon-banana.

It's a hit of vitamins that always picks me up for my morning classes, a splash of color that brightens my mood, and a kick in the pants to make sure I'm eating healthier.