Healthy Smoothies

In New York City, where I live, calorie counts have to be posted at fast food outlets and chain coffee shops like Starbucks. Sometimes I am shocked to see the calorie count in a muffin or scone.

At least at Starbucks, a smoothie is a great choice, a blend of banana, strawberries, milk and protein powder.

But although Starbucks let’s you customize your milk, with nonfat or soy, they don’t have Lactaid. I can understand this; if you are lactose-intolerant, you can just use soy milk.

But my daughter prefers the taste of cow's milk. So at home, we use our blender to create smoothies using whole fresh fruit and Lactaid.

My secret is two-fold. I freeze overripe bananas (after peeling them – believe me, mentioning this step is important) and use those in the smoothies. The brownish bananas are much sweeter, and using them frozen means I can use less ice, and more milk.

Freezing bananas is also a great way to use up extra bananas that ripened too fast too eat - i keep them on hand for banana bread and a not-at-all-healthy but delicious chocolate peanut butter cake.

My smoothies are loaded with vitamins from the fruit and protein from the milk, so there’s no need to add protein powder.

Healthy Smoothie for one

½ frozen banana

3-4 strawberries, hulled

¼ cup Lactaid

2 ice cubes

Blend and enjoy.

You can also substitute peach, watermelon or mango for the strawberries.

Melissa d'Arabian showcased Lactaid’s versatility on the TODAY Show, with this recipe:

 http://www.today.com/id/52297933/ns/today-today_food/t/chicken-lactose-free-creamy-mushroom-sauce/#

Annie – back on Broadway

When you raise a curly headed moppet who sings and dances, her dream role is Annie. And when my youngest daughter was growing up, she played Annie in every theater camp or class she took. But then she hit puberty, got self-conscious, and stopped performing. She still loves attending theater, and the new Broadway production of Annie was high on our list. Sadly, the floodwaters were also high, and Hurricane Sandy delayed our date with the mutt Sandy. But when we finally got to see the show, it was thoroughly enjoyable. Ok, the lead has a questionable accent and mediocre pipes, but she sure is adorable. And the supporting cast all have strong voices and great comic appeal. And when you have a teen who idolizes Tyra Banks, Lady Gaga and Taylor Lautner’s abs, a little G–rated fun is most welcome. I also thought the staging was excellent, the sets were gorgeous and I've been waking up humming "Tomorrow" for almost a week.