Smoothie Sunday is back everyone!  After taking the winter off from smoothies, now that the weather has finally turned warm it’s time to go back to smoothies.  While starting the brainstorming process for smoothies I decided I wanted to try to work some more veggies into smoothies this year, since I didn’t use any last year except avocado (and even then I believe that’s technically a fruit).  One of the first things that came to mind was a carrot cake smoothie.  Carrots are a vegetable, but they’re on the sweet side, and carrot cake is definitely sweet, so it would make it seem less like drinking veggies, and more just yummy.  While a lot of my smoothie recipes call for yogurt, mostly just to add substance, in this case the yogurt plays a vital flavor role.  The vanilla yogurt adds a sweet tang, similar to the cream cheese frosting that normally tops carrots cakes, without as much fat and sugar and whatnot.  This smoothie is like eating dessert for breakfast, but it’s good for you!

What you’ll need

Carrot Cake Smoothie:

• 1 cup carrots
• ¼ cup walnuts
• 5-6 ice cubes
• 1 5.3 oz container vanilla yogurt (or about ½ cup)
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground allspice
• ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tbsp sugar (or more to taste)
• ½ tsp. salt (more or less to taste)
• ½ tsp. lemon juice

In a blender, blend the carrots, ice, and walnuts until mostly smooth.  Add in the remaining ingredients and blend until well combined.  Drink and enjoy!

Some notes:

• I used baby carrots because that’s what we had, but you could just as easily use regular sized carrots.
• I softened my carrots by steaming them for a couple of minutes in the microwave first and then letting them cool down to room temperature before using.  I only did this because I didn’t have faith in my blender blades, but if you know your blender can handle it you can definitely skip this step.
• Obviously if you’re allergic to nuts, don’t add the walnuts.  You could try adding raisins instead if that’s more your thing.