One of the things I love about living in Brazil is the all the wonderful tropical fresh fruit. In Sweden I am used to filling my shopping basket with apples, pears and the familiar banana. Occasionally I’ll pick up a few passion fruits, a pineapple or some other exotic fruit if there are any and they are on a discount. Oh, and avocados! I absolutely love avocados and eat one every day in Sweden. Expensive, I know but worth the versatility and nutrition it offers.
I am also a fan of smoothies, as are the kids and Peter. After arriving here I searched for frozen fruit for the blender but found none! After a few weeks and after giving up my search, I finally found some at a luxury grocery store but they were insanely expensive. I learned that in Brazil, because of the climate, keeping food frozen is very expensive especially considering the abundance of fresh fruit growing in this vast country. And like everything else grown or produced in Brazil it is very cheap. Imported goods are however very expensive. For instance a bag of Doritos costs 50 SEK (or 6 USD)!
So I decided to make my frozen smoothie fruit myself.
A few minutes from our house by car, and always on my way on some errand, there is a guy who sells fruit from his truck by the roadside. I stop there a few times a week to fill up. I usually get 3 pineapples, 4 boxes of strawberries and a net of mangoes. For this bounty I pay 75SEK (8 USD).
The man is really sweet and always talks really fast and a lot. Portuguese is difficult to understand when spoken slowly and nearly impossible when coming like machinegun fire from a toothless mouth. I mean it, only gums. I find swedish hard to follow sans teeth! But we somehow manage to reach an agreement every time and “chat”. For a while I’ll think he is talking about the kids blond hair and get in on the topic only to discover he is talking about the juices I can make that the kids will love. Makes me feel like an idiot every time but then again the language and culture differences makes me feel like an idiot 10 times a day. What’s one in ten eh?
Our freezer has this great function called “turbo freezer”. So when I get home I wash, peel and cut the fruit in pieces and spread them out on a cookie sheet and stick them in the turbo freezer for 30 min and voila; frozen fruit for daily smoothies.
My friend Cecilia, who is also an expat, introduced me to a green smoothie which is now my new favorite. Try it!
Kale-ginger-pineapple smoothie
Kale leaves
A few chunks of peeled ginger
Juice from 1-2 limes
Pineapple (canned if you can’t find fresh)
Orangejuice
Mix in a blender until smooth! Enjoy!!
OUT
CarosCarnival 
Gonna try that smoothie! Sounds lovely!
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Hehe, aldrig lätt med ett nytt språk och är man tandlös förstår jag att det är ännu svårare 🙂 Underbart med all färsk frukt så billigt.
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