My new fave smoothie: Green papaya ice

The Healthy Girl's Kitchen blog has compiled a big list of smoothies, but this is my new favorite go to morning smoothie: green papaya ice.

I don't normally buy papayas, not because I don't like papayas, but my mother-in-law used to be the secretary for a papaya company and she'd bring home a box of papayas per week. When she retired, I just couldn't see myself paying for something we always got for free, but at Saturday's farmer's market I saw a big bag of almost overripe papayas for $1, so I cut it up and put it in mini muffin cups and froze them for smoothies.

I have these silicone mini muffin cups that I never use because I don't bake as much, but I just scooped papayas in the cups for easier clean up and stuck it in the freezer.

Once the papaya ice is frozen, I just popped them out of the cups and bagged them for the morning smoothies.

The papaya in the green smoothie is nice and sweet, and the papaya gives the smoothies a rich creaminess.

Today's concoction: spinach, a couple dates (the papaya has enough sweetness so I could do without the dates), a frozen banana and about 4-5 pieces of papaya ice. Add soy milk, ice and/or water (I watered it down a little because my first try was a little too thick. It was like making green papaya sorbet). Yummy!