Tropical Smoothie

I recently read a lot about coconut milk and how it is high in calories and fat but still has very healthy qualities. Perfect for my recipes - but how do you incorporate it? Even though it is unsweetened, it still has a fairly coconutty flavor. So I have been able to figure out how to fit it into a few recipes so far, this one seemed like a fairly obvious choice to start with :) My son has issues with liquids and a thick smoothie like this is good to use to teach your child how to use a straw.

This is a really easy, quick puree - no cooking is required unless you are making it for a very little one, in which case I would recommend you steam the fruit (except the banana) for about 10 minutes prior to pureeing. I use organic mango and papayas, but use regular bananas and pineapple to save a little cash. Since the skin on them is so thick and you peel them, very little (if any) pesticides get into the fruit. 

1 Mango, peeled

1 Papaya, peeled and seeds removed

1 Large Banana, peeled

1/4 of a pineapple, skin and core cut off

1/2 a 14 oz. can of full fat coconut milk

Cut all the fruit into 1 inch chunks.

Dump it all into a food processor (I use my beaba babycook, but all you need is a regular or mini food processor) and add in the coconut milk. 

Puree until smooth. You can thicken this up with baby oatmeal cereal or you can thin it down with milk and serve it in a straw cup as a smoothie. Freeze the remainder in ice cube trays.

To make a low cal version just substitute reduced fat coconut milk.