Pineapple Express Smoothie, a Throat Soother

Quite a few of my students had the recent misfortune of listening to me teach with leftover laryngitis. 

Yuck, that just sounds gross, doesn’t it?

Luckily, one of those very students, Tim, is a teacher himself. He’s a compassionate soul and knows the deal on vocal fatigue. Either that, or couldn’t bear the thought of listening to me teach with that raspy voice next class. At any rate, after class, he shared his laryngitis remedy with me: fresh pineapple juice. DONE. I was off to Fairway stat and bought two pineapples. Which happened to be on sale, 2 for $5, which was an awesome incentive.

Since I love to sneak in vegetables at any turn, I threw in some cucumbers into the juice as well. Loved the taste, and yes, pineapple has a very healing, lubricating quality for the vocal cords. As do cukes, as it turns out. Hollah! Or better yet, DON’T hollah. But definitely make this juice as a preventative or to help you once things have already gotten a bit uncomfortable. It certainly helped heal me. And it’s quite delicious, which is reason enough to enjoy it.

Throat Saving Pineapple and Cucumber Smoothie

Yield: About 4 cups. Recipe can easily be halved or doubled.

• Half of a fresh pineapple, or 2 cups pineapple, precut (could use canned, but try for fresh if you can swing it. I always leave to core in my pineapple, because my Vitamix can handle it and I like the extra fiber, but core your pineapple if you prefer).
• One large cucumber or 2 medium cucumbers
• 1/2 cup of water (just enough to get the blender going)
• Sweetener of choice to taste (honey, stevia, etc…might not need)

1. Add all ingredients into blender, and blend. Add more liquid IF needed.

2. Taste for sweetness, and adjust as needed. You could use stevia or throat-healing honey to sweeten if you wanted to.

About these ads