Mango Smoothies

A couple of years ago, we decided to try to cut out a lot of sugar from our diet by eating desserts only on holidays, birthdays, or if someone else had us over for dinner. In order to get over our sugar cravings, we ate these smoothies almost every night for a month. It is still our favorite smoothie recipe. If you're lucky enough to live near a Trader Joe's, their frozen mango chunks are inexpensive and perfect for this smoothie. To make it extra thick, use frozen bananas, but you'll need a powerful blender. I've burnt out two blenders making these with all frozen ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 2 mangoes, peeled, pitted and cut into 1-inch dice
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 banana, coarsely chopped
• 2 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Place the mangoes in a plastic bag and freeze until firm, at least 1 hour.
Just before serving, in a blender, combine the frozen mangoes, yogurt, milk, banana, lemon juice and vanilla. Blend until very smooth. Pour into chilled glasses and serve immediately.

Serves 2.