Nobody’s perfect and one of Mrs J’s many, many, imperfections is a tendency to get really grumpy when woken up in the morning. Mind you, “morning” is a very flexible concept for Mrs J these days. It can mean anything from 5 am to 10 am, depending on Mrs J’s plans and intentions for the day.

This morning she was intending to have a nice long lie-in and was woken up by the sound of an industrial saw at 09:01. Grump alert!

In principle, it’s not bad that she was woken up. She wasn’t intending to stay in bed for much longer anyway. And 09:01 is not too early to use an industrial saw, really. It is, after all, Tuesday, a working day. After 9 am is quite reasonable.

All of which of course didn’t stop Mrs J from grumping away. (In her defense, that thing is really very loud and creates an indescribable echo in the narrow streets of Mrs J’s poor little village.)

To ungrump herself, she decided to get out old faithful the mixer and make some noise of her own. And a soothing, energizing smoothie. With nectarines.

If you want to make it too, it goes like this.

Get yourself a nice big nectarine. You could use a peach, but then you will need to peel it. With a nectarine you don’t have to. So unless you feel like peeling today…

Cut into medium sized pieces.

You will also need half a ripe banana. Cut that into a few pieces as well.

And some milk. Between 1 and 1 1/2 dl depending on how thick you want your smoothie. Mrs J suggests you start with 1 dl.

A few ice cubes, let’s say 5-6.

A good tablespoon of vanilla flavored protein powder. Mrs J uses this in most of her smoothies. If you’re not into protein powders you’ll probably want to consider using drinkable yoghurt or buttermilk instead of semi-skimmed milk to get a better texture and consistency.

Throw all of it into your trusty mixer and let rip. Open the window first, if you’re feeling grumpy. A few rips with the mixer will put a smile back on your face!

Take that, industrial saw-man!

Give your smoothie a taste. If it’s too thick, add some more milk. If it’s not sweet enough you may consider adding a little bit of sugar or sweetener. It’s perhaps not exactly what the doctor ordered, but sometimes the fruit just isn’t sweet enough on its own.

Pour into a nice glass and enjoy immediately. Preferably with some sunshine, the newspaper, or a good book on your balcony.

Unless someone is still using his industrial saw.