Today brings yet another wintry storm to the Northeast. Emails have gone back and forth and texts regarding school closings, or even the possibility of my gym closing as well. If you’re home this morning and are thinking winter thoughts, give this recipe a whirl.

inspired by this Anthro blog recipe

• 1/4 cup whole cranberries
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 peeled blood orange
• 2 cups vanilla coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons honey

I made cranberry almond cake (with regular all-purpose flour as well as gluten-free flour) for Thanksgiving, a recipe which calls for whole cranberries. I had some left, and came across the Anthropologie blog with a curious recipe post that had the potential to dig away at the remaining cranberries as well as elevate the purpose of a lone blood orange that I wasn’t sure what to do with. Ideas of a fresh kale salad had come to mind, but this took precedence…perhaps a salad will envelop the fate of my next blood orange in the fruit basket. Although I was skeptical as to how this would turn out (more than I have been with any other smoothie idea), since neither stars of the smoothie recipe are particularly sweet (blood orange? tart cranberry? – come on), I was pleasantly surprised. The other ingredients – especially the honey, I suspect –  balanced out the bolder fruit flavors and left a smoothie which is nutritious, light, and has a pleasant flavor with hints reminiscent of the spicier aspects of winter – the cedar, firs, red color, and cranberries themselves.

Here are some beautiful, fresh shots of the Wintry Smoothie:

pictured in Crate and Barrel working glass, and on DIY Cath Kidston coaster