On a hot day, nothing is better than a cold drink. Here’s a new smoothie-like beverage.

I put one large navel orange, peeled, 4 frozen strawberries, 1 cup ice, 1 cup water, and a few lemon verbena leaves.

Blend well and enjoy.

This month’s Taste & Create inspired me to tweak my Best Walnut Banana Bread recipe just a bit, thanks to Tamy and Always Eat On the Good China. It took me a few tries to perfect my own banana bread recipe, and now I’m ready to start creating a few new variations. Here is a new one for me.

I immediately went to my Best Banana Walnut Bread Recipe. Then I realized I was out of some ingredients. Good planning on my part (smile). So I altered the flour in my recipe as follows: 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup unbleached white flour, and 1/2 cup crushed rolled oats.

Other than the flour substitutions, I followed my banana walnut bread recipe and added some great ideas from Tamy, such as 1/3 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened), 2 teaspoons granulated ginger, 2 crushed cloves, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and zest from one large navel orange. I added some chocolate chips to half of my batch to mix it up a little.

I baked muffins. I just now realized that I baked Aussie bites (also muffins) for last month’s Taste & Create. What’s up with me and muffins lately? Are all of my Vita-Mix smoothies making me crave muffins?

I stopped buying orange juice now that I can make it fresh whenever I want it. Here’s the simple recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3 blood oranges, peeled
• 1 cup ice