Easy Gazpacho Soup Smoothie

I'm not a huge fan of Green Monster shakes, but for some reason (104F in the shade?) I was craving gazpacho soup the other day. I was also on the run, so I wanted it portable. And those who know me, know that I needed protein because I believe that I might wither away and die from not consuming protein with every meal and snack.

Enter the Gazpacho smoothie. It's shockingly more delicious and less creepy than it sounds. And so so so easy. I did not use a Vitamix- just a standard blender. Today I had it in a bowl, as originally intended from the great Gazpacho gods.

The obligatory items are the veggies, water, ice and a blender. But I added the protein powder and 'the thickening gums' because otherwise I'd have to have them surgically removed from my hand.

Ingredients:

•  Half a medium cucumber
• 1/4 of a sweet red bell pepper
• handful of grape tomatoes (or one medium regular tomato)
• stalk of celery
• handful of parsley
• several shakes of hot sauce of choice (Tabasco, Tapatio, Frank's)
• handful of ice
• enough water for blender to 'grab' and blend
• Optional: half a scoop of protein powder of choice
• Optional: 1/2 teaspoon of guar gum and 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum

All this for 157 calories.

18g of protein; 6 g of fiber; a village's weekly supply of veggies (almost)

In unrelated news, I wanted to make some pancakes from one of Eden's recipes and this is what I found on her Livestrong recipe page. I circled the fun stuff.

Q: Do you crave savory cold soups? Have you heard about fruit 'soups' that they serve in restaurants or cruise ships (I call that a smoothie in a bowl).  Do you subscribe to the 'must have protein' philosophy? Why would Eden's pancake recipe call for advertisements for urinary incontinence or singles over 40?