mango bowl

A lot has changed since the last time we touched base here. Easter Sunday came and went, taking with it every last ounce of hope I had for my once-promising future. Today we're going to try to outrun the malaise with an unusually tropical sensation - a mango smoothie bowl, complete with some roasted hibiscus crumbs.

frozen mango

frozen coconut

frozen banana

chia seeds

hibiscus

almonds

toasted coconut

Have I told you guys about the fat sack of champagne mangoes I got for a dollar at Food 4 Less last week? They were ripe to the point of falling apart in my hands, and every one that I didn't slurp up immediately went straight into the freezer bank. Beautiful, mushy gold.

This coconut came into my life in much the same way as the last one - I was on an impromptu shoot in Santa Monica, and the guy I was working for decided that we should break for refreshments in the form of coffee and coconut juice, an unconventional combination, in my admittedly limited experience. Maybe his intention was to balance out the caffeine with the electrolytes from the coconut, I'm not sure. At any rate, the coconut entered the scene, and as we set up to work again, I stuffed it discreetly into my jacket pocket for safe-keeping. I had big plans for it the moment I saw that we were getting the real deal and not just the canned stuff, which, don't get me wrong, is also delicious.

I took a bit of time to scrape out the bulk of the flesh with an ordinary spoon, laying it all out on a cookie sheet to freeze while preparing the rest of the various components that would eventually make up the bowl. After most of the meat had been removed, I went the extra frugal mile and scraped out the thin membrane that remained to toast off in the oven at 275° for about twenty minutes along with the steeped and drained hibiscus flowers.

Once everything was chilly enough to thrill me, I stuffed it all into the blender-cup; in an effort to be less of a wasteful pig, I've been doing my best to avoid filling it beyond its intended capacity. It's April, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to work a few extra resolutions into the mix every now and then. New year, new me, baby.

I was originally going to dump the smoothie into my trusty tuxedo bowl, but, seeing the opportunity to really make an authentically exciting aesthetic impression, opted instead to use the coconut itself, a decision that I do not regret in the slightest. At this point, it was all a matter of tossing on some sprinkles and sticking in the spoon. Truly a breakfast to be remembered.