One summer in college, I worked in a gelato store to make extra money. It was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had.

Not many customers came in during the day because the shop was in a weird, tucked away corner in a grocery store parking lot. So I would sit in the back of the store all day reading until I heard people come in. Or my friends would come visit and I’d talk to them and let them try all the flavors.

Another thing I liked to do was experiment with flavor combinations. I put dark chocolate and coconut together on a spoon and discovered that it tasted like German chocolate cake. The strawberry gelato and lemon sorbet tasted like strawberry lemonade. The options seemed endless.

One of my favorite combinations was blood orange and vanilla gelato. It tasted exactly like a dreamsicle bar. And it was a great way to sell the blood orange flavor, because people either had never heard of, or were freaked out by the words, “blood orange.” But once you said the word “dreamsicle,” their eyes lit up. Everyone knows what a dreamsicle is.

I saved this recipe for a rainy day (literally), and I’m glad that I did. It’s bright and zesty and reminds me of summertime.

Orange Dreamsicle Smoothie with Toasted Coconut (slightly adapted from Hungry Girl por Vida)

Ingredients

1 cup canned coconut milk or almond milk
1 Siggis coconut yogurt
2½ cups frozen or non-frozen mango chunks
1 orange, peeled
½ frozen banana
2 tablespoons toasted, unsweetened coconut
1 tablespoon hemp hearts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth. Garnish with extra hemp hearts and toasted coconut. Enjoy!