Smoothie & a Movie
A deliciously simple self-care strategy
When it comes to self-care, I’m a hopeless slacker. I’m not exactly sure what it means that I’ll do anything to get out of nurturing myself, but I know I’ll inevitably find something else to do if my self-care routine involves yoga, meditation or anything that requires reflecting on life choices.
There is one self-care strategy that works for me though — it’s an easy mood-booster I have no problem completing. I’ve always loved movies but it wasn’t until I was hospitalized for three weeks with nothing to do but watch the TV above my bed that I realized how much films help my mental health. I got hooked on Hallmark movies, yes, Hallmark movies, because no matter how cheesy they were, I couldn’t watch one and not feel better afterward.
I kept up my movie-fix habit after I went home and added in one more self-care strategy: smoothies. If you used to watch Dinner & a Movie you’ll know this is a riff on that show, which I loved. I wasn’t up for cooking back then so my sister-in-law Karen (right?) brought me rainbows of smoothies to get me through the week. I confess I always ended up pouring the green ones down the drain but the rest were, well, really good. So began my smoothie & a movie self-care routine.
Here are three movies with matching smoothie recipes to get you through the pandemic madness. Don’t worry — there’s no Hallmark (though I still stand by their feel-good vibe).
1. Shirley
Shirley is an outlier when it comes to typical self-care fare but 1) it’s a great movie; 2) Elisabeth Moss plays Shirley Jackson brilliantly; and 3) it’s all about escape. By escape, I don’t mean the movie will transport you to fantastical worlds but rather that it captures what it meant to be a woman in 1950s America. And it offers a way out of seemingly hopeless situations.
At the outset of the film, Jackson is a psychological trainwreck — a self-described “lost girl” who drinks scotch in bed and can’t resist cutting anyone within range of her razor-sharp intellect. When Fred and Rose Nemser move into the rambling Vermont house where Jackson and her professor-husband Stanley Hyman hold court, it doesn’t look as if things are going to work out.
Rose and Shirley form an odd sort of bond, however, when the author enlists the pregnant newlywed to help her with some strange research. Against her domineering, cheating husband’s advice, Shirley is writing a novel. Its subject: another lost girl, a student named Paul Welden who vanished from Bennington in 1946.
The movie is only loosely based on Jackson, but it takes a real-life incident as its starting point: Bennington sophomore Paula Welden did indeed disappear and Jackson became fascinated with the case. Not only she did write a long story, “The Missing Girl,” about it, she later expanded on the idea in her novel Hangsaman.
I love the movie for its depiction of the healing power of writing and its focus on new beginnings. I’ve read multiple articles about the ending — and you’ll have to decide what happens in those final minutes for yourself — but I see it as a testimony to alternate futures, futures that offered women the chance to “dwell in possibility” at a time when their options were limited.
As an accompaniment, I picked this Blueberry Maple Oat Smoothie from closetcooking.com. What says Vermont more than blueberries, oats and maple syrup?
Ingredients
1/2 cup rolled oats 1 cup yogurt 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen) 2 tablespoon maple syrup 1 cup liquid (I used milk but juices like apple juice would also work well.)
Directions
1. Mix the rolled oats into the yogurt and let sit in the fridge over night. 2. Puree everything in a food processor.
This smoothie is healthy and delicious, so it’s a nice self-care binge.
2. Stranger than Fiction
Stranger than Fiction is another quirky, original film worth watching. It’s light, funny and cleverly plotted but also surprisingly deep. The story centers on IRS agent Harold Crick, who Will Ferrell plays in his first dramatic role.
Harold gives new meaning to the word dull, even for an IRS agent. He lives alone and his life is essentially one giant routine dictated by his watch — at least until he hears an unfamiliar voice narrating his life. When his watch stops and he attempts to reset it, the all-knowing narrator blithely informs him he has set in motion a chain of events that will kill him.
This sounds dark, but Harold’s efforts to undo that chain are unexpectedly hilarious. Dustin Hoffman plays the literature professor who guides Harold’s attempt to figure out if in he’s a comedy or a tragedy (which isn’t as straightforward as you’d think). Maggie Gyllenhaal is lovely as the free-spirited baker being audited and Emma Thompson is superb as the acclaimed writer who always kills off her protagonists.
Stranger than Fiction is the ultimate self-care movie because it urges us to shake ourselves out of the routines that define us and reminds us we can all be heroes, even in small ways.
I initially chose a plain vanilla smoothie to go with this movie but changed my mind when I came across the smoothie recipe below. It’s a nod to Gyllenhaal’s character since it appears on the site bakerbynature.com.
Strawberry Vanilla Smoothie
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups frozen strawberries 1/3 cup vanilla almond milk (or your favorite milk choice) 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (2) 5.3 oz containers vanilla yogurt
Optional:
1 tablespoon honey, if wanted to sweeten 1 cup ice, if wanted to make a more icy smoothie
Instructions
Add all ingredients into the body of a blender; blend/pulse until completely combined. Serve immediately.
If the smoothie is too thick, add more milk; 2 tablespoons at a time. If smoothie is too thin, add more fruit; 1/4 cup at a time.
This smoothie is quick and easy, plus it tastes great. And it makes two servings.
Julie & Julia
Julie & Julia is a favorite of mine, especially since I once worked as a baker. I was never a famous chef, but I have spent hours leafing through cookbooks in search of new recipes. Meryl Streep as Julia Child is as good as she always is and Amy Adams is adorable as Julie Powell.
This is another movie about finding escape where no escape seems possible. Julie is stuck in a boring dead-end job when she decides to make every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her blog and her cooking get off to a rocky start but she soon begins to gain a following.
The present-day scenes are interspersed with flashbacks to Child’s life that document her own cooking journey. It wasn’t easy for a woman to become a French chef in the fifties— or for anyone, actually. The usual complications ensue and the plot is standard fare but the feel-good premise is perfect if you want to add a dash of optimism to your day. I’ve always been a fan of Nora Ephron movies and this one is no exception.
Best of all, the movie is based on every writer’s dream. Real-life Julie Powell’s cooking blog followed the same trajectory as the one in the movie. After it went viral, Powell signed a book deal with Little, Brown & Company and Julie and Julia became a bestseller when it was published in 2005.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve daydreamed about this scenario playing out in my own life. If you’re in need of some writing inspiration, watching Julie & Julia is a fun way to spend a couple of hours.
French toast isn’t exactly haute cuisine but, hey, it’s got the word French in it. And this French Toast Smoothie is fabulous (recipe from furtherfood.com).
Ingredients
1 cup coconut milk 1 1/2 frozen bananas 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (to taste)
Instructions
1. Take all the ingredients in a blender and blend until mixture looks creamy like a milkshake. 2. Pour into a glass, sprinkle with a little extra cinnamon on top and enjoy!
Once you’ve got the recipes down for these smoothies you can vary them as you choose. The same goes for my self-care strategy. It’s a mix-and-match idea that works with any movie-smoothie combo. Add booze. Add boyfriend. Whatever works.
Much thanks to Lucy The Eggcademic (she/her) for her self-care prompt below:
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