I headed home for lunch today to hang out with Sadie and make myself a smoothie. (Side note: I think all office break rooms should have a Vitamix on hand so employees can make smoothies anytime! When I open up my blogger office, you better believe I’ll have one… or five.)
As I made my smoothie this afternoon, I snapped pictures along the way to hopefully answer some of the questions I’ve received from you guys about how I create healthy – but yummy – smoothies off the top of my head.
- Start with 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 cup liquid. My liquid of choice is almond milk, but any kind of liquid (orange juice, water, milk, soy milk, etc.) will work. Obviously creamier beverages like almond or regular milk will produce creamier smoothies. I play around with the amount of liquid I add based on how thick I want my smoothie. I always start with less than I think I’ll need and add more to get things moving in the blender if needed.
I eat my extra-thick smoothies in a bowl with a spoon!
- Add 1 cup of frozen fruit or 1 frozen banana. Of course fresh fruit will also work, but I prefer to use frozen fruit because it makes the smoothie colder and creamier than regular fruit. In my experience, frozen bananas produce the creamiest smoothies.
- Add protein. I always add some kind of protein to my smoothies so they have more staying power. A scoop of protein powder or a cup of Greek yogurt not only ups the flavor of the smoothie, but increases the protein content by a ton.
- Add spinach. This is obviously just my personal preference, but I almost always add a handful of fresh spinach to my smoothies. You cannot even taste it and the spinach adds an extra punch of nutrition!
- Add more flavor and thickness. This step is optional, but I almost always add a little something extra to my smoothies to amp up the flavor. My favorite ways to add more flavor include adding a tablespoon of peanut butter or cocoa powder or a teaspoon of a flavored extract, like coconut, vanilla or almond extract. I also add a pinch or two of xanthan gum for thickening.
Of course the above bullets are just guidelines for how I make my smoothies. The beauty of smoothies is that you can usually throw almost any kind of fruit and milk or juice into a blender and get something delicious. I love to experiment and play around with tons of different flavor combinations.
Some of my favorite smoothies include:
- Sunrise smoothie
- Chocolate-covered strawberry smoothie bowl
- Chocolate peanut butter banana smoothie
- Strawberry banana smoothie
- “Ice cream” smoothie
"I'm a Smoothie Love-ah!"
Question of the Day
What smoothie flavor is your favorite?
P.S. The Fashion page was updated today!
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Today I made a really good smoothie for after my work out with some chocolate milk, plain chobani greek yogurt with some agave to sweeten it up, a frozen banana, a cup of ice, and some cocoa powder! delicious
What blender do you use or do you have any suggestions? I need to upgrade from my target $30 one that doesnt EVER mix in my kale (chunky smoothies are not my thing). I have seen so many options like Vitamix, Blendtec and Ninja. But each brand has several options. HELP!
Adding to the millions of comments already here…I recently read a suggestion to use (cooled down) green tea as a liquid base for a smoothie and I LOVED that idea so I wanted to share the wealth in case other people also didn’t know about this idea and are now equally enthralled to read it.
Julie, thank you so much for posting this, I use this formula at least once a week and it’s never failed me.
so glad to hear it!! 🙂
Wow! i’ve never tried adding peanut butter to my smoothies and i gotta say i’m impressed xD it really gave that extra thickness i love 🙂
thanks!
Love the way you present this healthy recipe. Each elements of this smoothie is a great source of vitamins, minerals and essential nutrients. I will try this one some day. Thank you.
this is an awesome post to make a healthy morning breakfast …easy