Easy Smoothie Ideas

I got a comment from Hillary. She mentioned that it was easy to make smoothies at home. And it is!  I make them for my family all the time and they are extremely adaptable.

The first step is to freeze very ripe bananas. You know the bananas that have turned brownish and spotty?  Those are perfect – sweet and very ripe. Cut them into pieces about 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick, place in a single layer in a zip-lock bag. Pop the bag in the freezer and you’ve got your base. The thick, frosty bananas do away with the need for ice cubes, so your smoothie is all fresh, fruity flavor.

I purchase bags of frozen fruit at the grocery store – strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, peaches, anything. Mixed fruit works great. I like this combination of melon, peaches, strawberries, and grapes that I get at Safeway. You can add anything you’ve got around the house – pineapple is especially good. I’ve added blood oranges and kiwis that are fresh. Experiment with whatever sounds good.

Next, you put the fruit in your blender and you add juice or soy milk to cover. If you’ve got a cheap blender, like me, you may have to add more juice to get it to pulse correctly.  I like to use an orange juice that is enriched with calcium, because I’ve got two teenagers who don’t get enough calcium, but you can use any kind of juice. Cranberry might be a bit tart, so if you use that, make up for the tartness with some very sweet fruit. You can also use yogurt, soy milk (vanilla soy milk is wonderful in a smoothie), or a combination of fruit juice and yogurt.

I find the combination of fruit and juice to be sweet enough, but you can add honey, raw sugar, or Truvia to taste, if you like. You can also add peanut butter, flax seed meal, protein powder – like I said, they are very adaptable.

Here are some combo ideas:

*banana, vanilla soy milk, peanut butter
*orange juice, strawberry, vanilla yogurt
*apple juice, pineapple, strawberry, peach
*pineapple-orange juice, peach, vanilla soy milk
*orange juice, peach, vanilla yogurt

Be creative and if you come up with something fantastic, please share it with us in the comments.

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