Smoothie recipes

[SilverLining]

I want to make a smoothie.  I'm more interested in fruit, but post any you like.

Do people ever just "wing it"?  And what are the rules....are there certain things you always use? Never use? What goes with what etc?

[becca]

I often wing it with fruity ones.  I make those mostly for ds. Not with green ones, because you need to have the right combo for it to be palatable.   

For fruity ones, I will start with greek yogurt, add some frozen fruit, and either some juice, water, or milk, maybe sweetener(either calorie free or for the kids I use raw sugar or honey), depending on your palate, or use a sweetened vanilla greek yogurt.  That is a basic one.  I add gorud flax sometimes. 

if you want to try one with greens in it this is good:  Greek yougurt, frozen blueberries, a handful of baby spinach, 1-2T ground flax, and some sweetener fo your choice.  Also some ice/water for the right consistency.  You can play with the  sweetness.  Just add a touch more and blend some more, etc... A touch of lemon would go good in this too. 

[SilverLining]

I would love to get ds to drink green ones, but I don't think it's ever going to happen.   (Although he does like spinach on pizza.)

I have never succeeded in putting flax in anything or him.  I tried for a long time. 

Do you use full size ice cubes?  I have this fear of breaking my toy.   

[becca]

Well, I have a Vitamix.  It will grind anything, but my fridge dispenses crushed ice which I tend to use for the blender. 

[becca]

The blueberry one with spinach is purple.  I fooled ds once.  He liked it, but then found out I snuck spinach in it.  I told him after he had it, so he would know, and see that it tasted fine.  In general, I do not like lying about what is in food.  In this case, I did not lie, I omitted the info and shared *my* smoothie with him, then added the info, "Oh, BTW, I also put some spinach in that."  Up until then, he thought it was just blueberry with yougurt, ice, flax. 

[Macabre]

I use regular ice--for smoothies and margaritas. 

[SilverLining]

I use regular ice--for smoothies and margaritas.

What kind of blender do you use? 

~~~

I have an ice-cube tray that makes small, long pieces of ice to drop into a water bottle.  They melt fast, so I don't actually use them often.  I decided I'd make some now, because they won't be so hard on the blades.

[SilverLining]

I let ds lead in what to put in our first smoothie.

We cut up and removed pit from several yellow plums and one large peach.  Tossed in some raspberries and blueberries and put it all in the freezer for a few hours.

Put all that (semi-frozen) into a pitcher and added a blueberry yogurt and a few scoops of vanilla icecream and milk.

I don't think it qualifies as healthy, but it sure did tast good.

~~~

I had a pear that was close to going off, so I cut that and stuck it in the freezer.  I'm thinking I'll add an apple and banana.  Tomorrow I'm going to try to get some plain yogurt.   I'm the only one who ever eats it, so we don't always have it.

[becca]

Sounds very yummy! 

[momtoAidenDeclan]

I am trying green smoothies - but like Becca said, use blue (or black) berries and it's not green - easier for the kids to accept.  This was my first try:

http://simplegreensmoothies.com/Recipes/strawberry-banana-blueberry

 Cool website - I plugged the recipe into Spark to get the carb count for ds#2.

And now I'm hooked - I've used just water and it's great, this morning I used about 1/2c kefir as the liquid and it yummy, too.   Instead of ice (which will water it down if it sits at all) I just use one of my fruits frozen in the smoothie - usually the berries, but a banana freezes nicely overnight if you plan ahead.
It's been my breakfast all week - I eat a handful of nuts, mid morning to get some protein (tho' one morning I had an apple - but I think a protein is a better, healthier choice).  Today it's gonna be my lunch, as well, since I'm home.
In that shake, above, I get a serving of greens, and three servings of fruit!
I had flax, hemp, chia seeds and/or flax oil, sometimes.

Yesterday I winged it and subbed frozen pineapple for the berries, water for the liquid and put in some coconut oil - a little pina colada, sans rum to start my day 

We just bought a Ninja mixer....didn't want to spend Vitamix prices at this point.

[becca]

Just made a green smoothie.  It has been awhile.  I used more fruit than usual, and it actually tastes very good!

Here is an approximate recipe:

large handful roughly chopped greens(I had a mix of kale, rainbow chard, and others, but kale or chard alone is fine)
large handful of baby spinach
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup frozen pineapple(mine was fresh today, but I stuck some in a baggie in the freezer for this purpose)
1/2 persian cucumber
1/2 peeled lime(small one)
1 stalk celery, in chunks
1/4 large granny smith apple
1/2 banana
about 1" piece of ginger
crushed ice or a few ice cubes

I add the water and chunky things first, and the greens and crushed ice on top and whizz away in my Vitamix.  I have had a large glass of it, and have as much left for another serving. 

[Macabre]

That looks like the one I've been wanting to make. I had one like it at Panera. DS likes it. But I'd rather make my own. Thank you!


I've had this open in my browser for a long time--want to stick it somewhere:
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4024626?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

[becca]

Thanks for posting those.  This one looks yummy, but not exactly low carb or low calorie.  But yummy, whole ingredients. 

http://cafejohnsonia.com/2013/03/pineapple-mango-coconut-spinach-green-smoothie.html