Take matters into your own hands! Make a healthy smoothie at home with ingredients from your local supermarket. All you need is fruit, vegetables, protein, some fiber, ice cubes, and a liquid (milk, juice, or even water).
This smoothie contains
- Fruit: pineapple, mango, strawberry
- Vegetables: cucumber, greens blend
- Powders: pea protein and flax seed meal (Bob's Red Mill brand)
- Liquid: Chilled herbal tea
[bctt tweet="Make a healthy smoothie at home with ingredients from your local supermarket!" username="carolineposer"]
Smoothie recipe ideas
For example, you could use a cup of strawberries and a big handful of spinach with some Greek yogurt, ground flax or chia seeds, ice cubes, and 20 ounces of your milk
of choice (skim, 1%, etc.). (This will make two servings.)
You might try peaches and carrots, pineapple and celery, apple and cucumber, or mix it up: apples and carrots go well together, too. The only limit is your imagination!
Just try to keep your fruit to vegetable ratio even, e.g., 50% fruit and 50% vegetables to make sure they're not too sugary. And, if your fruit is frozen, omit the ice cubes.
Additional options
You can also modify the basic formula to suit your dietary preferences.
Don’t want dairy? Use peanut butter or pea protein powder and coconut or soy milk. (Hint: Use powdered peanut butter because it doesn’t gunk up the blender.)
Want fewer calories? Don’t use milk or juice. Instead, try chilled herbal tea, such as ginger-peach or raspberry, depending on what fruits you’re using.
Prefer a thinner or thicker smoothie? Adjust the amount of liquid accordingly.
If you want to get fancy, you can add superfoods to amplify your smoothie's nutritional value:
a greens supplement delivers additional nutrients that may be lacking in your fruits and vegetables (based on seasonal availability or soil depletion), turmeric reduces inflammation, and maca boosts your energy.When you follow these guidelines, your smoothie is actually a substantial and healthy meal. Bon appétit!
Do you have a favorite smoothie recipe?
I love smoothies I think because I'm a lazy cook and its superquick for breakfast, Avocado is a great thickener for smoothies
ReplyDeleteI love avocado so much I usually eat it before it gets in the smoothie! I also like pumpkin for thickening. If you use nutmeg and cinnamon, it comes out like pumpkin pie -- yummy!
ReplyDeleteI always make my smoothies at home so I know they aren't filled with junk! Love adding frozen bananas, frozen spinach, and even frozen brocolli to help bulk it up!
ReplyDelete[…] we returned home, I traded my coffee pot for a blender (replacing coffee with smoothies) and implemented some other lifestyle changes, such as exercise, mindfulness, and positive […]
ReplyDeleteI am not a big fan of broccoli in my smoothies but I do really like cabbage (in addition to other greens like spinach, kale, celery, cucumber...but not usually all at once). And if I ever do get a smoothie somewhere else, I look at it like dessert. I learned at Dunkin' Donuts you can ask for the smoothie to be made without extra sugar, but still...I wouldn't consider that super healthy!
ReplyDelete