It is a new year, and everyone will inevitably be searching for healthy recipes to help them meet their goals, whether that be weight loss, healthier eating, or cooking more at home to minimize eating processed foods. For all of these reasons, I love Smoothies! This is the first in a series of recipes I will share with you over the coming months. The Berry Good Smoothie is my go-to, basic recipe, and it never fails to satisfy! Smoothies are great for breakfast, lunch, a mid-day snack, or an after-school boost.
Let me start by saying that you do not need any special equipment to make my smoothies. All you need is a regular blender. I use a Cuisinart blender to make all of these recipes.
Why drink a smoothie? It is fast (you can make any of these smoothies in less than 5 minutes – no lie!). It is good for you (nothing processed here). It is flexible (don’t like blueberries? Use strawberries. Don’t like kale, use spinach, or leave it out!). My goal is to teach you the METHOD of making a delicious smoothie. You can then tailor it to whatever suits the taste buds in your house, or to whatever fruit you have on hand. Doesn’t this sound better than running through a drive-through on your way out the door? And you’ll feel better, too.
If I have fresh fruit, I use it. But I really prefer to freeze my fruit. I always keep frozen organic strawberries and blueberries in my freezer, and when those bananas in your fruit basket are looking a bit brown, or your berries are getting a little soft, put them in the freezer! Buy your fruit on sale, or pick a bunch of it in season, wash, dry, and freeze it. Once you start making smoothies, you will never throw away another piece of fruit!
10 oz. organic strawberry yogurt smoothie (or your favorite yogurt plus some water, or 1 cup almond milk)
2 handfuls of frozen blueberries
10 frozen strawberries
1 frozen banana
3/4 cup orange juice
Put all of the ingredients in a blender in this order. I like having some liquid at the bottom to get the blender going. If the blender is not moving your ingredients around, you may need to add more juice. Play with it until you get your desired result! This recipe makes 2 big glasses, so drink up, or share with someone you love! And congratulations on making a healthy choice today!
