A Smoothie A Day Keeps the Doctor …

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Have you ever been browsing around Pinterest and saw a handy graphic or chart guiding you on your next project? Of course you have. Otherwise you have never been on Pinterest before. I have done PLENTY of these charts with wild success. However, I have been curious about the smoothie charts that suggest you can wildly pick any combination of ingredients and make a smoothie that tastes good.

I can’t help but be cynical. If that was true about cooking, then why have I made so many unpleasant dishes by experimenting with the contents of my refrigerator?

Now that you know I am skeptical. Let me tell you want I did.

With a stroke of genius I rounded up two trust taste testers, Annie & Jane, to come on this journey with me. I was not feeling brave enough to go alone. We took the below chart from Pinterest and set out to test the ability to make a delicious smoothie. It was a beautiful sunny day in the summer … it felt like everything was on our side.

Spoiler Alert – we were not successful.

What We Made

After a brief discussion of how this chart was a trap – how can any two items make a good green smoothie? We decided on the recipes we would follow and promised to try each one. No matter what.

  • Jane picked the first smoothie as an 🍏 apple, peach, & kale mixed with half water and half orange juice. I think she picked apple because she brought it 🙂
  • I picked a 🥝 kiwi, banana, kale smoothie mixed with half water and orange juice. There was zero doubt in my mind that a banana had to be included in order for the smoothie to get the proper texture.
  • Annie started the rouge movement by selecting 🍊 orange, pineapple & spinach mixed with water. Oranges in a smoothie? Felt odd to me.
  • We wanted to really challenge the chart by not selecting a fruit at all. 🥒 Cucumber, celery & spinach mixed with half water and orange juice.
  • Papaya was alluring to all of us, so we had to make one. Hence the 🍑 papaya, peach and kale smoothie.

Now, when I see the pretty pictures and read the ingredients I am not horrified. I remember feeling confident in the chart, except for the cucumber smoothie. I wanted to believe that all of these would turn out delicious and that making smoothies really is this easy.

At this time I think you should watch our video recap.

Our Takeaways

If you watched the video, you’re welcome. If you are in a hurry and haven’t watched it you are missing out. Actually, if you are in a bad mood you should save this video because it is so ridiculous that it might just cheer you up when you are down. 😂

Outside of quality ingredients to get delicious flavors we think texture and consistency are top of the list. We pulled all the kale and spinach out of my garden – organic and grown locally. We had sourced mostly fresh ingredients that we then froze. Here is what we learned:

  1. Liquid is the enemy in finding a good consistency. Remember you can’t take liquid out. Start off cautiously and add in as needed.
  2. Frozen ingredients are key. They don’t ALL have to be frozen, but at least half should be to give yourself a good texture and consistency.
  3. The banana is the backbone of the smoothie. The ONLY smoothie that blended well, had a good texture was the kiwi banana spinach smoothie. I am 100% convinced that was because of the banana.
  4. Get a good blender. We used a Ninja blender. It was good, BUT I then went out and purchased this Ninja Smoothie Specific blender and it was 1.5 million times better. Draw back to the Ninja Smoothie Blender is that it does NOT fit the other attachments for a larger containers.

Smoothie Recommendations

Now since pretty much everything we made failed completely and entirely we thought we would give you our favorite smoothie recipes.

  • Chellie – Banana, 1 c frozen mango, 3 large frozen strawberries, fill half way up with water/OJ.
    • TIP: “If I am adding protein powder I decrease the amount of frozen fruit to keep it from being too thick or too large.”
  • Annie – 1c water, 1c frozen fruit tropical blend, 1/2c vanilla greek yogurt, 1/4 frozen spinach
    • TIP: “I add 1 scoop of strawberry whey protein powder if I am using this as a post work recovery smoothie.”
  • Jane – 1 c Frozen strawberries, 1/2c greek yogurt, honey to taste & water to preferred consistency
    • TIP: “I like to mix in some orange juice with the water to change up the smoothie every so often.”

MORE RECIPES

If you love strawberries as much as I do, then read this article for 3 strawberry recipes. I share with you my 3 go to recipes for strawberry season. Plus a great smoothie recipe! And for those of you that use smoothies because they are packed full of nutrients and fast you should take a look at my article on quick snacks. These are snacks you can make ahead of time and keep in the fridge for easy access. Pay close attention to the almond joy energy ball recipe – wowzers is that one delicious.

Also, for those of you that like eating and cooking with fresh ingredients check out this collection of recipes for tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and basil. I have the easiest pesto recipe you can find out there, plus great ways to store your pesto to use all year long.

And to wrap it up you can look at Jane’s healthy treat recipes for some ways to incorporate nutrient dense treats into your day and week. A personal favorite of mine are the peanut butter stuffed date dipped in chocolate. If you haven’t tried dates yet… get started with this recipe.

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