My Favorite Smoothie Recipe

I have an old smoothie recipe on this blog I posted several years ago. I got it from Weelicious and it helped me learn how to make smoothies. But over the years I have come up with our own formula for smoothies. I thought it was about time to post an updated smoothie recipe!

Ingredients

Yogurt

Frozen fruit

Liquid

Spinach (frozen or fresh)

Protein Powder

Agave

Yes, I have no measurements for you. I am not that kind of cook! I usually just throw in a little of this and a little of that until I get the desired result. Try it, it's fun being a creative cook! 

Here's a little more information on each ingredient:

Yogurt: I have used greek yogurt, regular yogurt, even yogurt tubes. Just whatever you can find in your fridge is fine!

Frozen Fruit: We use mostly frozen fruit because we like the texture it creates. If you have some fresh fruit that needs to be used up, you can throw that in too but I would keep 3/4 of the fruit frozen to maintain the slushy consistency. If you only have fresh fruit, you can add ice to make it more slushy but it will still not be the same as a frozen fruit smoothie. I like to take fruit that's very ripe (but not getting eaten) and throw it in the freezer to use in smoothies later on.

Liquid: I used to use apple juice exclusively in our smoothies. But that is too much sugar for me so I now use coconut water. I often use milk for my family and they like it just fine! I use vanilla soy milk for me sometimes and that tastes yummy too. I will note if you make too much and want to store the extra for later, soy milk smoothies don't store well for later. Juice, regular milk, and coconut water smoothies store fine for a day in the fridge.

Spinach: We always throw in spinach and no one can taste it. I don't like spinach, so I would let you know if you could taste it! My kids call it the secret ingredient because you can't tell it's there if I didn't tell you. If you can't use up all your baby spinach before it's going to go bad, just throw the extra in a freezer bag and it will freeze fine! Then we just add the frozen leaves just like we would fresh. A hand full per blender full of smoothie.

Protein Powder: We have strawberry protein powder we always add to the smoothies. It tastes good in any smoothies we've made. If you don't have a protein powder you like, it's definitely worth trying out a few until you do. We love ours in smoothies or milk. It tastes like strawberry instant breakfast to me. Yum!

Agave: I use agave to sweeten it for two reasons. First of all, a liquid sweetener is best for smoothies because you don't want crunchy sugar in it! The agave blends nicely and everyone in my family likes it added to smoothies. I don't always add it for myself because often the fruit flavor is sweet enough for me. The other reason I use agave in smoothies is because I am hypoglycemic. That means I have to be careful with my sugar intake. Because of this agave is a staple in my house along with stevia to sweeten lots of things. Both of those sweeteners have a low glycemic impact so they are helpful for hypoglycemics, diabetics, and people who are trying to lose weight. For myself, I also use agave in hot tea, as pancake syrup, and any other use that a liquid sweetener would be needed. 

A note about blenders:

What blender you use will affect how easy it is to cut through the frozen fruit. A less powerful blender will leave some small chunks of fruit. The blender you see pictured above is one we used until a few years ago. It was an upgrade over the really cheap blender we had before that. My friend got a Ninja blender and was getting rid of her old one so I happily took it. It served us well for several years. It would leak under the blender jar so we bought new gaskets for it and kept it running as long as we could because we don't like tossing out things that still work. But ultimately it started smelling like something was burning when we would run it so it was time to let it go. I found a Ninja blender on sale at Sams and bought that to replace it. Holy guacamole! That thing leaves no chunks of anything behind! I paid about $75 for a big blender and two smaller 2 serving containers that also fit into it. I am happy with my purchase! But I wouldn't want anyone to think they have to have a fancy blender to make a healthy snack. As long as it can cut through frozen fruit, you are good to go. It might take longer and leave a little chunks uncut but your smoothie will still be yummy! If your blender is having a hard time cutting through the frozen chunks, try adding more liquid.

Enjoy your smoothie and let me know how you liked it!