I headed home for lunch today to hang out with Sadie and make myself a smoothie. (Side note: I think all office break rooms should have a Vitamix on hand so employees can make smoothies anytime! When I open up my blogger office, you better believe I’ll have one… or five.)
As I made my smoothie this afternoon, I snapped pictures along the way to hopefully answer some of the questions I’ve received from you guys about how I create healthy – but yummy – smoothies off the top of my head.
- Start with 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 cup liquid. My liquid of choice is almond milk, but any kind of liquid (orange juice, water, milk, soy milk, etc.) will work. Obviously creamier beverages like almond or regular milk will produce creamier smoothies. I play around with the amount of liquid I add based on how thick I want my smoothie. I always start with less than I think I’ll need and add more to get things moving in the blender if needed.
I eat my extra-thick smoothies in a bowl with a spoon!
- Add 1 cup of frozen fruit or 1 frozen banana. Of course fresh fruit will also work, but I prefer to use frozen fruit because it makes the smoothie colder and creamier than regular fruit. In my experience, frozen bananas produce the creamiest smoothies.
- Add protein. I always add some kind of protein to my smoothies so they have more staying power. A scoop of protein powder or a cup of Greek yogurt not only ups the flavor of the smoothie, but increases the protein content by a ton.
- Add spinach. This is obviously just my personal preference, but I almost always add a handful of fresh spinach to my smoothies. You cannot even taste it and the spinach adds an extra punch of nutrition!
- Add more flavor and thickness. This step is optional, but I almost always add a little something extra to my smoothies to amp up the flavor. My favorite ways to add more flavor include adding a tablespoon of peanut butter or cocoa powder or a teaspoon of a flavored extract, like coconut, vanilla or almond extract. I also add a pinch or two of xanthan gum for thickening.
Of course the above bullets are just guidelines for how I make my smoothies. The beauty of smoothies is that you can usually throw almost any kind of fruit and milk or juice into a blender and get something delicious. I love to experiment and play around with tons of different flavor combinations.
Some of my favorite smoothies include:
- Sunrise smoothie
- Chocolate-covered strawberry smoothie bowl
- Chocolate peanut butter banana smoothie
- Strawberry banana smoothie
- “Ice cream” smoothie
"I'm a Smoothie Love-ah!"
Question of the Day
What smoothie flavor is your favorite?
P.S. The Fashion page was updated today!
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This is a super helpful post! I really want to start making more smoothies now that I’m home for the summer and actually have a blender (and cute little umbrella decorations…I’m a dork).
Thanks for the step by step! I can’t wait to start making them on hot days.
I’ve recently begun experimenting with xanthan gum and it’s amazing how the tiniest bit really thickens things up!
I have a new favorite smoothie that I’ll be posting soon, too. One wonderful thing about summer- it’s smoothie season!
Thank you for posting these tips! I’ve always wanted to know how you make your smoothies look so tasty! Now I just need to work on getting a blender and then I can actually make these 🙂 I can’t wait!
YES! I shud have expected this post from you!!! i LOVE putting frozen nanner, protein powder, cinnamon and soy milk :).. but i need to experiment more!!!
Have you tried Shakeology for your smoothies?? http://www.shakeolgoy.com/tmartinson
I make mine almost the same way, however I use a scoop of shakeology! I make one that is 1 scoop shakeology, 1 cup almond milk, 1 tbs almond butter, 1-2tsp agave nectar, spinach, extra protein powder and ice. It tastes like a chocolate malt! Delish and super nutritious!!!!
I love simple smoothies — banana, vanilla protein, almond milk, scoop of peanut butter, ice!
I create my smoothies pretty much in the exact same way as you Julie! I love the creaminess that frozen bananas add and frozen fruit in general means that you can get a thicker, colder smoothie without adding tons of ice (which I find dilutes the flavour). Hope you’re enjoying your afternoon slurp! 🙂
Chocolate + strawberry is my absolute favorite. I always add 1 Tbsp. of cocoa even though I use chocolate protein powder. I almost always add 1/2 a frozen banana to my smoothies.
I just got a smoothie this afternoon with a half of an avocado in it! It was the creamiest strawberry and banana smoothie I’ve ever had. You couldn’t taste the avocado at all. Such a great and strange addition!
ohh I do love healthy smoothies. I am all about the almond milk, hersey’s cocoa, and greek yogurt.
I’m also enjoying the addition of chia seeds to create a pudding like consistency!
YUM! 🙂
I totally learned the magic of smoothies from you! I immediately fell in love and I’m an official smoothie addict. They are a perfect addiction for summer and they really do pack so many nutrients if you make ’em right! (;
I keep it simple. My fav is just vanilla protein powder, milk and frozen blueberries. However, last night after dinner, I was craving chocolate and didn’t have anything except Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder. I threw that with milk and a frozen banana into the blender, and it was the perfect after-dinner, guilt-free treat!
Oh yeah. And spinach because like you said, it adds nutrients, and you can’t even tell it’s there!
You have helped me to fall in LOVE with smoothies! I am going to make one for my best friend tonight (who is in town). I told her I learned the secret to the best smoothies ever from this girl named PB Fingers. I like to see your smoothies outlined like this, because even though mine taste good, they never look like yours. great tips!
I always tend to make the same “mixed berry’ flavored smoothies with random frozen fruits… but I just bought some new strawberry protein powder so I am forseeing some chocolate strawberry and starberry banana smoothies in my future!!!!
Mmmm yummy! And I agree, especially chobani has a pretty high protein content! I believe it’s a liiiiitle higher than many other greek yogurts. 🙂 oh Julie, have you tried Trader Joe’s almond milk?! if not, you should! it’s sooooo thick and creamy. WF’s almond milk is really creamy too.
This is a totally dumb question – but do you freeze the bananas with the peel on?
haha no! definitely REMOVE the peel. my best friend emailed me this very question yesterday. 🙂
peeling frozen bananas is no fun- been there, done that and lost half the banana in the process!
Also, you can slice it and freeze it on a cookie sheet first and then take those slices and put them into a container so you can have as little or as much as you want!
My go to smoothie (and fav) is almond milk, a frozen banana, frozen blueberries, chocolate or vanilla protein powder and spinach!
great post! I’ve been looking for some smoothie recipes.. so far my favorite has been banana, vanilla protein powder, almond breeze and of course spinach!
Julie is there a specific reason why you choose to use almond milk rather than cows, soy etc.?
Thanks
i prefer the taste, honestly. i’ve never been a big milk drinker and like the almond flavor best! also, it’s cheaper at my grocery store than regular milk!
Me too! I also love how it lasts longer as well. Thanks for adding the smoothie post.Nice to find new recipes! 🙂
My newest smoothie flavour obsession is dark chocolate pomegranate! I blend up a frozen banana with spinach, pomegranate juice, vanilla greek yogurt & a tablespoon of dark chocolate powder. Then I top it with pom seeds!
that sounds fantastic!
I agree, I must try this!
I LOVE smoothies too! I always add spinach + frozen berries are my fav (with greek yogurt or prot powder). So delish!
I also love chocolate minty smooothies!
I just made a chocolate covered strawberry smoothie inspired by you!
Naturally, it was delish.
I’m so glad you posted this. I need to look into a better protein powder. Confession, I use Slimfast high protein powder for no other reason then I know it’s a bearable taste!
My favorite smoothie is chocolate banana, yum!
Oh- have you tried any of the personalized blenders for an at work option? I have my eye on the Cuisineart Smart Power.
It used to freak me out having spinach in my smoothies until I actually tried it.. It’s true, you can’t taste it at all! 🙂
Great tips! I am also a smoothie freak like you. 🙂 I recently did a Smoothie Making 101 post. http://thegrassskirtblog.com/2011/05/05/smoothie-making-101/ My favorite smoothie is a Grass Skirt (which I named my blog after). It tastes like a pina colada! I also love the simple banana & peanut butter combo. 🙂
Now I am going home and making a smoothie. LOVE THEM! and yours always sound so delicious! I can’t wait to go home! 🙂
I love these ideas! I’ve been obsessed with smoothies ever since I came home from college this summer and came across the vitamix my parents bought years ago stuffed way back in a cupboard! I think the last time it was used was during a camping trip when my parents were blending pina coladas in the vitamix and blasting Jimmy Buffett music…we got called out by the park ranger for waking up the whole campground 😉
It may be 10 years old but it still works like a dream!
thanks for posting this! i’m always looking for new ways to jazz up a smoothie 🙂
if you wouldn’t mind, would you do a post like this about your overnight oats!? 🙂 those always look delish!
yes! i love that idea!
music to my ears! or rather, tummy 🙂
Fun post, Julie! My favorite smoothie flavor is PB & banana 🙂
Great post!!! 🙂 I love the step-by-step guide. Wish I had a VitaMix — I only have a cheapo blender so I have to blend the frozen fruit + liquid by itself first before I add anything.
Peanut butter banana smoothies are THE best!!!!!
I recently made a pineapple and greek yogurt smoothie and it was so refreshing!
Carrots! You’re missing carrots! I peel a bunch of carrots at once and leave them in the fridge for when I want a smoothie If You don’t peel them, the smoothie tastes very earthy and carroty. If you peel them, you can’t taste them! My recipes so far are:
1/2 frozen banana, 5 frozen strawberries, about 1/2 c frozen pineapple, 1 carrot, 1 ice cube, water.
OR
1 peeled orange, 5 frozen strawberries, 1 carrot, squirt of honey, water.
Try blending a carrot! your Vitamix can handle it 🙂
I really like this post…I like to eat smoothies, but I never feel like I’m making them right!
Right now I’m really digging Watermelon smoothies! I take a ton of watermelon, handful of raspberries, a cup or so of vanilla almond milk, and a scoop of vanilla flavored protein powder. SOOO tasty!
I just posted about a smoothie on Monday that tasted like Skittles! SO good!
orange juice, spinach, plain Chobani, vanilla protein power, frozen banana, frozen mango chunks and fresh strawberries – mm!
oooh a skittle smoothie!? sign me up!
I have always had a minor smoothie obsession (how could you not?!) but I give you full credit for giving me the idea to make my smoothies thicker & eat them in a bowl instead of simply drinking them from a glass. It seems weird, but not only do I enjoy them more, but I’m so much more satisfied. I don’t think I could ever go back to the boring glass.
It all about the cherry chocolate smoothies for me! Either that or something tropical like strawberries-mango-pineapple…yum!
Great smoothie tips!!!! 😀 I looove making them after a hard workout! So refreshing!
This must be my favorite post.
Love this smoothie lye outs.Still looking for xanthan gum though.
Just thinking, will spinach blend in nicely also when smoothie is made with regular 500W blender?
i wish i could say blenders make no difference, but powerful blenders really do make smoothies smoothier and, in my opinion, better. you don’t need a vitamix though! my parents have a cuisinart blender that is known for grinding ice that works great!
mine is supposed to crush ice, so will see
Your smoothies always look awesome, Julie! Thick smoothies are the bomb! 🙂
Love smoothies- especially after I started reading your blog! Sometimes I add cottage cheese & ice to give it a “milkshake” effect after it’s all blended, just like spinach you can’t taste it! Most of the time I love having Banana & Chocolate- I’d love to do banana/choco/pb too! Know any other ways to get my PB fix in there without splurging on actual pb? Most of the time I’m wanting to put in WAY more than 1 Tbsp!
have you tried PB2? it’s a powdered pb and works great in smoothies!
No I haven’t but I remember reading about it on your blog- I just saw that there’s also a Cocoa PB2? Yep, I definitely am going to need to order some. Thanks!
I’m glad you posted this because I did buy some protein powder the other day and was thinking about how to use it. I bought it strictly from reading your blog, haha!
I use dark chocolate almond milk to make mine chocolatey!!
I am a hardcore chocolate smoothie girl. But I also love my chocolate covered raspberry smoothie in which I simply just add 1/2-3/4 cups of frozen raspberries to my already chocolatey smoothie!
You know, I usually blend 100% fruit smoothies, like strawberries and kiwis, pears etc. So I’m very curious about your version and especially the spinach (how did you find the idea?). But when I see the pictures of your creamy delicious smoothies, I say yumm!
I LOVE your blog! Which protein powder do you use?
either all the whey or optimum nutrition gold standard. they’re delicious!
Thanks so much for all this info! Where can I purchase those protein powders? Thanks!
Your smoothies always look SO GOOD!
I just put a new recipe up on my blog! Take a look:
http://courtsreport.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/blueberry-crumble-smoothie/
The blueberry kind of mixes it up a bit! Hope you enjoy!
I havent had it in a while since last summer, actually, but I made a POM/banana smoothie that absolutely blew my mind. It was super thick and sweet/tart at the same time! I think I need to pick up a dash of POM at the store tonight to bring that bad boy back into my life!
I am so happy you did this post. I am a lover of smoothies, but it seems to always be a phase for me and I want to make it something that stays. I also have been going back and forth on whether or not to buy protein powder if it would be worth it for just me. I think this post has helped me decision and once I start my summer jobs (this weekend) I will purchase some powder, and go from there!