Smoothies

Ok, since I was sick starting in October I’ve started eating (drinking?) a lot more smoothies. My last week on at work I took one with me and stuck it in the freezer until later and I got some questions of what was in it and that sort of thing. So here is my update on smoothies.

First off I studied how Jamba makes theirs. It helps that I have one across the street from me. I looked at their ingredient list and stared as the combined everything. Next I googled smoothies. Smoothieweb is a great website to get ideas of what to put in a smoothie. Then I purchased some of the pre-mixed ready to blend smoothies from the store (Smith’s has e-coupons frequently for these). You just have to add juice. While looking at these I noticed that there were random cubes in the bag that weren’t fruit and it made me wonder. I looked and saw that they had frozen yogurt in them. A few days later Yahoo ran a story about freezing your own homemade baby food in ice cube trays. That got me thinking about freezing my own yogurt. Some more googling lead me to several people who said it works; just scoop and freeze.

Now to the recipe.

1 ½ cups FROZEN fruit (I usually choose strawberries, blueberries and raspberries)

3-6 FROZEN yogurt cubes

½-¾ cup Juice(like apple or grape) or flavored liquid coffee creamer*

Packet of vanilla instant breakfast (optional if you want more calories like me)

 

Combine all in a blender. First pulse on the ice cube setting a couple of times. Then set it to liquefy for 30 sec. Mix with a spoon under the blades and turn back on to liquefy until smooth. Clearing under the blades helps to save your blender motor. If there is no movement add more liquid.

Fruit Ideas:

Yes, I did star coffee creamer. Yes, I am an active Mormon. Why on earth would I buy coffee creamer? To make creamy smoothies. Let me make this clear. There is no coffee in coffee creamer. In the words of a nurse I work with, it is essentially flavored half-and-half cream. That being said I add French vanilla flavor to my smoothies (and occasionally to my hot chocolate too:-). Juice makes it less creamy and more sugary tasting (think Caribbean Passion). I personally like creamier smoothies (think Orange Dream). Disown me if you would like because I buy coffee creamer, but just remember I will be sitting on my couch drinking a yummy Berry French Vanilla smoothie:-).

By now you maybe wondering, when do I add the ice cubes? Remember when I capitalized FROZEN? I decrease the watered down taste in my smoothies by adding FROZEN fruit and yogurt instead of adding ice to make the frozen texture. Pretty nifty eh?

Fruit Ideas:

• strawberries
• blueberries
• raspberries
• blackberries
• bannanas
• peaches

Liquid Ideas:

• French Vanilla Coffee Creamer
• apple juice
• orange juice
• berry juice
• grape juice
• V-8

Yogurt Ideas:

• Vanilla
• Strawberry
• blueberry
• any berry really