The Easy Ways to Make a Smoothie
Making smoothies can be fun and easy. All you need is a blender and some of your favourite fruits or vegetables. Making smoothie recipes that are tasty and nutritionally beneficial is easy to do.
Here are some basic smoothie recipe ingredients:
1 or 2 fruits of choice, for example 2 bananas or 1 banana and a handful of blueberries
½ cup of low fat yoghurt
½ cup of low fat milk – dairy or plant based
To make a smoothie, simply blend these ingredients together, adding ice if you prefer and drink!
Tasty additions for a great-tasting smoothie recipe include wheat germ, mint, ginger etc... be creative with additional tasty foods you can add to make your smoothies even better. Smoothies are great additions to breakfasts, especially if you do not have much time in the mornings to cook or create your breakfast.
Additional Ingredients for Tasty Smoothie Recipes:
Wheat germ
Wheat germ has a lovely nutty flavour and is rich in Vitamin E and protein. It is available from more health food shops as a powder and makes a wholesome addition to smoothies or on top of cereals and porridge.
Superfood
Superfood is a healthy, green nutritious powder and can be added to any smoothie recipe for extra goodness and vitality.
Fruits for great Smoothies
The main thing with smoothie recipes is you want it to taste great. Try experimenting with combinations of some of the following fruit and see how you go.
Bananas, kiwi fruit, melons, blueberries, apples, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries can all make great tasting smoothie recipes.
Yoghurts in Smoothies
Yoghurts can add some great taste to smoothies and adds texture as well as great taste.
Fruit yoghurts often contain lots of sugar or even artificial sweeteners, so read the labels carefully if you want to keep your smoothie low in sugar. The fruit that you add to smoothies contains natural fruit sugars which provides a good source of energy.
There are many different types of yoghurt available. Yoghurts are made from cows' goats' or sheep milk and even soy milk.
Yoghurts are calcium and protein rich and make a tasty and healthy addition to any smoothie recipe.Yoghurts can be full fat or reduced fat, so if you are wanting to lose weight or are already on a diet, or thinking about going on a diet, find a yoghurt that best suits you and use it to make great-tasting smoothies.
Low Fat Yoghurts in Smoothie Recipes
For those of you wanting to lose weight, low fat or very reduced fat or no fat yoghurts are the way to go and if you find their taste a little less than interesting, then you can always add some of your favourite fruit.
Probiotic Yoghurt in Smoothie Recipes
Some yoghurt is probiotic which means it contains very small microorganisms that are beneficial for health. Probiotic yoghurts taste great and also supply friendly bacteria to your smoothie.
Probiotic yoghurt assists with:
- The breakdown of foods in the digestive process and increase the absorption of nutrients.
- Getting rid of harmful toxins in the intestines.
- Assisting with the body's absorption of several of the B Vitamins including B3, B6, B12 and B9 (also known as Folic Acid).
- Strengthening the amount of infection-fighting cells in the body.
- Reducing the chances of intestinal infections.
- Minimising the chances of yeast infections.
- Providing a rich source of protein.
Lactobacillus Acidophilus & Acidophilus Bifidus
Two of the more well known names for the friendly bacteria that are present in the intestines include: Lactobacillus Acidophilus - naturally occurring in dairy products and are also often added to yoghurts and also Acidophilus Bifidus - which help to reduce cholesterol levels and removes toxins.
Add a yoghurt that contains live cultures of friendly bacteria to your diet today!
Sweeten your Smoothie Recipe Naturally
Smoothies are often quite sweet tasting all by themselves. But sometimes when you add certain ingredients such as herbs or greens, it can be even more delicious if you sweeten it a little bit. Here's how:
Add some honey
Honey is a thick sweetener made by honey bees and is one of the most popular natural sweeteners and there are now many different types of honey available including runny honey or waxy thick honey.
Honey can be light in colour to dark red and is a natural antibacterial sweetener.
Honey is a mineral and vitamin rich sweetener and contains magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium chlorine, sulphur, iron and phosphate, vitamins such as B1, B2, C, B6, B5, B3, trace elements like copper, iodine, and zinc as well as amino acids.
Honey is one of nature’s wonder sweeteners and is healthy and sweet. Honey is rich in anti-oxidants and helps to fight infections. Honey has also been used for a long time to help heal external wounds and acts as a natural protection against infection.
Tasty Maple Syrup
This is natural plant sweetener derived from the Canadian Maple leaf tree. It is rich in antioxidants, manganese and zinc and so makes for a nutriously sweet flavour.
Maple Syrup has been found to contain over 50 beneficial nutrients including zinc, potassium, calcium, manganese, selenium, phosphorous, magnesium, iron as well as vitamins and carbohydrates. Maple syrup is a very powerful anti-oxidant.
Agave Syrup
Agave nectar is sometimes called agave syrup or agave sweetener. It is similar to honey in taste and most often produced from the agave plant that is grown in the volcanic soils of Southern Mexico.
They have long, spiky leaves that resemble aloe vera plants.
Agave syrup can be used in the same way as honey, to sweeten drinks and makes a great addition to smoothies.
Rice Syrup
Rice Syrup is an natural sweetener also and is made from whole grain rice. It is another great tasting wholesome alternative to table sugar.
Sometimes smoothies sometimes need a little bit of sweetening to take the edge of the sharp taste of fruits. Artificial sweeteners and syrups are full of processed sugar and preservatives and can often act as digestive irritants. Avoid these where possible and use a natural alternative sweetener which is full of goodness as well as great taste.
Mint Leaves for a Refreshing Smoothie
Mint tastes great when added to smoothies, especially in fruit smoothies and compliments apples, kiwi fruit, melon and berries. Mint is also traditionally used to support digestion.
