10 Different Smoothie Blend Just For You #SmoothieWorld

Healthy, convenient and portable, smoothies are ideal fuel-on-the-go for breakfast, an afternoon snack or dessert. Smoothies provide important protein, vitamins and minerals from ingredients like tofu, yogurt and fruit. For an easy breakfast or snack, try making one of our quick and healthy smoothie recipes, including banana smoothies, berry smoothies, green smoothies and more easy smoothie recipes.


1. Banana Blend 2 bananas, 1/2 cup each vanilla yogurt and milk, 2 teaspoons honey, a pinch of cinnamon and 1 cup ice.

2. Strawberry-Banana Blend 1 banana, 1 cup strawberries, 1/2 cup each vanilla yogurt and milk, 2 teaspoons honey, a pinch of cinnamon and 1 cup ice.

3. Strawberry Shortcake Blend 2 cups strawberries, 1 cup crumbled pound cake, 1 1/2 cups each milk and ice, and sugar to taste. Top with whipped cream and more strawberries.

4. Triple-Berry Blend 1 1/2 cups mixed blackberries, strawberries and raspberries with 1 cup each milk and ice, and sugar to taste.

5. Raspberry-Orange Blend 1 cup each orange juice and raspberries, 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 1 cup ice, and sugar to taste.

6. Peach-Mango-Banana Blend 1 cup each chopped fresh or frozen peaches and mango, 1 cup each plain yogurt and ice, 1/2 banana, and sugar to taste.

7. Honeydew-Almond Blend 2 cups chopped honeydew melon, 1 cup each almond milk and ice, and honey to taste.

8. Cantaloupe Blend 2 cups chopped cantaloupe, the juice of 1/2 lime, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 cup water and 1 cup ice.

9. Carrot-Apple Blend 1 cup each carrot juice and apple juice with 1 1/2 cups ice.

10. Spa Cucumber Peel, seed and chop 2 medium cucumbers. Blend with the juice of 1 lime, 1/2 cup water, 1 cup ice and 3 to 4 tablespoons sugar or honey.

Top Tips For Even More Delicious Thick Smoothies #SmoothieWorld

If you want to achieve thicker and creamier smoothies from your home smoothie maker, adding dairy alternatives or dairy milk and yoghourt is a great way to do this. Careful choice of ingredients will ensure that the smoothies are still healthy and low in calories. To ensure healthy bones in young children and to protect from osteoporosis in adulthood, an adequate supply of calcium is needed and both dairy and enriched dairy alternative milks are a good source of this vital mineral.

For those with lactose intolerance or who find dairy milk difficult to digest, the wide range of dairy alternatives available are ideal for adding to smoothies. Careful choice of ingredients will ensure that the smoothies are still healthy and low in calories.

One of the best sources of calcium naturally available in the diet is cow's milk. Children who may benefit from additional calories could have full fat milk, but for the rest of us, it is probably best avoided because it is high in the saturated fats which we should restrict in our diets for the sake of our health. The full benefits of dairy milk are still available in both low fat and skimmed milk.

Cream can be added to smoothies to make it a really special treat. This super-rich creaminess can also be achieved by adding mascarpone or crme fraiche. Whilst cream is very high in saturated fat and therefore high in calories, it is also a great source of vitamin E so is probably ok as a treat now and then.

Yoghourt can be added to your smoothies to make them thick and delicious too. Some yoghourts such as the thick 'Greek' type yoghourts are high in calories so it is best to check before buying and choose one of the lower fat versions of these thick and creamy varieties. To add an extra dimension to smoothies, add fruit yoghourts.

Yoghurt is a good source of calcium and people who are unable to tolerate drinking cow's milk often find that they can digest yoghurt. Probiotic yoghurts, sometimes called 'live' yoghurts are the best sort to look for as these have huge health benefits to both the digestive system and the immune system. High fibre yoghurts which actively lower cholesterol are now widely available and make good additions to smoothies.

A good option if you are watching your calories is to look for one of the non dairy milks now available in supermarkets. Dietary advice is that Polyunsaturated fats are a healthier choice and almost all nut milks (except coconut milk) are high in these. Non-dairy milks enriched with calcium are a good idea if these are regularly drunk instead of dairy milk and most soya milks now have as much calcium as cow's milk.

To add more interest to smoothies or shakes, flavoured rice milk is available. Rice milk is sweet and delicious and is worth adding for this reason although its texture is not as thick as cow's milk. Another type of milk which is great for adding richness and creaminess is oat milk. A wide range of nut milks can now be purchased so it is fun to experiment with different types.

To sum up, there are lots of ways to make your smoothies even more delicious by adding some of the ingredients to make them creamier and the amount of additional calories can be controlled by checking the labels on packaging and choosing the healthier options. I prefer to make my smoothies at home in my smoothie maker for this reason as I know exactly what has gone into the smoothies I drink and it is fun to experiment with different ingredients.

Source: Alison Graham@GoArticles

Green Smoothies and How to Get Your Kids to Drink Them

Smoothies are making such a huge difference in my life, I can't help but to share it with others - they're painless to prepare, taste extraordinary, and the overall health benefits are really exceptional. Nevertheless, I'm met with the exact same hesitancy when talking to someone, wanting to get him or her to experience one; they are reluctant mainly because they are evaluating the way the smoothie looks with their eyes; they have a look at the green color and politely decline my invitation to try one.

I really can't blame them, as soon as started with the smoothie lifestyle over a year ago, I looked at my healthy drinks and thought they looked nauseating - despite the undeniable fact that they sure have a fantastic flavor. Most of us do, nonetheless, eat with our eyes before anything enters our mouth. So it's common that your children will can look at a smoothie and not really be joyful about the color. I suppose it seems too reminiscent of the green vegetables that you are constantly encourage them to eat.

With that said, here are a few hints I've found to get the green smoothies to look as wonderful as they taste.

First, the flavor needs to be amazing, and that normally means it's got to have a great sweet flavor as well as no hint of vegetable flavor in any way. Choose vegetables including kale, cucumber, spinach, and collards which are normally milder tasting. Keep away from stuff like celery, lettuce, and beets. A small portion of those might easily overtake the flavor of a smoothie recipe, even with fruit included.

You can add raw, natural honey. Make certain that the honey is raw (unprocessed) which means stay away from most of the honey sold in a large number of food markets. It's been cooked and the live enzymes within wiped out. Honey is loaded with a wide variety of healthy advantages, particularly if you have allergy sufferers in the home.

Stevia, a natural and organic sweetener that is native to South America, can also be added to a smoothie to enhance the sweetness of the drink. It consists of zero calories or side-effects. Natives there have been using it for generations as a sweetener. It does contain a bit of a bitter aftertaste that will not be noticeable in a smoothie however.

The second thing you can do to help your kids drink their green smoothies is simply make them not green. Use strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, or red grapes as your base fruit. Toss in a banana and mango, pear or pineapple if additional sweetness is needed. I would use more spinach than kale or collard green because those tend to add a dark green hue to the smoothie which means it will come out a brownish shade rather than purple.

If you really want to crank up the sweet flavor and purple color put in one or two tablespoons of grape concentrate (organic) in the smoothie maker and you now will have a purple smoothie mix that is super sweet. Be certain to shop for nothing but organic concentrate without any added ingredients like organic cane sugar or organic pineapple cane. Those nothing more than processed sugar made from organic fruit.

To speed things up you can get some ice trays and freeze the concentrate so you have a a pre-made source the moment they are needed.

These hints should certainly go along way in getting your kids to change their attitude about enjoying green smoothies. Plus, you can use these same strategies on anyone who is reluctant to try your nutritious drinks. They will never need to learn the mega amounts of healthy vegetables and fruits contained in every serving. They'll likely think they are indeed drinking a delightful sugary beverage. I think you are going to appreciate the results if you give these ideas a try.

Source: Steve Austin

Healthy Multi-vitamin Smoothie

Containing a wide variety of fruits, this juice is recommended to people of all ages as it’s healthy and nutritious and also very filling if you decide to have it early in the morning, before breakfast.

Ingredients:

2 pears, cored and diced
2 apples, cored and diced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon, lemon juice
2 cups spinach or chard (optional)

Directions:

Juice all the fruits and vegetables, including the spinach if you decide to use it. Add the lemon juice and drink as fresh as possible.

Tropical Smoothies #SmoothieWorld

A tropical fruits for this delicious smoothie; pineapple and banana. Great for summer escapade or daily healthy life.

Ingredients:

1-19 fl. oz. can (398 mL) crushed pineapple, unsweetened 1 banana, medium
1/4 tsp (1 mL) coconut flavoring (optional: may also use vanilla in place of coconut)
1 cup (250 mL) fat free milk or full milk
crushed ice (optional)

Procedures:


1. In a blender, combine pineapple, break up banana and add flavoring.
2. Pour milk into blender and mix until smooth.
3. Add crushed ice if you like.

Makes 2 servings.

Healthy Raspberry Smoothie #SmoothieWorld

There’s just three ingredients in this voluptuously delicious “health” drink—proof that the simplest things are often the best. Best for your daily healthy drink.

Ingredients:

• 1 pint fresh raspberries (or 1 package (8 ounces) frozen raspberries)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 32 ounces Organic Valley Live Organic Lowfat Berry Yogurt

Directions:

1. Puree raspberries in a food processor or blender, then strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl. Use the back of a spoon to press out every bit of the bright red liquid; discard seeds. Whisk in honey until dissolved.

2. Add berry yogurt and stir until combined. Serve immediately or keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

3. Serves 4