Smoothie Making 101

Benefits

If I told you all of the benefits of smoothies I would have to write a book. A long book. Incorporating at least one smoothie into your day can completely revamp your health, especially if you’re adding vegetables to your smoothies—plus you’re getting your daily servings of fruits and vegetables without having to do any cooking or chewing!

Daily smoothies will give you more energy and focus. If you start your day with a smoothie for breakfast you are going to be amazed at how much energy you have throughout the day. Replacing junk food with smoothies throughout the day will help you to clear your mind and be more productive.
If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s easy to replace a meal with a delicious smoothie full of fruits and vegetables. Replacing a meal or two a day with smoothies is a great way to give your body a chance to get rid of extra fat, water weight, and toxins. Also, when you introduce more fruits and vegetables into your diet, you decrease the amount of unhealthy foods your body craves. Smoothies are also jam packed with fiber, which will help keep your insides healthy and help you to shed extra pounds.
If you’re trying to gain weight, you can easily add a smoothie to your meals for extra calories and nutrients.
Regular smoothie consumption improves the way you look! The extra fluids and the many vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in fruits and vegetables can help reduce acne and wrinkles and give you beautiful glowing skin.
Smoothies can help reduce the risk of serious diseases. This is by far the most important benefit of smoothie consumption, and the rest are just happy perks! Getting your fruits and veggies is well known for helping in cancer prevention and reducing the risk of heart disease. The more smoothies you're drinking, the lower your chances of getting a diet induced disease.

How To Assemble The Perfect Smoothie

Fruits and vegetables—choose fruits and vegetables that you like. You can use as many as you want, but try to choose at least two.
Liquid—add 1 to 2 cups of liquid, depending on how much fruit you used. You can use water, fruit juices, vegetables juices, milk (dairy or non-dairy), coffee, or tea.
Thickener—ice cubes, coconut, yogurt, ice cream, sherbet, chia seeds, peanut butter, oats, and flax seeds are just a few examples of things you can add to your smoothies to make them thick, creamy, and flavorful.
Extra flavor—to add extra zing to your smoothie, add honey, syrup, vanilla extract, almond extract, cinnamon, or herbs.
Boosts—to make smoothies extra beneficial, add extras like goji berries, chia seeds, cocoa powder, acai powder, vitamin or protein powder, or fish oil.
Greens—add a handful or two of spinach, kale, arugula, or romaine to your smoothies to make them even more packed with nutrients.

Tips

Get a decent blender. I used to work at a small-town coffee shop and we had a Vita-Mix. I still dream about that thing sometimes, but my trusty old blender works just fine for smoothie making. Sometimes I use a single serve blender if I’m only making a smoothie for myself.
Rinse your blender out as soon as you use it. It’s harder to wash it really well when there’s dried smoothie stuck to the inside.
To make your smoothie more filling, use frozen fruit or frozen fruit juices instead of ice.
Make frozen fruit packets once a week for the whole week. Put whatever fruits you’re going to use for each smoothie in an individual zip-lock bag and. Be sure to date the bag!
Freeze your greens! Buy a big bag of greens (kale, spinach, etc) or just use the big bag you already have in your fridge that’s about to go bad. You can go ahead and wash and chop your greens then place them in individual zip-lock bags and place them in the freezer. OR you can make them into “greens cubes”. Put them in your food processor or blender, add a little water, then pour them into ice cube trays or baby food trays and freeze.