Thursday, March 12, 2015

The Best Way to Eat Pulverized Fruit

Smoothies are super fun, and can also be super healthy, and there are many ways to make them amazing. But, they can also be super unhealthy. Kind of. If you go on the internet thing and search "smoothie recipe," chances are it will tell you to dump 10 cups of sugar into the blender, along with some chocolate and probably skittles, too. So, the best way to make a good, healthy smoothie is to completely wing it and not follow a recipe. It works almost every time.

Step one to making a perfect smoothie- freeze your own fruit! If you have a bunch of fruit (like strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, blueberries) that are about to go bad, then stick them in a bag and stick it in the freezer. Or, you can go get a bag of frozen fruit from the store, but before you spend your money on it check to make sure it doesn't have any added sugar. It's obviously going to have sugar in it, because fruit has natural sugar in it (What!?), but it's natural so it's okay. But, if you're Ted Ligety you should definitely stay away from sugar (Ted Ligety is a professional ski racer and the fastest man on earth, so he can't have any sugar. Poor thing. P.S. Ted, I'm totally not dissing you I think you're awesome). Also to avoid unnecessary sugar, don't buy the pre portioned fruit packets that have like yogurt in them and stuff, and they add a lot of sugar (I'm looking at you, Yoplait Smoothies). 

Instead of eating sugar, Ted gets to eat gold. Lucky.
Courtesy of Thrive Sports

There are a few basic things that need to be present in any good smoothie. First you obviously need fruit. If you put in frozen fruit, you don't need any ice. But, if you use just a banana or fresh fruit, you need to put in ice to make it cold. Another thing I love putting in smoothies is peanut butter. It adds some protein to the smoothie, and adds kind of a nutty taste. You could also use almond butter. Most smoothie recipes will call for some kind of fruit juice, but I always use milk or almond milk. Less sugar. Also, if you want it to be more sweet, you can add a touch of honey.

Here are some of my go-to smoothie recipes (I have absolutely no clue about the proportions, but I'll tell you a trick to get it kind of right. The trick is to completely guess and give the extra to someone else, or put it in the fridge, or give it to the sink if it tastes bad. 

Go-to smoothie number one- 

  • About one cup of frozen fruit -  any fruit you want, but I usually stick with the berry family.
  • A banana - or half a banana or ten bananas, I don't really know
  • Almond milk/cow milk/soy milk- add this last, and make sure it barely hits the top of all the other stuff that you put in. Does that make sense?
  • Peanut butter/almond butter/cashew butter - if you add this, don't add to much because then you might have to eat it with a spoon. I definitely haven't done that before. 

Sadly, I don't have any fancy straws. Courtesy of Parade
Go-to smoothie number two-

  • Ice
  • Peanut butter/almond butter/cashew butter - I tried it with sugar-free peanut butter once and I couldn't eat it, so then I used regular peanut butter, but you're not allowed to do that because you're not allowed to eat sugar. Again, don't add to much of it 'cause then it will be like, really thick.
  • Honey - honey makes it delicious, so add a lot
  • A banana
  • Almond milk - this recipe is delicious with almond milk, but you can try it with regular milk or soy milk

Confession- these recipes might end up with servings for 13 (a bakers dozen), and you might have to mess around with the proportions and stuff, but it's totally worth it. 


~ Mia

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