Cooking Smoothies?

[Singleminnie]

I am looking for healthy, low fat, fruit smoothy receipes. Something easy and healthy for this summer for me and my girls. Thanks in advance!

 

[mel63]

Any smoothie can be made healthy by what you put in or leave out.

Generally,

GOOD
yogurt or skim milk(or soy milk)
fresh or frozen unsweetened fruit
canned fruit in juice
100% fruit juice
adding cereal for fiber, 100% whole wheat or bran etc.
tofu
ice


NOT SO GOOD
ice cream
canned or frozen fruit in syrup
soda or energy drinks
sugary, less healthy cereal
oreos
popcicles


I usually just throw fresh fruit in the blender with some ice and maybe some yogurt

 

[jackson2009]

yeah use skimmed of soya milk and real fruits/fruit juices or low ft yogurt^ covered about everything

 

[brytorlyn]

My family loves the fact that they never get the same smoothie twice. I wing it every time and so it is always a tasty surprise!!

I add:

yogurt(vanilla, peach or strawberry are all really good but any flavour you like would work...if using plain yogurt the results are less sweet)

frozen fruit (strawberries and/or mangoes are favourites here but even frozen mixed fruit works well)

splash in juice to achieve the desired consistency (we like unsweetened orange or orange blends like OJ and tropical juice etc.)

optional additions include bananas,honey or peanut butter.


Don't feel you need a specific recipe...experiment with flavours that your family likes.

I even found out by accident that any leftover fruit salad can be frozen and used to make smoothies. One weekend we were entertaining and I made a large fruit salad, planning to use the leftovers for breakfast the next day. After dinner I placed it on our patio to keep it cool since the fridge was filled with food. It was a little cooler than I expected that night and the salad froze solid. I hated wasting all that healthy fruit so I decided to make it into a smoothie. Threw it in the blender...melon, pineapple, grapes etc. Best smoothies ever! Now I often do that with leftover fruit salad.

 

[piratesmate]

My kids both love smoothies! DS went to California for a visit 2 years ago & came home raving about Jamba Juice smoothies so I set about collecting a bunch of recipes for him. As others have said, it's pretty much about the ingredients. Some of our favorites don't get made often because they use ice cream or sherbet, like the Lime It Up Smoothie, but others are just fresh fruit & yogurt. We tend to "wing it" depending on what we have around, but a basic idea can be had from these recipes. DD likes to make hers with regular low-fat yogurt...not the frozen kind because of the sugar, but the principle is the same.

Banana Berry Smoothie
Jamba Juice CopyCat

¾ c apple juice
¾ c strawberry juice
2/3 c frozen blueberries
1 sliced banana
1 Scoop rasberry sherbet
1 Scoop nonfat vanilla frozen yogurt
1 c crushed ice

Blend ingredients until smooth. [Suggestion: Blend all ingredients except ice until smooth and then adding ice until you get the consistency you like!]

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Citrus Squeeze Smoothie
Jamba Juice CopyCat

1½ c FRESH orange juice
2/3 c frozen whole strawberries
1 Sliced Banana
2 Scoops nonfat vanilla frozen yogurt
1 c ice

Blend ingredients until ice is crushed and drink is smooth. [Suggestion: Blend all ingredients except ice until smooth and then adding ice until you get the consistency you like!]

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Lime It Up Smoothie
Jamba Juice at Home

1 cup frozen limeade concentrate
1 cup mango, frozen
1/2 cup strawberry, frozen
1 cup lime sorbet or lemon sorbet
1/2 cup ice

Pour the limeade mix in the blender. Add the strawberries, mangos, sherbet/sorbet and ice cubes. Blend until you have a smooth consistency. Pour into glass and drink up. [NOTE: Note you can use Sherbet instead of sorbet. The limeade is from the frozen juice aisle with the OJ and Lemonade.]

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These are from the Newman's Own site. We all love lemon & lime in this household. Lemonade is awfully sweet so we've done some fudging with this using lemon juice with a little Crystal Light - but it's not really the same.

Banana Mango Tango Smoothie

1 c Stonyfield Farm Nonfat, Lowfat, or Whole Milk Plain yogurt*
1½ c Newman's Own Old Fashioned Virgin Roadside Lemonade
2 ripe bananas
1 ripe mango (peeled & cubed)
2 Tbl pure vanilla extract
4-6 ice cubes

Combine yogurt, lemonade and fruit in a blender. Blend at high speed until fruit (and ice) is finely chopped. Serves: 4-6 *For a delicious frosty treat, substitute the yogurt with 1 cup of Stonyfield Farm Organic Vanilla Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt and omit the ice.

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Iced Berry Bash Smoothie

1½ c Stonyfield Farm Nonfat, Lowfat or Whole Milk Plain yogurt*
1½ c Newman's Own Old Fashioned Roadside Virgin Lemonade
1½ c frozen mixed berries

Combine yogurt, lemonade and fruit in a blender. Blend at high speed until fruit is finely chopped. Serves: 4-6 *For a delicious frosty treat, substitute the yogurt with 1 cup of Stonyfield Farm Organic Vanilla Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt and omit the ice.

 

[Singleminnie]

Thanks everyone, I have been swinging it this week, using fat free vanilla yogurt, skim milk, bananas, and frozen strawberries. I will try some different fruits soon. I just remembered I have some canned peaches with light juice I can use too. For mine, I also add a scoop of protein powder (my diet/workout).

 

[MazdaUK]

Do you use a stick blender or put it in a liquidiser? I'm thinking its a good way to up the 5-a-day (as they count as individual servings if you're using whole fruit )

 

[piratesmate]

I don't use the stick blender because I tend to add ice when I'm not using ice cream. I also don't think the stick one does a good enough job of chopping the fresh fruit. I like mine pulverized - no chunks.

 

[MazdaUK]

My kids wouldn't like bits either - I can see I'd need a blender

 

[Mom-to-2-Princesses]

Like the others, I tend to throw the items in the blender to make our smoothies -- no good recipe! But here are my tips -

1) Almost all of the fruit yogurts have tons of sugar and High Frutose Corn Syrup. Just read the back label to see what you want in your drink. I was shocked that vanilla yogurt moved the sugar from 2 grams to 25 grams of sugar! As for the fruit yogurts I don't know how much is natural sugar or High Frutose Sugar. Maybe go organic to get rid of the HFS. My feeling is I can add the fruit then I know exactly what is in there!

2) We use apple cider as our base, it has nice flavor but doesn't take over the smoothie.

3) To keep costs down I buy the larger tub of yogurt, not the individual servings.

4) To make two large drinks I use 1-2 bananas, 8-12 frozen strawberries, two large spoon scoops of yogurt and apple cider to the "right" consistency.



I would love to try some other flavors but my daughter is pretty set in the strawberry-banana kind.

 

[MazdaUK]

Over here apple cider is alcoholic, so if you're visiting the Uk watch out we did have apple cider at Cracker Barrel when in WDW and loved it, nearest thing over here is pressed apple juice I think (cloudy rather than clear)