The kale smoothie seems to have had its moment (don’t get me wrong, I’m still guzzling that shiz), and now that it’s summer it seems that there are lots of questions about smoothies.
That, my friends, is just the kind of low-hanging (frozen) fruit that could bring me back to this blog! Especially when the other options include cleaning up after my cat’s father’s day “gift” and washing two loads of dishes!
Ze Smoothie Tips (pronounced TEEPS)
1. It ain’t no thang if you don’t have a blender powerful enough to blend an iphone. I bought my $25 Black & Decker at the grocery store. It won my heart because it has a glass jar – it won’t stain the next time I make tomato sauce or carrot soup, and it won’t warp in the dishwasher.
2. You could freeze your fruit (or use frozen fruit), and if you do, you should wash, pare, and chop it before you freeze it (but plan to use it soon – this is the trade-off of chopping things to usable sizes before freezing them). I don’t, because I…
3. Add ice cubes! I was convinced I couldn’t, because I didn’t have the blender featured in tip #1. Good ol’ B&D chomps ‘em like a pro, creating a thick, frosty concoction of deliciousness.
4. Add powdery ingredients (protein, supplements, cocoa powder, whatever) while the blender is running, AFTER all of the other ingredients are pretty smooth. I take the little insert out of my blender lid and pour protein powder in through the inconvenient rectangular hole – works like a champ. This will keep you from having clumpy, weird smoothies!
(Don’t take your blender lid itself off while blending. (Duh.))
5. Don’t put the kitchen sink in there with your ice cubes and protein powder – the more ingredients you add, the more likely you are to end up with a muddy-looking and -tasting drink.
My basic smoothie formula (serves 1):
- 3/4 cup liquid (water, iced green or herbal tea, iced coffee, milk from cows, almonds, or coconuts, juice)
- 1/3 cup chopped mix-ins (fresh herbs, berries, pineapple, kiwi, mango, peaches and other stone fruit, banana, raw or steamed veggies – fruits and vegetables, get the idea?)
- 3 ice cubes
Optional: add 1/4 cup cottage cheese (yes, really) to the mix, or a scoop of protein powder (see step 4)
For example(s):
- Iced green tea, pineapple and strawberries, cottage cheese, ice
- Iced coffee, banana, vanilla protein powder, ice
- Coconut milk, pineapple, mango, and kiwi, ice
- Red zinger iced tea with a splash of limeade, mango, blueberries and strawberries, ice
- Iced green tea, steamed sweet potato, pineapple, cottage cheese, ice
- Water, pineapple, 1/2 jalapeno, cucumber, ice
- Iced green tea, pineapple, peaches, basil, ice
I’ve become partial to the water-based smoothies this summer – they taste cleaner and seem more refreshing than the heavy yogurt- and nut butter-based smoothies. (I can’t get into adding almond butter to my smoothies, try as I might…it leaves an oily film on the top that grosses me out.) I’ve also blended up several of these combinations and frozen them as homemade popsicles. You could even get fancy and layer them with yogurt to make a light parfait.
I will leave you there, before I tell the story of the rough afternoon last week during which my boyfriend confused “frappé” and “parfait” was SURE HE WAS RIGHT (heh) that the layered thing at Starbucks was NOT A PARFAIT. No need to get testy about these things, you know? We’ve got plenty of first world problems to worry about.