Healthy Smoothie Recipes

| Modified on Jan 18, 2017
Healthy Smoothie Recipes

Whether or not you make a smoothie for breakfast each day, you have certainly heard about them. And what is not to like? A smoothie can provide you with a delicious start to your day, chock full of nutrition and energy.

Ten Advantages to a Smoothie Meal

  1. Smoothies are easy to make.
  2. Smoothies leave little mess to clean up.
  3. Smoothies are ideal for those who don’t really like to eat much in the morning. A good breakfast gets your metabolism off to a good start and gives your brain something to work with when you start you day at work or school.
  4. Smoothies are convenient if you need to have breakfast on the go. No need to rush through breakfast (eating fast is terrible for your digestion!) or worse yet, get a drive through breakfast that leaves you a bit overfull and ready for a nap.
  5. Reluctant fruit and vegetable consumers find smoothies to be an easy way to get some of these important foods into the diet.
  6. Smoothies are refreshing and tasty!
  7. There is no end of variety when it comes to smoothies.
  8. You can tailor make your smoothie to suit your particular nutritional needs.
  9. While popular for breakfast, smoothies can be made at any time of day. They made a great afternoon snack, or even dinner if you are not in the mood to cook.
  10. Kids love them, too!

What Should I Put into My Smoothie?

A base of milk, yogurt or kefir works well. Each of these will provide protein. Juice is an alternative to the base, but will not provide protein.

Fruit will add some sweetness and minerals to your smoothie. Bananas are especially wonderful. If you make a habit of peeling your overripe bananas, breaking them into a few pieces and adding them to the freezer, you will have them ready to add to smoothies any time. Mango, papaya, strawberries and apples are all great fruits for smoothies as well.

Vegetables will provide a variety of nutrients and fiber to the mix. Kale and spinach will get you your greens first thing in the morning, with no pain. Fresh basil is another delicious green for smoothies.

Adding one or more superfoods like chia seeds, blueberries, cacao powder or flax seeds makes your smoothie a powerhouse meal.

How Should I Blend My Smoothie?

A Vitamix is one of the best machines for making smoothies in. It chops vegetables up so  thoroughly that the only evidence of greens like kale and spinach is the color.

Regular blenders work as well, they just don’t chop as finely and your end result won’t be quite so smooth, but it is still worth it.

A blender bottle, the type with a whisk-type ball in it will blend some ingredients, but not ice cubes, frozen fruits like bananas, and vegetables.

Kale Spinach Smoothie

  • 1 cup chopped organic spinach
  • 1 cup chopped organic kale
  • 1 banana
  • 1 cup chilled almond milk
  • 1 teaspoon chia seeds (optional)
  • A few ice cubes

Blend almond milk and greens first. Add ice cubes, banana and chia seeds. Blend some more. Enjoy!

Do you have a smoothie recipe? We would love to hear from you!




Mama's Sports Injury Smoothie Recipe

1 User Review
5 star (1) 
  100%

Posted by Mama To Many (Tennessee) on 07/24/2014
★★★★★

Sports Injury Smoothie Recipe, or another way to take Turmeric!

Hello!

Well, I have never been athletic, but I have an injury that is common to athletes...I seem to have injured my rotator cuff. Carrying babies around and nursing them in sometimes not the best positions over the last 20 years has put a lot of strain in my rotator cuff. I had a flare up a year or so ago and then another that began last night as I was stretching too much to reach something in a high cabinet. I woke up this morning in a lot of pain. Showering and dressing were very difficult. Pain is minimal if I am careful about not moving my arm in a certain way.

So, my first thoughts are - comfrey to increase cell regeneration in the tissue and turmeric for the inflammation. I am not fond of swallowing capsules and wanted my comfrey fresh. I also don't like turmeric in milk and so I made up this recipe. I have made two of them so far and it is quite tasty! The turmeric is not noticeable at all.

Here is what I did:

  • 2 small to medium cucumbers, cut into large cubes. (I had maybe 1.5 cups of cubed cucumber.)
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (to make the turmeric work better.)
  • 1/8 teaspoon celtic sea salt
  • 1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast
  • 1 large or two small fresh comfrey leaves
  • 1/4 cup milk kefir (contains fat which helps the turmeric work better.)

Blend in blender until smooth.

This was a cool and refreshing drink. It was a bit odd tasting, but by the second one I was liking it a lot. I think I will try adding a few mint leaves next time. My ten year old said it was not bad. (That is a compliment! ) My 12 year old said it was weird. My almost 3 year old took a sip and made a face but didn't spit it out. :) I will let you know how the mint affects the taste.

~Mama to Many~

Replied by Mama To Many
(Tennessee)
07/25/2014

Good morning!

I made my green comfrey/turmeric smoothie this morning and added some mint leaves - a couple of tablespoons. (Fresh.) I could have added more. I like mint. But it does improve the flavor some, if you like mint, that is.

My shoulder is feeling improved this morning. I won't go suggesting that this smoothie will cure rotator issues overnight. I suspect my strain/injury/whatever was quite mild in the scheme of things. (Rotator cuff injuries are dreadful and the recovery from surgery (if you get to that point) is brutal.)

By the way, the only critical ingredients were the comfrey, turmeric, pepper and milk kefir. Bananas could be used instead of cucumber. (One banana.) And I would leave out the nutritional yeast if I used banana. Whole milk or some water with a teaspoon of coconut oil could be substituted for the milk kefir.

Have a great day!

~Mama to Many~

Replied by Yari
(Islamabad)
06/28/2015

Mama, I have rotator due bad sleeping lying on one side, so is there any natural way to recover from rotator cuff, and can I start weight lifting after recovry, cause weight lifting is good for bone problem prevention.

Replied by Mama To Many
(Tennessee)
06/29/2015

Dear Yari,

I felt the comfrey/turmeric smoothie helped me very much. I don't know if you would have those ingredients available where you live.

Turmeric, alone, may work quite well. 1 teaspoon 2-3 times a day, with a full glass of water each time. Turmeric is a wonderful anti-inflammatory.

Rest your arm/shoulder as much as possible. I kept mine in a sling for a little while. Ice for 10 minutes at a time several times a day may help with the pain and inflammation.

Regarding lifting weights, I would wait until you have healed from your injury and then start very slowly and gradually work up to more, so that you do not aggravate your condition.

~Mama to Many~