Do you like smoothies? Of course you do, everyone likes smoothies, especially while we are still trying to beat this heat. Did you know that they are super easy to make? You can also use your frozen fruit that we talked about last week. Here are a few short steps to making a refreshing ice-cold healthy smoothie at home:
1. Decide what fruit you want to make your smoothie. It can be one type of fruit or a combo of your choice.
2. Decide what liquid you want. Water or fruit juice works very well, but if you want to add calcium to your flavorful health drink, milk and yogurt work. Feel free to use tea or soy –experiment and have fun! Typically you would add ice to a smoothie, but if your fruit is pre-frozen, it is unnecessary to use ice. Adding fruit juice is a good option, but remember to be aware of the sugar content of any fruit juice you are adding to your smoothie.
3. Add some green. Spinach, kale, celery or any other green adds some great nutritional balance. The best part is, you won’t taste them – since they blend in so well, you will barely notice they are in your drink.
4. Sweeten. Not that you really need to sweeten fruit, since it already tastes great. But if you like to add something special to it, you can use honey, peanut butter, coconut shavings, chopped almonds or a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
5. Blend your ingredients - Of course, you already knew that part, but look for the button that says: smoothie, puree or shake. The process should only take a minute. Once it is done, let your drink sit for a minute and enjoy your delicious healthy drink for your summer cool down.
Summer is beautiful but it can be long without a proper way to cool down. Next time you need to reach for something cold and tasty to drink, think about doing your body a favor and whip out an ice cold smoothie loaded with vitamin and fiber for you and the kids. There is no reason we can’t be happy and healthy at the same time.