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Fruit Smoothies!
Lardalish
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ok, so one of the things my parents got me for my birthday was this awesome blender, so now that Ive got this awesome blender I wanna do things with it. One thing I thought of is smoothies. I love me some smoothies and now I can make em pretty easy. What I dont know is the general "formula" for a smoothie. I googled around and all of them were different. Some used ice cream, some used yogurt, some just had fruit, juice, and ice. Id like to have a general idea of what Im doing rather than a specific recipe since I can just throw in whatever fruit I happen to have at hand.
Also: all the recipes I saw had bananas in it, is there something in a banana that makes them real good for smoothies? Or is it just a popular flavor? I guess they're already kind of creamy, is that it?
Also: all the recipes I saw had bananas in it, is there something in a banana that makes them real good for smoothies? Or is it just a popular flavor? I guess they're already kind of creamy, is that it?
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What you put in will probably depend on what you're going for. I go for nutrition, so I use oats in addition to yogurt/milk and fruit. If you're going for a dessert smoothie, you could use ice cream instead of yogurt.
As far as a general rule, I use frozen fruit, usually strawberries, instead of ice. It gives it a great texture and temperature, and removes an unnecessary ingredient.
But really, just throw whatever you want in there and see if it blends. You can have a lot of fun with smoothies.
but they're listening to every word I say
Using ice cream (or yogurt, to a certain extent) is a one way train to chunkyville, continuing on with evening service to fat town.
we used "scoops" as measurement, and now i just do it all by eye, but generally i use
frozen or normal vanilla yogurt (or sherbert depending on smoothie type) about a cup or so, depending on thickness and flavor
some fruit
fruit juice
ice if you want it as filler, smoosh the ice first though or else you'll have mega chunks
and that is all!
the best way to do it is to experiment and see what you prefer, remember you can always taste it and add more of something, so less is more until you get the hang of it, if it doesn't blend easily add more juice, then hold the lid on with your hand and do this kind of shove push with your wrist to get the juice closer to the blades
happy smoothie making!
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
Fruit- any combination your heart desires, frozen or non. I usually throw older fresh fruit in with frozen fruit to use it up and make it palatable. Strawberries and bananas are a good bet, as are blueberries and bananas.
Yogurt- adds creamyness (I like vanilla)
Ice- helps make it a frozen drink. It should blend ok if you have a decent blender. A few cubes is enough.
Any supplements- These usually hurt the flavor, but I always need extra protein so I blend some powder in.
Other than that, it's all about experimenting with different flavors. My standard smoothie is a meaty handful of frozen strawberries (1/3 to 1/2 of the blender), filling the blender to the top with whatever fruit I've got lying around (bananas are good, as are berries), and then pouring in about an inch or so of some sort of citrus-y 100% fruit juice blend.
The most important advice I would give is use frozen fruit instead of ice. Why dilute the flavor? You can freeze your own, or you can buy frozen strawberries at the supermarket (I find that the 1lb bags they sell at my supermarket make one batch in my rather large blender. Costco sells awesome gigantic bags). Always put the frozen fruit in the bottom.
I also like to make a larger batch than I plan on drinking and then freeze the rest. If you use only fruit like I do, it makes a great sorbet. It's easier if you have a sorbetiere or ice cream maker, but it also works to just pour the smoothie into individual tupperware containers.
One yogurt of whatever flavor you like (typical yoplait style yogurt container)
Fill that container up half to 3/4ths of the way with milk and put that in.
Throw in a handful of frozen fruits, it can be whatever you want.
After that you can toss in some bananas or whatever other fresh fruit you like. I use the frozen fruit so I don't have to use ice. The smoothie ends up being thick, cold and delicious. This method tends to not be the most calorie friendly smoothie, though. I use it with two scoops of protein powder for my work outs, so it doesn't bother me any.
Fruit+Thin liquid (water or fruit juice) + extras (yogurt, spinich, ect.) = Smoothie
-handful of ice
-banana, (frozen, if possible) in chunks
-3-4 strawberries (also frozen)
-4-5 pineapple chunks (also frozen)
-splash of orange juice
-few spoons of orange sherbet
To make it a bit healthier you can replace the sherbet with yogurt, frozen yogurt, or orange juice concentrate. It is damn tasty and nice and thick.
If memory serves, there were some strawberries (maybe other berries) and some honey in there as well. I think the honey and rose water complemented each other well. There may have been some orange juice as well.
In general, for smoothies, if you're not aiming for a particularly thick or creamy smoothie, you can just throw all matter of fresh and frozen fruits (berries are especially good) and then you add some common fruit juice, such as orange, apple, grape/white grape, or even pear juice. If most of your fruit is frozen, no need to add any ice. If more than half of the fruit you're adding is fresh, add some ice (or frozen fruit juice, but not the concentrated kind!) Really, if you just use fruit and juice (and some ice) you're rarely going to mess up. It's when you start adding ice cream or yogurt that you might mess up by using too much or too little.
Still, if you like it creamier, add some yogurt or ice cream (I find that low-fat yogurt is as good as regular, so I don't mind using it, and it makes the smoothie a bit healthier) or even a banana, if you like that.
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Unmeasured amount of Frozen blueberries (1-2 cups I guess?)
Family size thing of orange juice concentrate, frozen of course
Unmeasured amount of fat free vanilla yogurt
One Banana
A little bit of water to get it blending
Results:
Holy shit delicious, I will deffinitly be doing this kind of thing more often. I will probly go grab me bags of frozen fruit from stores and such for future concoctions! Thanks fo the help guys!
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
yogurt base
ice
3-4 strawberries
half a banana
half of a peach
Kill the vanilla yogurt, that shit is loaded with sugar that you don't need.
Also, consider a good tasting brand of protein powder to mix in (cottage cheese works well too) I recommend Nectar. Also a pinch of sunflower oil will make it much more filling, as you are adding lots of good (and tasty) non-inflammatory fats!
Yeah, the fruit usually has more than enough sugar.
Other good oils are olive oil and avacado oil.
icecream+ milk -> milkshake (because you.... shake the milk...)
yoghurt -> smoothie.
right?
That is all I have to contribute.
(I am a banana hater)
Pistols at dawn, sir.