smoothies 101

Pin It

I absolutely love serving smoothies to my kiddos. They're fresh, fast and nutritious. I serve them often at home and am now enjoying sending them to school with Kirsten. Smoothies are so versatile, you can literally make so many different varieties. I make huge batches on the weekends and then freeze them in my awesome freezer jam jars. It's a perfect serving size for my kids. I take them out of the freezer in the morning and stick them in Kirsten's lunch box for a delicious defrosted smoothie by lunch.

Smoothies are so simple to make and require nothing but a good quality blender to make them. Smoothies are the ultimate healthy snack for kids because they are high in fiber, low in fat, and packed with vitamins and antioxidants.

Lots of people make smoothies using ice cubes, but as long as you use frozen fruit or yogurt, you don't need to. If you're using all fresh fruit, then the ice cubes are a must. I generally use all frozen fruit, yogurt (not frozen) and a liquid like milk or juice. Frozen fruit blends best when they are sliced into smaller pieces. To do this I slice up the fruit ahead of time and freeze them in freezer bags. That way when I want some, I just grab a freezer bag and I have frozen fruit that is the perfect size for blending.

You can also add other things to smoothies like wheat germ, flax seed, honey as a natural sweetener, cinnamon, vanilla extract, protein powders etc. You can really add so many different things. Experimenting is fun.



Some of you aren't going to like this, but I don't use any exact measurements when I make my smoothies. That's actually one of the great things about smoothies - you don't need to measure. Just throw your ingredients in the blender and blend it up. If it's too thick, add more liquid or if it's too liquidy, add more thickener (like frozen fruits or yogurt). Blend till you get your perfect consistency.

All the smoothies I make are fruit smoothies and they are generally very simple. They all have no more than 4 ingredients. I like simple. These are tasty, delicious and blend up in just seconds.


This is generally the guideline I follow when I make my fruit smoothie:

• 2-3 cups of frozen fruit

• 1 to 1-1/2 cups of liquid

• 1 cup yogurt


Here's the very simple way I make mine:

1) grab your blender

2) throw in some frozen fruit

3) add in some yogurt

4) add your liquid

5) put on the lid and blend it up. I usually have to stir it a couple times in between blending. If too liquidy add more fruit or yogurt, if too thick add more liquid. So easy!

6) then either serve them fresh right away or pour into freezer safe containers and freeze for a later date. The freezer containers are awesome because they stack and lock in the freezer to save space.



Here are some of our favourite smoothie recipes in our house:

blueberry pomegranate smoothie

frozen blueberries
blueberry yogurt
pomegranate juice

chocolate strawberry smoothie

frozen strawberries
strawberry yogurt
chocolate milk
squirt of chocolate syrup (yummy but optional)

blueberry, cherry, apple smoothie

frozen blueberries
cherry yogurt
apple juice

peanut butter cup (not good for peanut free schools, but yummy for home)

frozen banana
peanut butter
chocolate milk
squirt of chocolate syrup (yummy but optional)

peaches and cream

frozen peaches
vanilla yogurt
milk

chocolate raspberry smoothie

frozen raspberries
raspberry yogurt
chocolate milk
squirt of chocolate syrup (yummy but optional)

strawberry smoothie

frozen strawberries
strawberry yogurt
milk

strawberry banana smoothie

frozen strawberries
frozen banana
strawberry yogurt
orange juice

creamsicle smoothie

frozen banana
vanilla yogurt
orange juice

mixed berry smoothie

frozen mixed berries
any berry flavour of yogurt
milk



Have fun making smoothies!



Pin It