Simple Smoothie Starter Tips

Today I am back with some simple smoothie starter tips. With the New Year many people have decided to buy a smoothie maker, there are many different types of smoothie maker and the one that we went for last year was the Nutribullet (as you would have seen in this post). This was just a personal choice as my sister has one and loves it so we decided to go for the same model.

We have found a clear difference in general well being since we have made smoothies a regular part of our week. We always try to add a lot of vegetables but this is still the hardest part of making them. There are SO many different ingredients that you can add into your drink that there is no way to get bored of them.

When we started we were fairly clueless to be honest so I thought that I would share some simple starter tips that I wish I had known a few months ago;

• Which Blender to buy? To be honest – once it can blend your fruit and also frozen berries/ice you are good to go. Also keep in mind the cleaning – the least amount of cleaning the better as you will be more likely to use it. Try and get one that comes with containers as it means that you do not have to transfer your drink (less chance of a mess!). Some of the following may be important to you and may influence which one you buy – volume of the blender, noise, cleanup, additional functions (like making soup etc.), and also I generally try and buy from a reputable manufacturer.
• Clean your blender after each use. It only takes a few minutes to rinse it out straight after making your smoothie however if you leave it until that evening we have found that the fruit basically goes rock hard on it and it just takes much longer to clean! Make things easy for yourself and just clean it straight after use.
• When starting out – try a recipe. We didn’t and just bought ALL of the fruit and vegetables and started adding them in. Some came out undrinkable and others amazing but overall starting out we should have started simple. Others have trialed recipes before – trust them! If we could do over we would start small and then start adding more flavours in.
• Water doesn’t have to be the only liquid mixer that you use. You can use almond milk, coconut milk or yoghurt but to name a few options. All of these will add a new flavour so have fun and experiment. Also, keep in mind – the more liquid you add in the more runny your smoothie will be.
• Use frozen fruit/veg. We found quite quickly that some of our fruit was going off before we had time to use it. To remedy this and to avoid dumping yet more fruit we went frozen! Not on everything but we now have a backup of berries and spinach in the freezer. We also sometimes actually portion out some smoothie portions and then freeze them. Be warned if super juicy like pineapple then it can go into one big lump! Quite handy though.
• By using lots of fruit – you are adding sugar to your drink. Now my personal thoughts on this would be that it is at least a more healthy source of sugar and is not of the processed sort however if you are watching your sugar intake you need to take this into account. If in doubt – ask your nutritionist or doctor. I do try and have more vegetables than fruit however they may not be as sweet.
• Creaminess – sometimes you just want a creamy smoothie. Not everyday but I have found that sometimes I crave one. You can add ingredients like avocado, bananas, cooked oatmeal or Greek yoghurt to create that creamy texture.
• Bump up the goodies in your smoothie depending on your needs- you could add chia seeds, hemp seeds, honey, cacao, acai, goji berries, spirulina, protein powder to name but a few options. It is easy to add something like this and not detract from the taste.
• Green Smoothies…. they have to be mentioned as they appear to be everywhere right now. To me there are two ways to do them (1) you try and hide some greens in an otherwise sweet smoothie (2) you make a super green smoothie. We tried the second option first and it didn’t go well for us. We had loads of ingredients like kale, leeks, spinach and spirulina to name but a few and we didn’t quite like it. The smell was quite over powering so sadly that one ended up down the sink! We are now gradually increasing our greens. This was the taste is gradually changing and it seems to be working much better.

The formula that we now follow is; the liquid base + banana + greens + fruit + some goodies. It’s not the perfect formula but we are enjoying it at the moment.

I hope that this has helped – just remember it’s trial and error with regards the balance of taste and always try to have more vegetables than fruit in your smoothie!

This post is not sponsored etc. by any of the brands featured – this is literally just a snippet of my daily life & what I use.  And like any change in diet a trip to your doctor may be called for – these tips are just my own thoughts and not meant as medical advice. And if you are using frozen berries please be sure to read this.