All Things Smoothie

A thread for talking about smoothies...

I'm getting into smoothies more & more.  Well I always liked them, but I've been craving fruit smoothies lately.  I prefer homemade, but I like that Innocent brand stuff (too expensive though!).  I bought some of Sainsburys bags of frozen fruit today, for doing my own.  Before I started working here, for awhile I made one or two nice ones a week, using fruit from my local green grocers - nice mangoes, pineapple & so on.

I'm not too keen even on the idea of veg smoothies, TBH - maybe would consider something with carrot.

Also wondering about getting one of those handheld blender thingies - do any of you have them?  Are they easier to deal with for a single smoothie vs getting the whole (big) blender smoothie'd up?

I make protein smoothies for after my work out.  I also buy the frozen Sainsburys fruit in the winter.  My favorite is strawberry, banana, blueberries and protein powder.  I add a little water if its to thick.

Love the Innocent Smoothies too but they are costly!

We have a nice beefy blender that does really well on almost everything.   

I use a big sturdy blender, too. Most people seem to like yogurt (or some dairy thing) in their smoothies, but I prefer just fruit, a little juice and a whole lot of ice. Usually I do strawberries and banana with a little OJ. Yum!

I make them with banana, kiwi, strawberries, and ice and after it's mixed, throw in a huge dollop of greek style yogurt

I have smoothies every morning.  I use frozen berries (costco carries a big bag for cheap), low fat vanilla yogurt, orange juice and milk.  I occasionally put in cranberry juice &/or a banana. 

I've been on a smoothie kick lately - just bought a blender and I'm trying to make the most of it..... I tend to freeze peeled and sliced bananas and whatever fruit is in season (or frozen fruit from Sainsbury) to cut down on the amount of ice 'cause I prefer a more intense flavour. Frozen fruit with a bit of juice (using a lot of pomegranate lately) and a couple of dollops of plain, fat free, bio yoghurt with a scoop of flax seed powder. Healthy AND yummy!!!

I use a big sturdy blender, too. Most people seem to like yogurt (or some dairy thing) in their smoothies, but I prefer just fruit, a little juice and a whole lot of ice. Usually I do strawberries and banana with a little OJ. Yum!

I just got a smoothie maker for my b/day from my DH. we have tried the one Chary described but we added a small amount of honey to our smoothie's. although it was good I think next time I'm going to add a bit more honey to it a little to tart for me. I have yet to try a smoothie with yogurt in it though that sounds very good. if I have a smoothie for breakfast that would give me some variety an I wouldn't get burnt out on my cereal.

About blenders, in North America, I had a good cuisinart blender.  Here, I just have a hand blender and TBH, it works better than the stand alone blender.  I really like it. 

DS has started on smoothies too, he makes them after school.

I tend to freeze peeled and sliced bananas and whatever fruit is in season (or frozen fruit from Sainsbury) to cut down on the amount of ice 'cause I prefer a more intense flavour.

We do this too, particularly with strawberries when they are in season and cheap.  They don't hold their shape very well after hulling, but who cares!  They are only going to be wizzed up anyway!

I am looking to buy a blender to make smoothies, I have some amazon vouchers. Does anyone recommend a certain brand/type??

Thanks.

We do this too, particularly with strawberries when they are in season and cheap.

Me too! There's nothing like the flavour of good summer strawberries!

Frozen fruit will cut down on ice and not dilute the flavour down. in fact, I don't use any ice at all.

You can do this for Margaritas as well.  Take the mix (without alcohol) and freeze it in ice cube trays.  With those, you don't need ice at all. 

I am looking to buy a blender to make smoothies, I have some amazon vouchers. Does anyone recommend a certain brand/type??

We bought a blender (Morphy Richards Heavy Duty Glass Blender 48425) about a month ago to make smoothies and it works really well!  It's extremely powerful and blends very quickly.  We got ours through Argos (with Nectar points) but I see that it's also available through Amazon.

My new favorite smoothie is Chocolate Strawberry.

I use Chocolate Soy Milk (8th Continent brand)
Frozen unsweetened strawberries
banana

no ice, just pure flavor.  Sooooo good!  And it is low in calories.  Only 192, I think.  And very filling.

I love this thread! 

I do the fruit smoothies, no yogurt, no ice - just cold fruit & usually a little OJ.  We've tried the yogurt before but didn't like it...then again, that was low-fat, low-cal yogurt.  Maybe with Greek yogurt we might get something nice.

Does anyone do veg smoothies?  That just doesn't sound appealing at all.  We watched a program the other night, a series called The Truth About Food.  They were putting the detox program (in general) to the test.  The girls in the test group who did the detox regimen were drinking this awful looking stuff that looked like greenish-brown sludge for breakfast (I think it was spinach, onion, garlic & who knows what all).

The control group just ate a normal, fairly well balanced diet but including treats such as chocolate & wine, etc.  At the end, there was no difference between the two groups' results!  Lol!  The girls drinking the brown sludge were just glad to know so they'd never put themselves through that again.