With the warmer weather in full bloom around here, a smoothie is a quick and refreshing snack to indulge in to keep yourself cool and satisfied. While they're easy and pretty much fool-proof, it's very easy to end up ingesting hundred of calories and lots of sugar and fat if you're not careful. Here are a few tips and things to look out for to ensure you're getting the most out of your smoothie!
1. Try and avoid a dairy base
For my own personal taste, this tip is easy for me to follow because I'm not a fan of creamy, yogurt-based smoothies. If you share a similar taste to mine, you can used the following to replace milk or yogurt in your smoothie recipe to achieve a thinner consistency:
1. Try and avoid a dairy base
For my own personal taste, this tip is easy for me to follow because I'm not a fan of creamy, yogurt-based smoothies. If you share a similar taste to mine, you can used the following to replace milk or yogurt in your smoothie recipe to achieve a thinner consistency:
- Water - adds a liquidy base to your smoothie without any fat, sugar, or calories.
- 100% Fruit Juice - if you choose this route, just make sure you're not using a fruit juice cocktail - those are loaded with unnecessary sugars. If you can, juice your own fruits/veggies to add to a smoothie!
- Almond, Soy, Rice, etc. Milk - if you still like a milky texture for your smoothie but don't want to use dairy, try these instead
For a thicker smoothie, still without milk or yogurt, try the following:
- Applesauce - make sure you buy the kind that has no added sugar - apples are sweet enough and don't need any help with that! Adding pplesauce in smoothies is a great way to achieve that desired consistency with some extra flavor while not overdoing it on the calories, fat, and sugar
- Chia seeds with water - chia seeds develop a jelly-like consistency when introduced to water - perfect for thickening up your smoothie while also adding lots of nutrients
- Bananas - perfectly sweet way to thicken up a smoothie
- Avocados - gives your smoothie perfect thickness and a unique, delicious taste if you're feeling adventurous to try it out
I personally like the combination of water and applesauce the best. I like to mix chia seeds in afterwards because I enjoy the texture.
2. Use fresh fruit only when in season and ripe enough
A lot of people add sweeteners like agave, honey, or maple syrup to smoothies, which is not necessarily a bad thing if you do it in moderation. However, you can avoid this step altogether by using only in-season fresh fruit and subbing any out-of-season fruit with their frozen counterparts. Using fresh fruit when it's out of season can cause your smoothie to taste sour, bitter, and overall just not delicious. This is when people try and compensate that off taste by adding unnecessary sugars.
Frozen fruits and vegetables, much like the canned versions, are picked and packaged at the peak of their ripeness, so they'll always taste the way they're intended to. Plus, the combination of frozen and fresh fruits gives your smoothie the perfect consistency.
3. Be creative!
Don't stick to the normal strawberry banana smoothie everyday - it'll get really old, really fast. Incorporate your favorite fruits into your smoothies and keep making different variations of them to keep them interesting. Add leafy greens like baby kale or spinach to add more nutrients and an interesting spin on your typical smoothie - I PROMISE your smoothie won't taste weird!
Top your smoothies with something crunchy, like my homemade vegan granola, to play up different textures. Or add things like protein powder, flax seeds, and nuts to bump up the protein level and make it into a sustainable snack.
Most importantly - have fun! Smoothies are a great way to get lots of fruits and veggies into your daily diet. You just want to make sure you're not undoing all the benefits of the fruits and veggies by adding lots of fats, sugars, and calories.
