Everyone seems to agree that Americans don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables. My favorite way to address the fruit issue is with a smoothie first thing in the morning.
I buy frozen fruit or freeze cut-up leftover fresh fruit before it gets a chance to go bad and store them in pre-measured portions in the freezer so that in the morning all I have to do is place the fruit in a blender with some almond milk, fruit juice or coconut milk and blend. Using frozen fruit means you don’t have to dilute the flavors down with ice cubes to get that ideal smoothie texture and it’s also an easy way to always have nutritious fruit on hand. I’ll never waste fresh fruit again! Once the bananas start to go I peel them and freeze.
Fruit is deliciously sweet on it’s own but sometimes I’ll add a little bit of honey or agave nectar if I’m craving something extra.
Frozen mango.
The scale is an essential kitchen tool.
Frozen passion fruit puree.
Vanilla almond milk and frozen fruit about to be blended.
Sometimes the lid comes off!
I usually make enough for two 16oz servings.
Tropical Smoothies with some banana garnish.
Tropical Smoothie fruit portioned out for the freezer.
The basic ratio that I’ve settled on is 2-2/3 cup of frozen fruit to 2 cups of liquid which makes the perfect amount for two people. You can pretty much substitute any kind of frozen fruit. I really like using vanilla almond milk but other types of milk or fruit juice work just as well while providing different flavors.
Most blenders have measurements on the side so I’ll measure the liquid by pouring it right into the blender and then add my pre-measured frozen fruit. Quick! Easy!
Because fruit comes in all shapes and sizes I find that it’s much more accurate to weigh the amount I want to use. I’ll buy and weigh giant bags of frozen mango, pineapple, blueberries or whatever else is on sale and then portion it out into small ziplock bags (that get re-used when new fruit shows up) for storage in the freezer. I like to have a couple options so I can rotate fruits daily.
These are very flexible recipes so feel free to experiment!
Tropical Smoothie
2 cups vanilla almond milk
143g frozen mango
115g frozen pineapple
25g passion fruit puree
1/2 banana
Blue Banana Smoothie
1 cup vanilla almond milk
1 cup grape juice
292g frozen blueberries
1 banana
Mangonut-milk Smoothie
2 cups lite coconut milk
287g frozen mango
1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar
1/2 banana
Directions:
1. Combine ingredients in a blender.
2. Blend.
3. Serve.
Mixed Berry Smoothie with a few fresh raspberries.
All this smoothie-making has made me realize that I hate my blender. Does anyone have suggestions on what the best blender out there is?
Good luck finding perfect straws,
Kendall
Mandy’s Notes
– Kendall makes the smoothies while I make the coffee each morning so I don’t really have much to say except to watch out for seedy fruits, such as raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. If you are “seed sensitive” (a term I made up), then these fruits need to be blended extra well in order to avoid this annoying mouthfeel.
The Green Chalkboard 
Details. I need details. Where did the passion fruit puree come from? And while we are at it, where did the scale come from?
I have had a blender for two years now, purchased specifically to make smoothies. I made one with a recipe that called for buttermilk. It was a dreadful concoction and I haven’t made another smoothie since. Hopefully this will give me a kick start again.
The passion fruit puree was in the frozen section at the grocery store with the other frozen fruits. If you can’t find it it’s not vital but I think it does add a little something extra. You can find digital kitchen scales at most any place that carries kitchen equipment. Amazon carries a ton of them. Mine is made by Escali but I hear the Oxo Good Grips Food Scale is highly recommended—I’d probably look at that one if I needed a new one.
Groovy. Now, if you could just have a blog where I could ask technical computer questions. THAT would be super duper trooper!
You may be interested in another website. There was a wonderful restaurant in Philly name Deux Cheminees. (accent over the second e-it means two chimneys because it had two chimneys. Paul and I used to drive down there for anniversary dinners and such. It was right next door to the stage door of the Forest Theatre. The second floor was his office and he had 2000? cookbooks or something. (I believe he bequeathed the collection to the University of Pa since he moved to Thailand.) After dinner you were allowed to stroll up to his office and see the collection. It was amazing. After 26 years, he closed his restaurant. But he maintains a website and answers people’s questions! You may want to take a look and call on him if you get stuck on anything. Tell him your Aunt Jane sent you! Here is the website. http://www.askcheffritz.com.
I hope your new blender was worth waiting for. Has it been smoothie tested yet?
Smoothie tested and approved! It makes such a huge difference.