by Laura Kleban

Created on: July 21, 2009

With summer right around the corner, it's time to grab that blender that may have been gathering dust in a cabinet all winter, and start making some delicious and healthy smoothies!

Anyone can make a smoothie right in their own home with some simple ingredients. In this article I have included several recipes for different types of smoothies, but the varieties that are really unlimited. With a little creativity, you could have a different smoothie every day of the year!

Before I give you the recipes, though I want to explain a few things about what makes a smoothie more than just blended fruit. If you just throw fruit in a blender and hit power, you will simply get a big mess of chopped up fruit, and it would not be a smoothie. A smoothie requires a few more ingredients to make it a creamy shake-like substance!

Any smoothie that you try to make in a blender will require some kind of liquid to make it blend better. I call this the lubrication ingredient. As stated earlier, if you just throw fruit in a blender, it will not turn into a shake without a liquid to make it smooth, hence the name smoothie! Some of my favorite lubrication ingredients for smoothies are: milk, soy milk, chocolate milk, juices of all varieties, plain yogurt and sometimes honey. All of these will help turn your fruit into a creamy smoothie, and each one will provide a different and unique taste for your smoothie.

The following are recipes for smoothies that I have tried and loved. Have some fun yourself using these and other ingredients to create your own masterpiece. You may even want to throw a Smoothie Party for the kids sometime, and let them choose which fruits and mixer to try for their own creation. What fun it would be to have a prize for the best in a blind taste test!

Banana-Colada Smoothie:

Ingredients:

1 small ripe banana

1 cup chopped pineapple

cup coconut milk or pina colada mix

2 TBS sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup ice

Mix all ingredients in a blender to serve up to four people.

Strawberry-Mango Smoothie:

Ingredients:

1 cup ripe strawberries

1 cup chopped mango

cup plain yogurt

1 tsp almond extract

1 cup ice

Mix all ingredients in a blender to serve up to four people.

Berry-Banana Blast Smoothie:

Ingredients:

1 cup ripe strawberries

1 small ripe banana

cup orange juice

cup plain yogurt

1 tsp sugar

1 cup ice

Mix all ingredients in a blender to serve up to four people.

Chocolate Peanut Smoothie:

cup chopped Oreo cookies

cup creamy peanut butter (all natural works well)

1 scoop vanilla ice cream

1 cup chocolate milk or soymilk

1 cup ice

Mix all ingredients in a blender to serve up to four people.

Triple Melon Smoothie:

cup chopped, seedless watermelon

cup chopped cantaloupe

cup chopped honeydew melon

cup apple juice or passion fruit juice

1 TBS honey

1 cup ice

Mix all ingredients in a blender to serve up to four people.

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