I have a blender that is in desperate need of use, and I need to start incorporating more fruits and veggies into my diet. Seriously. I figure that smoothies would be the best way to do it, since -- let's face it -- who can eat enough in the run of a day to get adequate servings of that stuff?!

I've tried looking up smoothie recipes, but my god, it's so overwhelming! Do I use yogurt? Soy milk? Almond milk? Coconut water? Ice cubes? No ice cubes? How much fruit is too much (is there such a thing?) How much fruit is okay to add to a smoothie?

...I'm probably overthinking this. But I can't help it! It's in my nature. *L*

So! Make with the smoothie recipes, people. I know you have them!

Mine was really simple. And I used Different fruits as I had them. I was also not worried about too much fruit as long as I was losing weight.

Just a light yogurt cup, a banana and then whatever frozen fruit I had. If I only had fresh fruit I used 2 ice cubes. Who can argue with a 1 pt smoothie?

I stick with 1-2 servings of fruit (preferably frozen bananas, strawberries, or blueberries), 1-2 servings veggies (spinach, pumpkin and/or carrots) with about 1/2 cup greek yogurt and enough water to be able to blend. Sometimes I use a bit of unsweetened applesauce in place of water.

Personal fave combo- half banana, strawberries and carrots with yogurt and applesauce/water.

I always find it so difficult to track the damn smoothies, too. Like today, I had a McCafe strawberry banana smoothie from McDonalds (yes, I know, I know, McDonalds, ew, yuck, etc...but dammit, those smoothies are GOOD.)

Anyway. Strawberry banana smoothie. I happen to be friends with the woman who runs the local McD's, and I have it from her that their smoothies are made with frozen fruit and Greek yogurt. I plugged the nutritional information from the McDonalds website into the points tracker, and it came out with 7 points. I don't particularly think that's right. Now in the meantime, I know that the tracker is only counting nutrition info....it doesn't know if what you're plugging in is fruit or candy. So I know that the smoothie I had today was probably only 2 or 3 points. It just kind of annoys me; I'm picky like that.

I occasionally use yogurt, but usually not. Without yogurt, my smoothies are 0 points. I use frozen fruit, so I don't need ice, just water. I try to mix it up some. Mostly use berries, pineapple, and spinach, then throw in whatever else I have at the time. For the spinach, I blend up and entire bag with water, pour into my ice cube trays and freeze. Then I have easy frozen spinach cubes to throw into my smoothies. I tried this with carrots too. I don't mind the flavor of the carrots in the smoothies, but they do require a lot more water or they come out paste-like.

Things I've found I don't like in smoothies:
Beets- just a little too earthy for me
Bananas- overpowering
Apples- gritty texture

Do you know that the frozen fruit is just plain fresh fruit? Perhaps additional sugar is added before it's frozen, adding to the points.

Apparently you have to add some points because the fibre is taken out and you are left with the sugar in fruit..same goes with veggies! I know when I went out of town I stopped off at this place that made smoothies from fresh fruit..I got the strawberry smoothie with no yogurt and it came up to 3 points for a medium. Just research the points..Im sure you will find it!

Also I get my veggies and fruits in every day..I have 3 servings of fruit and 5 servings of veggies. We are suppose to get 7-9 servings of fruits and veggies..its not 7-9 of each fruit and veggie..it is 7-9 in total!

I never knew this before..but anyways yes it can be a challenge some days because some days I dont want to snack on my salad for my veggie intake in between meals..so I will just load up on peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers later in the day or something LOL

I like to soak chia seeds in vanilla almond milk overnight, spinach, then add a few chunks of frozen banana and maybe a few almonds or a nut butter. My five year old loves them for breakfast.

I knew this was the case for juice, but I didn't think it applied to smoothies. I don't see how blending makes the fiber disappear? Nothing is being taken out.

I'm with you. If I'm just cutting up a pineapple and using it to make a smoothie, then that's no different than just eating the pineapple chunks, and if I was just eating it I wouldn't count the points. I don't think cutting fruit up to use in smoothies takes any of the fibre out of it; it's not like you're cooking it or anything before you blend it. That doesn't make any sense. As you said, I can see it when you're talking about juice, but there is no way the nutrients are being removed from the fruit just by blending it.

Found this article on the WW website: http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/a...108831&sc=3002

I think it helps clarify some stuff, like why smoothies might come out as more points than you expect in the recipe builder

I thought she was talking about juicing, my bad. Dont know if blending it makes a difference!! But with juicing:

The fibre is what reduces the carb intake..carbs turn into sugar but not when there are large amounts of fibre because the body doesnt break fibre down quite as quickly as it breaks down sugar. So if you take out the fibre you are pretty much just drinking the fructose!

There actually isnt alot of information to support any of the sides when it comes to blending. Some say it does and some say it doesn't!!

And to think I charged myself 3 points that day when I didnt have too LOL

Well, personally, if whole fruit is "free", points-wise, then I'm not counting the points in the fruit I'll be using in my smoothies (since I'll just be buying the whole fruit, cutting it up, and freezing it myself.) If I use store-bought frozen fruit, then I'll go by the nutritional information on the package and count the points accordingly (even though WW tells us that frozen fruit is 0 points.)

You can put a half of a cup of baby spinach in any fruit smoothie and you don't even taste it!

I'm actually going to buy some baby spinach, puree it, and freeze it in ice cube trays for quick use in smoothies. I heard about the spinach thing before. And personally, I don't mind the taste of spinach even if you *could* taste it, so it's a bonus for me! *L*