Okay, I've never made smoothies before and just had what could have been my first one (or one of my first) a week ago. (What can I say, in my family we ate our fruits, not smooshed 'em up and drank 'em, lol!) Anyway, I got a new blender (another thing I haven't owned in, like, 2 decades!)...and wanna buy some stuff to make smoothies. I've already got lowfat milk and frozen strawberries and blueberries. I'm going to get some more fruits I like, such as bananas, peaches, etc. I've been looking at some recipes online and they have all sorts of different things they use, like orange juice, yogurt, vanilla, etc. What are some of the most common ingredients, or those that can be used in a variety of smoothies?

Thanks!

My Dh makes smoothies all the time. This is what we have in the house for smoothie making:

~Soy milk (we're lactose intolerant~cows milk would be good too)
~Mori-Nu lite silken tofu (to up the protein~1/4th of a package)
~Flaxseed meal (1T per smoothie)
~Wheat germ (same amount as the flax, but we don't use them together)
~Bananas (I feel bananas are very necessary texture wise~you can freeze them too if they are really ripe and just use them frozen)
~Frozen blueberries, strawberries, & raspberries
~Vanilla (we don't use sweeteners in our smoothies, but sometimes vanilla is nice~1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon)
~Lowfat Yogurt (Dh like this, myself I'd rather eat my yogurt )

I've also make "treat" smoothies before with banana, soymilk, cocoa powder, vanilla and some honey before. It's more milk shake than smoothie, but it's yummy!

Personally, I don't like orange juice in my smoothies (too tart), but then I'm not big on orange juice to begin with.

I love smoothies! But they can be high-cal, so count everything carefully.

My smoothies always involve frozen bananas (I slice up over-ripe bananas and keep them in the freezer for smoothie-making) with vanilla yogurt and cinnamon as the base. I usually use oj rather than milk, because I like the little acidity tang. I vary up the fruit depending on what I have in the freezer--I like raspberries and blackberries best, but I usually toss in some strawberries and/or blueberries as well.

You could also add protein powder, wheat germ or flax seed meal if you wanted to make a meal of it.

Preparation:

Now that summer is here, I buy fresh fruits and freeze them. I just wash and take off the green leaves on the strawberries, For bananas, I just peel them cut them in half and pur them in a freezer bag. I cut and freeze fresh peaces,
I also freeze grapes (for sweetness)

I usually use non-fat yogurt and fozen fruits in equal amount. I might add a tad of honey if the strawberries are tart. I also like to add ginger or cinnamon.

Put the yogurt in first to help blend in the fruit.

I like to put some ice in the blender, about 1/4 c lowfat plain yogurt, 1/2 of a banana + some strawberries and maybe some raspberries and I add 1-2 splendas. I have also made "peanut butter chocolate" smoothies by combining ice, unsweetened cocoa powder, 1/2 of a banana and 1 or 2 Tbls of peanut butter + vanilla protein powder + 1 or 2 splendas + some lowfat milk. You can do all sorts of things...chocolate raspberry (using the cocoa powder), strawberry banana etc. Lately, I have been buying a big bag of frozen mixed fruit from Target and using that along with the banana and yogurt.

Thanks, guys! I made my first smoothie tonight...banana, frozen blueberries and nonfat yogurt. Yum! Still sipping it. Gonna be fun trying out different combos.

What are the calorie counts?

I use all these same things too, as well as protein powders, frozen mangoes, some fresh fruits (whatever is in season, on sale and organic) and my soy milk is unsweetened

Our is unsweetened too! I think it works better for overall cooking if it's not sweetened. Plus every calorie helps!

EXACTLY! It tastes very "creamy" to me, and more rich when not sweetened. The fruit is naturally sweet enough for me!

Hi Maria,
For the peanut butter chocolate banana shake, it is 205 cals, 10g fat...probably because of the peanut butter...not exactly lowfat but good for a craving and if you have enough cals to spend for the day. I got those figures from my MasterCook program and sometimes the numbers differ from what I get in Fitday, so you may want to double check it in Fitday. Here are the exact ingredients:

1/2 medium bananas
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup lowfat 2% milk
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla protein powder
1 packet splenda sweetener
several cubes of ice

I also have recipes for peanut butter shakes and chocolate raspberry shakes if you are interested let me know.

That's a lot than I thought (yes, the peanut butter). Thanks.

It may be a lot of calories, but it would really satisfy and provide a good amount of nutrition!

I like shakes like that as a "mini-meal" with soy milk and stevia or agave in place of milk and splenda!

Oops, I missed a work. It's less calories than I expected. Still probably not for me but it's nice to know that the option is there.

I always use unsweetened Amond breeze for creamy smothies....and Gold Standard whey protein in french vanilla or chocolate...

for fruity smoothies I use 4everfit isolate in tropical mango (YUMMY!!!)

some of my favorites are :

CARAMEL CREAM SHAKE 160 cal
vanilla almond breeze
french vanilla protein powder
ice
tablspoon of Walden Farms caramel
blended

STRAWBERRYSHAKE 210 cal
vanilla almond breeze
french vanilla protein powder
frozen strawberries
blended


4everfit tropical mango and ice blended (100 cal)...really needs nothing else!!

add a splash of vanilla almond breeze and a dash of OJ and its like an orange julius (about 150 cal)

leave out the ice and add frozen strawberries and serve in a fancy stemmed glass for a tropical cocktail (150 cal)