Smoothies

One of my favorite things to fix for breakfast are smoothies.  I just love smoothies, and everyone in the family loves them too.  It's just the perfect breakfast; perfectly healthy and a way to get a ton of nutrition in a glass.  I typically serve smoothies with some type of breakfast bread or some form of egg or a handful of toasted nuts, but usually not more than one of the above. (usually)

One thing about smoothies that I like is they're so versatile.  With a few basic ingredients, you can make a delicious simple smoothie, or you can get all fancy and healthy and add a lot more to it!  Here is a sample of the basic cast of characters for a smoothie:  raw milk, raw yogurt, bananas, a minimum of one additional fresh or frozen fruit.  I try to always have frozen fruit from the year before that I picked and froze like blueberries, blackberries, strawberries etc.  A tip that I got from my aunt about bananas-- if you have one or two that are getting soft, but you don't have enough to make bread out of or don't want to, throw them in the  freezer, peel and all.  I started doing that and I never lack for bananas for smoothies or bread.  The frozen bananas are perfect in smoothies, especially if I have fresh fruit to go along with it.

I use my blender that I inherited from my paternal grandparents.  It will be a sad day when that goldie oldie dies.  I put the frozen fruit in first and put the fresh fruit on top (those gorgeous blueberries are frozen from when I picked last summer).

Bananas are such a perfect smoothie staple.  They add tons of bulk, flavor, and thickness.  I rarely make a smoothie that doesn't have bananas in them unless it's mid summer and I have tons of fresh fruit in the house.

Add lots of raw milk and raw yogurt.

Watch the magic happen.  I have to make two whole blenders FULL to feed our family of six.  I shudder to think of how much this family will eat when the kids get into their teens. Yikes.

And, viola, you have a perfect (have I used the word "perfect" too many times? How about the word "tons"?) breakfast.  The one pictured above is a tropical smoothie.  Oh. Yum.

This one is probably a strawberry banana smoothie.  I've been photographing smoothies for a year now with a blog post in the back of my head all along.


As if I haven't gone on enough about smoothies, I'll jot down a few of my favorite combos and a list of "add-ons" if you want to get adventurous. (Oh, and I NEVER measure ingredients for smoothies, so the following are estimations.) Each recipe fills up a standard blender.

Stawberry Banana Smoothies

1 1/2- 2 bananas
1/2- 3/4 lb strawberries
1 1/2 cups raw milk
2 cups raw yogurt

Banana Berry Smoothies

Same as above, but combine strawberries and blueberries

Blueberry Banana Smoothies

Same as above but use at least 2 cups of blueberries

Tropical Smoothies

1 1/2- 2 bananas
Combo of pineapple, mango, and a little shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups raw milk
2 cups raw yogurt

Chocolatey Banana Nut Smoothies

3-4 bananas
milk
yogurt
1 slightly heaping spoonful of cocoa powder
2-3 heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter
(you can decrease the bananas, but add a different fruit like strawberries...just don't expect to taste it. the bananas and p-nut butter will overpower it.)

Add-Ons

Cinnamon
Protein powder
Barley, Alfalfa powder, Spirulina (never tried it)
Fresh greens like kale or spinach (never tried it)
Chocolate Chips
Cocoa Powder
Peanut Butter

I never add sweeteners, but any would do, such as honey, maple syrup, sugar or the fake stuff.

If you don't have any frozen fruit, add 3 or 4 ice cubes to get that irresistible yum of an cold smoothie.

Now, get up tomorrow morning and get creative! Treat yourself to a delicious drink that will make you smile all morning long. (Ok, I'll stop now. This has gotten silly.)