Ode to Smoothies

Deciding to spend your own personal money on kitchen appliances rather than clothes/drinks is a pretty significant sign that you have grown up – although it may be scary, in the case of a smoothie maker it is a worthwhile investment.

The first and only rule of smoothie making is: do not be afraid of your smoothie! The absolute worst case scenario (assuming no unknown allergic reactions) is that it tastes bad, in which case you can just down it (think of the money wasted if you left it and to be fair you’ve probably drunk worse tasting things on a night out) or be a total pansy and throw it away. Smoothies are also the most efficient way of getting from 0 to 5 of your 5 a day in the time it takes to drink a pint.

Do not be afraid of vegetables in smoothies: have no fear combining the fruit with the vegetable. My personal favourite smoothie is spinach, banana and milk (it looks radioactive which is cool). Bananas are the absolute staple of all smoothies and give the correct texture. You can either use water, milk or natural yoghurt to reach the desired consistency depending on how you feel about calories. Other potentially uncommon ingredients include celery, courgette or kiwi.

Frozen berries are also amazing in smoothies and you can put them straight in the blender which sort of makes it a bit icy. If you combine it with water it’s sort of like a slush puppy (delish). They are also a good deal cheaper than buying the room temperature alternative.

Pictured is the smoothie my gorgeous housemate Alex makes every morning. It consists of frozen berries, banana, oats and milk (yes he has labelled his bananas…). Adding golden syrup or honey can be used to sweeten a smoothie – a technique Alex seriously advocates – or lemon/lime juice can be used for the reverse effect.

Cocoa powder also works well; I’ve heard the combination of nuts, cocoa powder and bananas is very filling and tastes amazing (I can’t provide first hand evidence as I’m allergic to nuts). Nuts in smoothies are an excellent way of adding extra protein: having a nut based smoothie to accompany your meal will rack up quite a few extra grams of protein.

Potential things to avoid include cottage cheese (I put this in once to try and add more calories to my smoothie and it was horrendous) and word on the street is grapes are not great either. It’s very hard to go wrong, and if it’s not good then don’t make it again. It’s so simple! Why not try it yourself? Get experimenting and get healthy!