Fresh Fruit Smoothies

Last summer, I had a dear friend show me her hands at making some yummy smoothies. In fact she is well known in the neighborhood as the smoothie lady.  She has made them for a sick friend of the neighborhood because that was all she could eat. So...I was excited to learn that it was much easier than I thought.  Take whatever fruit/berries you have.  I would mostly stick to what is in season. Bananas are almost a must as they make the smoothie, smooth and thicken up nicely. Yogurt is a must as well.  I have found that I like the Yoplait the best. And the Yoplait Vanilla to be exact. But get whichever you can afford. And I buy the large tubs. But if you buy the individuals (which is totally fine) you want one yogurt per smoothie round.

I went to Sprout (I really do love that place) and they had blueberries, blackberries and strawberries fresh from the truck when I got there. So I took some of those. 

These look delicious!

I could smell the strawberries from a distance...they were SO sweet and fresh! I loathe tart strawberries.

Close up of my blackberries. So plump! (drooling a little)

Blueberries...in season, so use them while you can!

If you aren't close to a fresh market or you just can't seem to get fresh berries where you are at, you could get a frozen selection. This one has strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blueberries. Just use a lot less ice (if any) than what I say below.

I also have some protein that I add. If I am making a desert like smoothie, I will usually leave this out. I mostly add it to my breakfast smoothies. It's great with a small bowl of oatmeal on the side or one of those Nature's Valley Oat n'Honey Granola Bars (they are so yummy!)  I just got this from our local Wal-Mart. Strawberry is good. We have also had vanilla as well.

Take 1-2 medium bananas and half them into the blender.

The strawberries I have been getting are a little larger, so I have been slicing them in half. I would only do about 3-4 max of strawberries. They can get over bearing in your smoothie if you aren't careful.

Add the rest of the fruit. Small half fulls. Then do about a cup of yogurt, a cup of water and fill the rest of the blender with ice. Oh the protein mix. I do 1-2 scoops. But I mix everything first, THEN I had the protein otherwise it has clumped up on my in the smoothie. Yuck!

If you wanted to do more of a dessert smoothie, I would add this in place of water. It made it a little tart, so again, watch how many strawberries you add...that is the key. This stuff is nice and sweet...and it was only a $1 at Smiths. My husband loves it...don't tell him I used some in the smoothies! :-)

I use the ice crush on my blender (excuse the mess buttons, my blender is well loved) and pulse the ice until I think I have all of the large chunks chopped smaller. Once this is done I hit the smoothie button and add my protein through the top hole of the lid.

There you have it. You can see the blueberry chunks and strawberries.

Yes those are Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle Cups...don't judge...I was making smoothies for my kids.

And of course a good smoothie makes for happy kids!

I hope you enjoy these. They are so good and so summer and SO refreshing! I love them!

I have added mangoes, oranges, apples, grapes (grapes are good in them!). I haven't ventured and added some nice greens to get the iron flowing. Maybe I will soon experiment with that.

As always, happy cooking...or is it happy blending? :-)