That’s been my life motto. And no other saying can be more true than the art of smoothie making.
I have no doubt in my ability to make smoothies. I have no reason to doubt yours too. I once thought that I knew everything there was to know about smoothies. But guess what? I was totally wrong!
That was when I reminded myself of the phrase “If you walk in the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you’ll never know”.
Since then, I always remind myself to be a constant learner. That’s how I kept discovering new recipes. That’s how I kept improving the quality of my smoothies. To me, having a good recipe and possessing the right techniques are equally important to have the best blenders.
What I love doing is injecting twists into some of the most popular recipes. It doesn’t always give me better results but it lets me understand my smoothie preference better.
Oh, by the way, I also like to test my recipes with different smoothie machines. If that’s what I’ve done, I’ll share my findings. I thought such information might be helpful for those who find themselves sitting on the fence and can’t make up their minds about which blender machine they should go for.
Okay, enough history lesson. Let me just share with you what I want to share. It’s a small collection of my favorite berry smoothie recipes!
My Favorite Berry Smoothie Recipes
The original recipe is called Samantha’s Super Smoothie. It is certainly among the simplest and healthiest smoothie recipes.
I’ve tried to stick with the original recipe as much as possible. What I’ve done is to replace the coconut milk in favor of brown rice milk. Replace the frozen blueberries with fresh blueberries.
My reason for replacing coconut milk with brown rice milk is simple. I love the rich taste of coconut milk. I’m sure you do too. No doubt about it.
But the debate of whether coconut milk is good or bad has left me puzzled. So as much as possible, I’ll try to stay away from it.
The fresh blueberries replacement is no big deal. It’s not something that will affect the outcome of your smoothies. It’s more of a question about economical and convenience value.
I have to admit that the recipe came out better with the coconut milk compared to brown rice milk. But that’s the beauty of making smoothies! Sometimes when I crave for it, I’d stick with the coconut milk. But most of the time, when my head rules over my heart, I’d go with the brown rice milk for the obvious reason that it is the healthier choice.
This has been my regular morning smoothies. Give it a try and let me know what you feel.
The Classic Berries & Banana Smoothies with Refreshing Infuse
One of the classic smoothies of all time is a mix of berries with banana. Why has it been so popular? You tell me.
I’m not a nutrition expert. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that berries have long been established as one of the superfruits. Berries are high in antioxidants. They are your best guard against chronic disease and cancer.
As for banana, it is one of the best and easily available energy boosters. That’s a knowledge that even a high school student can tell you. But I found more recent positive associations of banana to be interesting.
Banana is said to be good for depression reduction. I’m not a food scientist and I can’t stand for that claim more than you. What I know is I love banana and I rarely find myself in a depressed mood.
Again, in place of frozen berries and banana, I’ve used fresh ones instead. No big deal here.
But instead of low-fat vanilla yogurt, I went with non-low-fat vanilla yogurt. You know what low-fat means. It may be healthier, but not necessarily tastier.
And instead of going with orange juice, I experimented with freshly squashed lemon juice.
Things turned out to be rather good. My modified recipe produced a thicker smoothie. The use of non-low-fat yogurt is probably the biggest difference. And the hint of lemon definitely makes it much more refreshing.
If your son or someone in the family needs a stamina boost to start the day, the classic berries and banana smoothie is highly recommended.
Any mention of chocolate will invite temptation but one that’s commonly labeled as ‘sinful’. I agree over-consumption of chocolate is unhealthy. But sometimes that’s the best trick to get the kids excited about drinking their smoothies.
This recipe is amongst the simplest of all berries smoothies recipes. If your kids start to show signs of dislike to their smoothies, this might be one of the most effective weapons that can turn things around.
But instead of using the instant chocolate powder, I tried with Milo powder. Some people asked if Milo is better than instant chocolate powder. I can tell you that I absolutely have no idea about this.
All I can say is Milo has always been part of our family’s tradition. It tastes good. It works as an energy booster.
I found replacing the chocolate powder with Milo actually improved the overall taste of the smoothies. Maybe it is due to my personal preference. I’m not sure.
Give it a try and let me know your thought.
No More Excuses
With these 3 simple berries smoothie recipes, you have no more excuse to let idle the blender that you’ve just bought. Any simpler and you’ll have to eat the berries raw instead of in the form of smoothies.
I’ve tested these recipes using 2 different blenders. One is a Vitamix 5200 and the other is a Ninja BL660. It would be unrealistic to expect the same qualities from both machines.
While there are folks who like to draw a comparison between Vitamix and Ninja, I can tell you that their blenders are poles apart. This should be obvious to you just by looking at the price tags alone.
The smoothies produced by my Vitamix 5200 is definitely more consistent and smoother compared to what’s produced by my Ninja BL660. But, it doesn’t mean that you need to wait until you can afford the best smoothie machine before you can try out these great recipes.
If the smoothie made using my Vitamix has a 5-star rating, the smoothie made using my Ninja be a 4-star.