Sunday, January 22, 2012

Calorie-packed, somewhat healthy smoothies

I've been experimenting a lot with smoothies lately. Well, with pretty much any food that's quick to make, filling, and only requires one hand to eat. I found a base recipe for peanut butter and banana smoothies and have come up with a few components that I can mix and match depending on what I'm in the mood for:
  • frozen banana - I cut these in half and stick them in the freezer so they're ready to grab
  • soy milk - or any kind of milk or juice, really, but I prefer soy (we have the vanilla kind, too, so it adds some flavor)
  • peanut butter - this adds a nice texture and lots of calories
  • oats - still not sure what I think about oats... they seem to add a slightly bitter taste, although they do make it more filling
  • honey - for sweetening
  • cocoa powder - mainly to make the smoothies more tempting for the men in the household
  • vanilla ice cream - just makes it taste better (and it's not like I'm trying to make this low-fat or anything)
  • greek yogurt - adds more protein
  • wheat germ - I forget why this is healthy, but I remember it's supposed to be good while you're pregnant, so I figure it must be a good thing
  • other fruits, frozen or not
My general method is to put the solid ingredients in the cup first, then pour in enough soy milk to almost cover them. We have a handheld bender which is pretty easy to clean, although it has a hard time blending the frozen bananas sometimes.

Some good combos I've found so far:
banana, peanut butter, oats, wheat germ (just a teaspoon or so), honey, soy milk
banana, peanut butter, cocoa powder, ice cream, soy milk
banana, strawberries, greek yogurt, honey, soy milk

I've been meaning to try out some other components, like molasses, so I'll update this as I go...

1 comment:

  1. Interesting! My very lazy "smoothie" recipe is just a single-serving of yogurt dumped into a 16-oz. mug, filled up the rest of the way with milk, and stirred with a spoon.

    I like it best with blueberry yogurt and a little cinnamon. (With the cinnamon mixed into the yogurt before the milk is added - otherwise it clumps up.) I think it tastes like the blueberry pies from my childhood.

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