Make Your Own Smoothies!

Posted by Wasim on Jan 6, 2012 in Food | 0 comments

Over the past few years or so, the smoothie has really come to prominence as a big craze in healthy living and lifestyle. A large part of the smoothies popularity can be attributed to the push to eat more fruits and vegetables; and it is a convenient, easy, and tasty way for someone to fulfil the “5-a-day” fruit and veg requirement.

While smoothie’s can be healthy to drink, many of the more popular, mainstream smoothies you can buy in the shops or get from a cafe, still use high quantities of sugar and other ingredients that are simply not as healthy as they first may seem, and contain only a very small quantity of healthy ingredients. They can also be very costly, ranging between £2-5 pounds depending on the brand and size.

So this year I’ve decided not to gulp my money away buying pricey smoothie’s any longer, and have started to make my own “REAL” smoothies. I know what’s in them, I can pick and choose my own flavours, and best of all…I think I’m saving upwards of £10 per week!

Here’s one I tried early this week and it was healthy, nutritious and more importantly…delicious!

Apple and Pear Smoothie (3 Servings)

Ingredients

• 1 ripe banana, peeled and diced
• 2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely diced (Gala, or Golden Delicious)
• 1 ripe pear, peeled, cored, and coarsely diced
• 250 ml vanilla low-fat yogurt or soy yogurt
• 250 ml apple juice
• Pinches ground cinnamon (to your taste)

Method

1. Simply combine all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smoothly puréed. Alternatively, place in a container and process with an immersion blender.
2. Serve over ice in tall glasses.

As you can see from the method this was ridiculously easy to make, and I couldn’t believe how tasty it was from such simple ingredients and something that only took 5mins to do! I feel so stupid for wasting all of that money over the past few years!

So if you love smoothie’s and haven’t made a New Year’s resolution, why not try making your own smoothie’s from now on, and start the year off in a money saving and healthy way!

Happy New Year to all and all the best for 2012!