The Ultimate Smoothie Guide

Want to incorporate smoothies into your day? Not sure where to start? Well, I’ve got you covered with this ultimate smoothie guide!

The Ultimate Smoothie Guide

A smoothie is usually a drink made from a mix of pureed raw fruit, vegetables, and sometimes dairy products, typically made by using a blender. Smoothies are usually jam packed with nutrient as you can make them with nutrient-dense foods.

They’re great as a meal or as a snack and can be enjoyed anytime during the day! The best part about a smoothie is that they don’t really need a recipe! You can create a delicious smoothie just simply by following a general ratio and tweak as you go along!

Are Smoothies Healthy?

Smoothies can be as healthy or unhealthy as you choose to make it. It can be super easy to over-do a smoothie as a fruit smoothie may contain much higher sugar content than a green smoothie or you might be drinking more calories than you thought you were drinking from calorie-dense ingredients. However, I believe that everything in moderation is fine – a fruit-packed smoothie can be enjoyed here and there.

The Best Blenders for Making Smoothies

You may look at me like I’m insane when I say that we have 5 blenders in my household. But I love testing new appliances so I can give the best recommendations! 

• Philips Kitchen High Speed Blender: This is the blender pictured in the images! It has a noise reducing dome that minimizes blending noise making it 2 times quieter than traditional counter top blenders. Perfect for morning smoothies.
• Vitamix Ascent: Variable Speed Control and Pulse feature lets you manually fine-tune the texture of any recipe. You can also swap out different sized containers and the motor base is able to recognize the container size you’ve chosen and will automatically adjust program settings and maximum blending times accordingly.
• Starfrit Person Blender: This one is H’s favourite because he purchased this when he was away from home and wanted to be able to make personal sized smoothies. It has been quite the workhorse for being the least expensive blender in our house (under $40!). I love that it comes with 2 different cups (and to-go lids) that you can blend in and leave with to minimize clean up.

How To Build The Perfect Smoothie

Start by deciding what type of smoothie you’d like to make.

Green Smoothie

You’re going to focus on using *surprise* green ingredients lol. Some examples are…

• spinach
• kale
• celery
• collard greens
• chard
• cilantro

Keep in mind that you might need to mix in some fruit to balance out the flavours/to naturally sweetened the drink.

Fruit Smoothie

Some of my favourite fruits to use in a fruit smoothie are…

• strawberry
• raspberry
• banana
• pineapple
• mango
• peaches

Protein Smoothie

Protein smoothies are great after s hard workout. Some of my favourite add-ins for smoothies that have a ton of protein are…

• spinach
• flaxseed
• chia seeds
• hemp hearts
• greek yogurt 
• nut butter

Next, you’ll have to pick a liquid base and if you’d like to add any sweeteners. 

Smoothie Liquid Bases

• dairy such as milk
• non-dairy liquids such as almond milk, oat milk, cashew milk
• coconut water
• orange juice (I love paring OJ with greens)
• water

Natural Sweetener Ideas

• honey
• dates
• cinnamon

Putting it Together: The Perfect Smoothie Ratios

Note that this is just a suggestion – you may prefer a different ratio but this is a simple base that you can build off of! Here are my basic smoothie measurements:

• For every 1-1.5 cup of liquid, pair it with up to 2 cups fruits or greens.
• If you are looking to make a protein smoothie, decrease the amount of fruit and add in up to 1/2 to 1 cup of protein add-ins (mix of nut butter, hemp seeds, protein powder, etc)

How To Meal Prep Smoothies / Make Smoothies Ahead of Time

There are a few ways I like to meal prep smoothies. My favourite way is to use a mason jar because now you can just pour your smoothie back in the same jar and head out with it! It is one less thing to wash!

• In a mason jar, you can add in all your ingredients minus your liquid. If using fruit, I’d recommend that the fruit already be frozen to start with so they’re not frozen to the jar.
• Leave it in your freezer until ready to make.
• When ready to make, just add in your liquid into the blender and pour in your fruit. I also add liquid into the mason jar first and give it a shake before pouring it into the blender if the fruit are a little stuck or if there are add ins such as hemp seeds at need a little help coming out. The mason jar is also helpful because sometimes I use it to measure out my liquid as well.

Another way to meal prep your smoothies is to use little baggies or a reusable silicone bag (such as the pictured stasher bag). This method takes up less space than putting multiple mason jars in the freezer. Like the mason jar method, when ready to make, pour your frozen ingredients into the blender and then add in the liquid. Blend and consume.

Note: sometimes I prefer to freeze just the fruit portions if I know I’ll have fresh greens (such as spinach) on hand. It is just a personal preference but it saves me the time of having to measure out my fruit ahead of time.

Lastly, the last method is the blend and freeze! This is how I freeze pre-made smoothies.

• Blend your smoothie up and then pour it into a mason jar (not all the way, leave an inch to inch and a half free from the lid), and freeze.
• The night before you plan on drinking it, let it thaw in the fridge overnight. You might need to give it a quick shake afterwards before drinking.
• Alternatively, you can pour them into souper cubes and let a cube thaw overnight in a mug. This method is easily stackable and room saving as you can pop them out and store in a bag in the freezer stacked with other cubes since they’re kinda like mini bricks! Plus this means you can re-use your souper cube after an evening if you remove the “brick” to store in a bag unlike the mason jars.
• Another way to do the blend and freeze is if you don’t have the liquid you want to use at the moment, you can blend just the fruits/vegetables/add ins that you’d like to use and pour it into smaller cube trays to freeze. When ready to consume, either thaw it out overnight in a cup or mason jar with your liquid of choice. Shake to combine in the morning. Or you can blend it together with your liquid of choice in a blender.

What is a smoothie bowl?

Compared to the smoothies you’re used to sipping with a straw, the base of a smoothie bowl then to be much thicker, almost ice-cream like consistency. The thicker consistency allows for it to hold up a section of toppings such as granola, berries, nuts, etc. It is a little more labour intensive than making a regular smoothie and due to all the toppings (and extra calories), I usually use it as a meal substitute instead of it being an addition to a meal. For smoothie bowls, I don’t usually add any liquids to keep it super thick. (Here’s how I made the smoothie bowl pictured below)

How can I remove too much froth from a smoothie?

Some fruits, such as apples, or leafy greens might caught some froth. But not to worry, the easiest way to remove or reduce this is by skimming off the froth with a spoon. 

If you have any more questions that you have about smoothies, leave them in the comments down below and I’ll try and answer them!

Other Guides You May Find Helpful

• Tip To Help You Meal Prep Your Week Successfully
• Tips For Meal Prepping On A Budget
• Meal Prep: Learning the Basics (e-book)

Other places to connect with me
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Email: [email protected]