Our Favorite and Easy to Make Smoothies
Summer is the perfect time to make and drink smoothies. The weather is warm. There are a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, thanks to the abundance of heat and sunlight. The warm weather also calls you to go outside and be more active.
Here are just some of the benefits of drinking summer smoothies:
- It prevents dehydration, especially in the summer heat where you are more likely to sweat
- It provides fiber, especially the smoothies that use an abundance of fruits and vegetables
- It is more organic and has less preservatives than juices, because many juices are full of additives that are not exactly healthy
We have compiled the recipes for 4 summer smoothies. So, you can make the smoothies on your own at home and enjoy their benefits.
1. Banana-Peanut Butter Smoothie
Let’s start off with a smoothie with a very common base ingredient – the banana. To make a banana-peanut butter smoothie, you will need the following:
- 1 small banana
- ½ cup of milk
- 1 tsp of peanut butter
- 3 ice cubes
Just put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until they are smooth. The banana is one of the best fruit sources of vitamin B6. It also has vitamin C and dietary fibers. Though the peanut butter is high in calories, it can be enjoyed in small amounts, like the 1 tsp we have in this summer smoothie recipe.
2. Carrot-Mango Smoothie
Carrots and mangoes are also very easy to find in grocery stores. So, they are the perfect ingredients for an easy-to-make summer smoothie. To make a carrot-mango smoothie, you will need the following:
- 1 cup of pureed carrots
- 1 ½ cup of chopped mangoes
- ½ cup of ice cubes
- A dash of grated nutmeg to taste
Puree the ingredients in the blender until they are smooth. The carrot is a great source of beta carotene, fiber, and potassium. The mango, on the other hand, is known to help in digestion and boosting the immune system.
3. Dark Chocolate Smoothie
Will a list of summer smoothie recipes be complete without a chocolate smoothie recipe? Sure, chocolate is not the healthiest thing in the world. But sometimes, we have to satisfy our cravings. Here is a recipe for a dark chocolate smoothie:
- 2 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa
- 2 tsp of honey
- ½ cup of milk
- ½ cup of water
- 4 ice cubes
You can also add ½ of a banana, because the banana really goes well with the chocolate. To make this dark chocolate smoothie, put the ice cubes in the blender first. Once the cubes are crushed, add the other ingredients into the blender. Blend them all until the mixture is smooth.
4. No-Blender Raspberry Smoothie
Even those without blenders deserve to enjoy summer smoothies and their benefits. There are a lot of no-blender recipes out there, such as this no-blender raspberry smoothie. To make this smoothie, you will need the following ingredients:
- ½ cup of pureed raspberries
- ½ cup of orange juice
- 1 cup of water
- 1 scoop of protein powder of your choice
- 4 ice cubes
The orange juice and water are there to serve as the base of your drink. The protein powder is there to thicken the mixture and make it appear more like a smoothie. These are compromises that need to be done due to the lack of a blender.
Just combine the ingredients in a container that has a lid. Close the lid and shake the container until the mixture becomes smooth.
