Summer Smoothie Recipes

What could be better than sipping an ice cold smoothie on a sweltering summer day? Smoothies have become more and more popular in our increasingly health conscientious world and it's quite simple to make them at home. You can make a smoothie with just about any ingredients you might have on hand for a fraction of the cost of what you would pay at a Smoothie Bar. And when you consider that a smoothie is usually much healthier than other desserts, you realize that you've got yourself one great treat!

The most important item needed to make a smoothie is a good blender. Just about any blender will do, though these days they are even making blenders specifically for making smoothies. The Smoothie Freeze Machine by Back To Basics is a great blender to use for smoothies. This smoothie machine can be purchased at most large retail stores (such as Target or Wal-Mart) and is very reasonably priced (about $20 or so.) However you don't have to go out and buy a "smoothie maker" as any blender you may have will work just fine.

There are two main ingredients to a smoothie. These are liquids and ice. Liquids would include any soft ingredients like milk, juice, yogurt, peanut butter, fruit or any herbal supplements you would choose to add to your smoothie. Ice includes any frozen ingredient you choose to add to your smoothie, such as ice, frozen fruit, frozen yogurt, ice cream or sherbert. When making a smoothie, you should add your liquid ingredients to the blender first and blend lightly. Then add your ice ingredients and blend on high.

The ingredients for your smoothie depend solely on your own taste. Be creative! Your smoothie can contain almost anything you desire! For those of you just starting out though, here are a few recipes to give you jump start!

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

1 cup strawberry nectar or apple juice

1 cup milk

1 frozen banana

1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries

1 cup strawberry yogurt

Creamy Raspberry Smoothie

1 cup orange juice

1 cup raspberry yogurt

1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt

1/2 cup frozen banana (in chunks)

1 1/2 cup frozen raspberries

Creamy Banana Orange Smoothie

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups orange juice

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 frozen banana (in chunks)

1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt

1/2 cup orange yogurt

3 tbs. orange juice concentrate

Pineapple Lemonade Smoothie

2 cups lemonade

1 cup lemon yogurt

1 1/2 cups frozen pineapple chunks

1 cup pineapple sherbert

These are just a few of the many recipes that can be used to make smoothies. You can also find hundreds of smoothie recipes online. Two good places to start would be smoothierecipies.net and smoothie-recipe.com. Allrecipes.com also has a good page for smoothie recipes.

So dust off that blender and discover the joy of making delicious smoothies at home. Your family, and your stomach, will thank you!