Smoothies for Summer

Posted by Stephanie Gallagher Aug 9, 2007

Smoothies deserve a place on everyone's healthy eating plan. They're delicious, refreshing, and if you use my smoothie recipes, they're amazingly healthy, too.

That's because my smoothies are made with only all-natural ingredients -- no added powders, sugars, or preservatives to extend their shelf life.

The Tools for Making Great Smoothies

If you plan to make smoothies often (and I suggest you do), a Vita Mix blender is a worthwhile investment. Yes, it's expensive, but the Vita Mix crushes frozen fruit like no other blender I've ever used (and I have tried many).

The Vita Mix is also a great tool for making pureed soups, peanut butter, bread crumbs and many other jobs normally reserved for the food processor.

If you can't afford a Vita Mix, use your food processor. Or opt to make smoothies with smaller frozen fruit, such as blueberries and raspberries, which can usually be crushed in blenders with ice crushers.

Do not -- I repeat, do NOT -- buy a smoothie maker. These blenders are designed to dispense smoothies in a way that looks like a milkshake from an ice cream shop. That is all they do. They are more expensive than most blenders and far less capable of crushing ice and frozen fruit.

My Favorite Healthy Smoothies

These are some of my all-time favorite smoothie recipes:

• Antioxidant Smoothies -- Acai berry juice gives this smoothie recipe a powerful antioxidant punch.
• Carrot Cake Smoothies -- If you like carrot cake, this vegetable smoothie recipe is for you. It's sweet enough to serve for dessert, too.
• Chocolate Raspberry Smoothies -- Chocolate and raspberry: a marriage made in heaven. And this smoothie recipe is definitely heavenly.
• Blueberry Smoothies -- An excellent way to use those fresh blueberries before they go bad. Freeze them unwashed in a zip-loc freezer bag. Then give them a quick rinse before making these smoothies.
• Peaches and Cream Smoothies -- This smoothie recipe tastes like a peach milkshake. Mmmmm.