I am sure you've all done various type of smoothies before, the internet abounds with recipes, so here's one we like:
Here on the Law Family Homestead, we're all about eating healthy, organic, preservative free, with large quantities of food prepared as easily as possible. With a large crew of growing boys, whose appetites know now bounds - hardly, I'm always looking for ways to fill them up, tied them over and of course use up milk. Plus, smoothies allow me to hide various other less-liked foods in something that tastes great. Smoothies are anything from light and refreshing on a hot summer day to something pretty substantial and packed full of calories, for a light supper served with various light finger foods.
So the other day we had had a fairly large lunch, a little later in that day then usual, and by supper time, no one was totally ravenous. We settled on smoothies, popcorn, smoked cheese and crackers. I always keep frozen berries and fruit in the freezer that we have picked over the summer, as they can then be used in a wide variety of recipes, muffins, smoothies, pancake topping to name a few.
To start off, I load my VitaMix blender with almost a half gallon of yogurt, it's probably about 6 cups worth. I base all my smoothies with yogurt as it is a great way to get probiotics into kids, plus it gives the smoothies a nice creamy texture.
Then I dump a quart jar of home canned peaches on top and add a couple cups of frozen raspberries. Sorry didn't get a pic of it blending it does it so quick in the VitaMix
You'll have to forgive the canning jar glasses, but I've found them invaluable as drinking glasses for little boys. I will not mention the number of glasses we have gone through in the last 10 years, but let me assure you it is significant. However, once we started using pint and half pint canning jars, the number of broken glasses quickly dropped to the exception, rather then the rule. They are just a lot tougher then your ordinary glass and they hold up remarkably well.
This smoothie mix is nice and light, really great for a hot summer day as it is refreshing. You can substitute any berry or fruit mix combo you come up with. Adding a handful of kale leaves or other greens makes a great green smoothie that still tastes great.
Our other favorite one is chocolate peanut butter:
Start with the yogurt, add baking cocoa, peanut butter (we use Adam's), and a couple of bananas for sweetening. This is a very filling one, and a totally healthy cure for that chocolate craving. Make sure the bananas are frozen.
So what are some of your favorite combos? I am always looking for new ones to try!