I like the idea of healty smoothies – a great way to superboost my nutrition. I take a very proactive approach to my health and I’m constantly looking for ways to insure my health against the things that detract from being healthy.
- stress
- ageing
- environmental factors
- and, of course, now we’re all faced with the long term prospect of living with COVID 19.
GOOD MORNINGS START WITH A SMOOTHIE..BUT HOW CAN YOU BE SURE IT’S REALLY HEALTHY
But when it comes to smoothies, there are a couple of things that I’m not so impressed with –
- They can be time consuming to make.
- They can be quite expensive to buy pre-made.
- Some recipes are laden with calories, so unless they are a meal substitute, they are an easy way to gain weight. I came across one recipe for a peanut butter smoothie that contained over 800 calories!
- It’s very tempting to add lots of fresh fruit (well fruit is healthy, isn’t it?) so that the smoothie tastes nice but then the smoothie is really high in sugar and triggers rebound hunger.
- Without fruit etc a smoothie can taste a bit yuk and can be literally hard to swallow.
Healthy Smoothies – Requirements
So, my requirements for the perfect smoothie are:
- Quick and easy to make.
- Full of vitamins and minerals.
- Low in calories.
- Low cost.
- Tastes nice.
Whilst in the supermarket, my gaze was drawn to smoothie packs in the freezer compartment. It seems a great idea to have a smoothie pack to hand in the freezer, eliminating the need for laborious washing and peeling of ingredients. But on closer inspection, these smoothie packs were just packs of pre-prepared mixed fruit, which was precisely what I was trying to avoid.
However if I made my own smoothie packs and added only the ingredients I wanted, I could tick all the boxes of my requirements. So here’s my recipe for a super healthy, energy efficient, low calorie smoothie. I will honestly admit that it doesn’t score high on the delicious stakes but it’s definitely not awful – especially if I drink it ice cold, as soon as I’ve blended it from frozen.
Healthy Smoothies – Recipe
- 1 bag spinach
- 35 pieces of frozen pineapple
- 1 bag frozen raspberries
- 7 tsps chia seeds
- 7 scoops of green powder – my choice at the moment is Green Vibrance, which contains over 70 ingredients – all manner of dried vegetable, herb and fruit extracts and probiotics.
You will also need
6 zip lock bags
1 Nutribullet or equivalent blender that can blend frozen food
Divide the ingredients between 6 zip lock bags and your blender. Blend and enjoy your fresh smoothie and pop the six smoothie packs in the freezer for another day.
I worked out that each smoothie was 109 calories and costs under £2.10 per serving. I looked at a local juice bar and their green juice is 324 calories and costs £6.70. I could find out what was in the juice and which macronutrients it contained, but there was no information about the micronutrients i.e. vitamins and minerals.
So these little bags of goodness get put straight into the freezer and when needed I just pull one out, pop it into my Nutribullet, add cold water and whiz! It literally takes seconds, which is a complete godsend when I’m needing to rush out of the door to get to work on time.