We all know that vitamins and minerals are the key to being fit, healthy and beautiful (yep, there’s a bunch of other factors, nope, I’m not going into them).  What better way to get vitamins and minerals than to blend them into an easy-to-drink smoothie?  I’ve been collecting photos of my smoothies for this article for about 6 months (I never knew it was so hard to get a remotely interesting picture of a smoothie).  I’ve been drinking one smoothie a day (apart from during pregnancy) since I bought my Kenwood 2Go Smoothie Maker about half a year ago (it’s AMAZING and the plastic cup goes in the dishwasher.  Even when I left it a few days it was really easy to clean).  This is literally the best £12.99 I ever spent on a gadget!  Most days I just have blueberry and banana (see recipe 4, use water instead of coconut milk) or strawberry and banana (see recipe 1, omit lime), but in addition to those, here’s my favourite recipes that are a little bit more exciting for days when I’ve got lots of fruit in the house:

1. Strawberry, banana and lime:
   Ingredients:  1 banana, about 100g of strawberries (or by volume, slightly more strawberry than banana) and 1tsp of lime.  I fill my pod blender with the fruit and lime juice, then take it to the tap and pour water in up to the top of the highest piece of fruit.  It’s not an exact science and the consistency varies.  Blend for about 40 seconds.

   

2. Banana, blueberry and cantaloupe:
   Ingredients:  1 banana, about 80g of blueberries (their flavor is stronger than the strawberries).  I put the fruit in, then I top up with water to the top of the highest piece of fruit.  Usually this comes out like a light smoothie.  Blend for about 60 seconds as the blueberries need lots of blending so you’re not just drinking huge pieces of blueberry skin.  Drink it fast or it separates!

   

3. Blueberry, banana and coconut milk:
   Ingredients:  1 banana, about 80-90g of blueberries, pour coconut milk into the container to the top of the highest piece of fruit.  For a thinner smoothie, use 50% water and 50% coconut milk instead.  Blend about 60 seconds.  If you don’t use enough liquid this makes a very tasty yoghurt!!

   

4. Carrot and orange:
   Ingredients:  1 carrot, chopped finely.  About 200-300ml of orange juice (depending on size of carrot).  You can add ginger to this to make a really perky drink, but ever since I was pregnant I’ve been unable to stand the smell, sight or taste of ginger!

   

5.  Mango, papaya and orange:
   Ingredients: 1 mango, chopped into cubes, 1 papaya, chopped into cubes.  Add orange juice to the top of the highest piece of fruit.  Blend for about 60 seconds.  Optional: For a thicker smoothie with less mango/papaya flavour, add a banana.

   

    

6. Raspberry, cantaloupe and banana:
   Ingredients:  Raspberries, cantaloupe (melon) and banana.  Blend for 30-40 seconds.  The only thing I don’t like about this one is the ridiculous amount of raspberry seeds.  But it tastes sooooo gooood!!

   

   

    

7. Banana, black grape and almond milk:
   Ingredients:  1 banana, a generous handful (maybe 2 hands if you don’t have freakishly large man hands like me) of black grapes (take them off the vine thingy and if they’re not seedless, you’ll have to de-seed them too), put in blender and top up with almond milk (coconut milk also does a nice job).  60 seconds usually does it but expect to chew some grape skins anyway.

   

    

   If you want or need added protein and minerals from any of these smoothies, why not make it crunchy and drop a table spoon of chia seeds or poppy seeds into your smoothie (poppy seeds are MUCH cheaper to buy, and they have similar nutritional content to chia seeds). Other nuts blend but the result is a crunchy yoghurt-type foodstuff.  A yoothie??

   What are your favourite smoothie recipes?  Let me know in the comments!