I started blending smoothies at home as a broke college student who wasn’t fond of the dining hall options at my school. These tips were and still are my guiding principles for making awesome smoothies how I want, when I want. If you don’t want to leave the house to get a delicious, nourishing, inexpensive smoothie made exactly how you want, then this is the smoothie guide for you!
The Basics
- Start small & cheap with your blender. You don’t need a $200 Ninja or $450 Vitamix. Especially, if you’re new to blending, spend the least amount of money possible and opt for something like the Magic Bullet, which you can get for about $19.99 USD
- Making smoothies, no matter your expertise, can take experimentation. Don’t expect to get your smoothie exactly “right”, on the first try. Give yourself time to taste and adjust the flavors, amount of ingredients, etc as needed.
- Experiment with smaller smoothies. Don’t start out trying to make a smoothie that’s 6+ cups. If it’s a new recipe for you and you don’t know if you’ll enjoy the taste, this lessens the chance of frustration and food waste.
- Focus on taste over color. Not everything you eat needs to be Instagram ready.
Sustainability
- Purchase reusable straws (and the straw cleaner tool). It’s a low-effort and inexpensive way to incorporate sustainability into your life. You can order these straws online or find them for sale at craft stores, home & furniture stores, and certain cafes, restaurants or food trucks.
- Compost your food scraps. If there isn’t a composting program in your area or if you want to DIY it, then do some quick research on easy DIY composting for your home. Composting is a great way to reuse food waste.
Ingredients
- If you’re including greens in your smoothie, the greens don’t have to be spinach or kale. Try herbs such as cilantro, parsley, mint. Just be careful because some flavors can be overpowering when blended. Blend a small amount, then adjust.
- If you want to mask the flavor of your greens, use fruit such as banana, mango, lemon, lime, and pineapple. It’s not a cop-out if you don’t want to taste the greens. What matters is that you’re incorporating more greens into the foods you eat and drink!
Prep in Advance
- Your smoothie may not hold up if you refrigerate it after blending. Mine tend to last a max of 2 days, but it depends on the ingredients. The taste is likely to change as time goes on, so experiment with how long your smoothie lasts (and maintains its original flavor) after blending.
- If you want to smoothie prep for the week, you can refrigerate or freeze your ingredients in individual containers (make sure they are freezer safe if using the freezer). This adds to the grab and go process where you don’t have to pull out and measure all of your ingredients every time you want a smoothie. Just dump the pre-measured ingredients into your blender, add a liquid, blend, and go!
When Blending
- Put the greens in first, then the other ingredients on top. They help weigh the greens down and hopefully, get the greens blended well. Note: Reverse the order if your blender requires you to turn the cup upside down to blend, then right side up to drink.
- If your smoothie is too thick, then add more liquid (e.g. water, coconut milk). If your smoothie is too thin, add more of your solid ingredients.
