Weekly Lists #31: Favorite Smoothie Tips

Every Wednesday, I post a list of 5 random things. This week: 5 of my favorite things to put in smoothies!

Now, of course, smoothies have been the it of all things it for years, by now, and they are that for a very good reason – namely: they’re delicious, healthy, and you can get them in just about any taste possible!
Of course, me being me, I like experimenting with what I’m throwing in there so here are 5 things that you may not have considered putting in your smoothie yet – but you totally should!

This post was not sponsored in any way or form. It does, however, contain affiliate links.

1. Blender

First things first: if you’re going to make a smoothie, you need a blender. For years, I’ve made my smoothies (and milk shakes, and soup, and so on and so forth) with a hand blender (pretty similar to this one: Braun MQ100 Hand Blender, 450 Watt, White/ Green; but for Christmas, this year, I got this awesome blender that’s actually intended to make smoothies!

G3Ferrari G20409 Vitasport

250 Watt Blender with 2 x 500 ml Drinking Bottles, Green

Why did I want this so much? Well, first: because I hate doing the dishes – I live in quite a small dorm, so a dishwasher is completely out of the question, and it is sometimes quite annoying to have to clean the blender, the pot, and everything in between.

Second: because I never had anything to put my smoothie in once it was done, so I couldn’t take it with me (or I had to put it in a water bottle, but those are almost all coloured, and that just doesn’t look good – trust me). Basically, the blender I got comes with two holders, a smaller and a bigger one, and it makes it so much easier to actually take my smoothie with me on the go – which makes for an excellent snack in class!

Lastly, this blender is really compact – because you only have the bottles and the blender stand, you can put it away basically anywhere (which is a really good thing for me – again: tiny dorm!)

2. Type of liquid

Now, this is so important, because your smoothie needs to be – obviously – liquid.
Quite often, I see people adding juice, coconut water, yogurt, dairy, or any sort of dairy-replacement.
However, that’s not how I generally do it.
Why, you might be asking? Because juice contains so much sugar, and almost any kind of dairy (or dairy free variant) changes the texture to something that is just a tad too milkshake-like for my liking.

What do I use, then? Quite simply: tea. More specifically: a strong, fruity tea.

Lipton Mahogany Tea Chest Limited Edition

One day, I’m going to own this exact box with all sorts of tea.

Until then, I’ll just have to content myself with owning, drinking, and

using in smoothies, every single type of tea in there,

Now here’s why: I’m a huge tea-drinker as is, and although I’ll often add some lemon juice and / or honey to it, I basically just like the flavour of tea. What I’ll often do is brew about half a liter of my tea of choice about half an hour before I’m making my smoothie (in reality, this just means the moment I get up, ‘cuz I need my tea then anyways!) and add it to the smoothie.
Because I tend to use at least some frozen fruit (more on that later!) it’s quite fine if the tea is still luke warm, and it’s a great way to add some flavour to my smoothie without adding any unnecessary calories and sugars!

My two favourite types of tea to add into my smoothies are rosehip and green tea. Rosehip helps bring out the flavour of the ingredients more, and green tea is just generally good for you. Really, though, you could probably add any sort of tea you liked – if you choose to not use the herb extract version (as I, actually, usually do) you’ll even have a little bit of caffeine in there!

3. Types of fruit

Now, of course, you should totally add in any type of fruit you like, but here are some of my favourites anyways:

Golden kiwi: these are just that bit sweeter than their green counterparts, and although they won’t have the strongest flavour in the smoothie, they will bring an extra fruity tone to the whole.
Apple: your simplest source of vitamins, you don’t even have to peel this one! I love to throw some apple into any smoothie, just because a) I love apples and b) they help thickening it up again, which can sometimes be necessary if you don’t use a dairy-type of liquid.
Lemon and Lime: these two make everything better – I always have some fresh ones in my fridge, as well as some lemon juice, and they really do help to make any smoothie that much more light and spring-like, if that last one makes any sense?
Berries: yes, any kind of berries, throw those in there – berries really do lift any smoothie to a whole another level immediately (and another plus: I don’t think there’s anybody out there who doesn’t like them, so they can help mask the taste of any “overly healthy” options 🙂 )

4. Types of vegetables

Yes, you heard it right, throw your veggies in there! I think just about anybody has by now heard that you should put some avocado in your smoothies (just like bananas, it helps make the smoothie more creamy, but it doesn’t have anywhere near as much sugar), but why not add in some spinach (you won’t even taste it!), cucumber (it adds some liquid and it makes for a delicious green smoothie) celery (you are going to be tasting this one, though) or even tomato (combined with some sweet berries you can actually hardly taste this one – just get out the snotty bits on the inside first) in there?

This is really one of the things I love most about smoothies: you can throw in literally anything and with the right combinations, still make it taste good!

(Although, actually, don’t quote me on that one too loudly, if you throw in anything too crazy, like a bit of steak, I don’t want to be held responsible for the consequences!)

5. And now what?

So you’ve made your smoothie-choices, now what? Get even more creative with it!

Try some fun combinations (like banana-berries-kiwi-avocado, or tomato-berries-kiwi-cucumber-honey, or a classic orange-banana-apple-kiwi)

You can add in some oats or seeds to give it more of a texture, try any weird combinations you can think off, or even make it into a more “solid” meal by using less liquids and making a smoothie bowl!

For that last one, let me just give you some inspiration here:

So, there you have it! 5 elemental things to making your smoothies! What’s your favourite smoothie combination? Do you have any type of weird ingredient you add in that others might declare you crazy for? Be sure to let me know below!

-Saar