Blackberries are my favorite fruit in the world, partly because they are wonderful and partly because I picked them with my mother when I was little, so a blackberry smoothie is where I start every time. That is really the whole argument for healthy smoothie recipes: one glass, a blender, and breakfast is handled before anybody has found their shoes. Here are green smoothies that do not taste like a punishment, berry and tropical ones, oat based blends that keep you full past ten, a couple with protein for after a workout, and a few of our own from the DIY JOY kitchen. Most take five minutes. A few take two. Perfect for a rushed school morning, a desk lunch, a light dinner or the afternoon when you would otherwise be standing in front of the vending machine!
1. Breakfast Energy Smoothie
Four things and five minutes: two cups of orange juice, a cup of vanilla yogurt, half a teaspoon of vanilla and two cups of mixed berries, fresh or frozen. Liquid goes in the blender first, which is the rule that keeps your blades from spinning against nothing. Blend two minutes, scrape the sides, blend another thirty seconds. It makes two, and the orange juice base is why it tastes like a treat instead of a health measure.
Get the full tutorial at Deliciously Sprinkled.
2. Monday to Friday, 5 Breakfast Smoothie Recipes
Five smoothies, one for each weekday, learned from a single video. This is the answer if you are stuck in a strawberry banana rut and cannot think your way out of it before coffee. They are all low calorie, they all go together in a blender in minutes, and having five means nobody gets bored by Wednesday. Ours, and the one I would send a person who wants to stop skipping breakfast.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
3. Layered Mixed Berry Green Power Smoothie
Most green drinks taste, well, very green. This one hides behind a berry layer: frozen banana, strawberries, blueberries, avocado and protein powder in the bottom half, then banana, mango, kiwi, spinach and avocado poured over the top. Half an avocado in each layer is what keeps them thick enough to sit apart instead of muddying together. Three servings, ten minutes, and it looks far more complicated than it is.
Get the full tutorial at Whole and Heavenly Oven.
4. Easy Breezy Tropical Orange Smoothie
Four ingredients, one glass, five minutes: a peeled orange, a banana, half a cup of frozen pineapple and half a cup of almond milk. That is the entire recipe. Swap the almond milk for orange juice if that is what is open, and use fresh pineapple with a scoop of ice instead if that is what you have. This is the one to make when you want a smoothie and you do not want to think about it.
Get the full tutorial at Clean Eats Fast Feets.
5. Hello Sunshine Breakfast Smoothie
Five ingredients, all of them sunshine colored: a cup each of frozen peach, mango and pineapple, half a cup of vanilla Greek yogurt and two cups of coconut beverage. The yogurt is doing quiet work here, adding enough protein to make this actually hold you until lunch. Use fresh fruit with a handful of ice if that is what you have. This is the one for a gray morning in February.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
6. Oats Chocolate Breakfast Smoothie
This is breakfast for people who skip breakfast. Four tablespoons of oats soak in half a cup of water first, which softens them so they blend without leaving grit, then in go banana, three dates, two tablespoons of peanut butter, two of cocoa, a tablespoon of chia seeds, cold milk, honey and five or six almonds. It tastes like a milkshake and carries you to lunch. Chocolate flakes on top are not optional in this house.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
7. Frozen Pineapple Smoothie
Here is the trick that makes this one: freeze coconut milk in an ice cube tray overnight and blend seven to ten of those cubes with two cups of frozen pineapple. No water, no ice, so nothing waters down as it sits. Two dates sweeten it, half a teaspoon of vanilla rounds it, and a cup and a half of oat milk takes it to the consistency you want. Shake the coconut milk before you pour it or the cream separates.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
8. Vegan, Paleo, Gluten Free Green Apple Smoothie
One green apple, cored and cut in big chunks, two cups of spinach or kale with the ribs pulled out, one frozen banana broken into pieces, a cup of milk and a cup of ice. Forty seconds in the blender and it is done. The frozen banana is what makes it thick and sweet enough to carry the greens, which is the difference between this and a glass of salad. It fits vegan, paleo and gluten free at once.
Get the full tutorial at Healthy Seasonal Recipes.
9. 2-Ingredient Pina Colada Smoothie
Two ingredients. Three cups of frozen pineapple, ideally from a ripe one, and three quarters of a cup of light coconut milk blended on high until it is creamy. That is it. Honey or maple syrup only if your pineapple was not sweet enough, and a scoop of protein powder if you want it to count as breakfast. A beach cocktail turned into something you can drink at nine in the morning without explaining yourself.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
10. 5 Healthy Green Smoothie Recipes
Five green smoothies with real variety between them, which matters more than it sounds, because green smoothies fail by all tasting the same. Cucumber kiwi with chilled green tea. Honeydew and kale with avocado. Pineapple, spinach and fresh ginger. Apple and fennel with lime. Grape and broccoli, which sounds wrong and is not. Everything goes in the blender and you press go. That is the entire method for all five.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
11. Orange Banana Smoothie
The surprise in this one is a cup and a half of carrots, which you do not taste at all behind two cups of orange juice and the zest of a whole orange. Frozen banana and a cup of vanilla Greek yogurt make it creamy, honey adjusts it to your taste. It makes four, which is the rare smoothie recipe that feeds a table rather than a person. Zest before you juice, always.
Get the full tutorial at Deliciously Sprinkled.
12. 3 Chia Seed Smoothies
Three smoothies built around chia seeds, which is worth doing for the cost alone. A bottled chia drink runs close to four dollars, and you are buying seeds and water. Nutritionally they earn their place too: more omega 3 than salmon, more potassium than a banana, a complete protein, and unlike flaxseed they keep without going rancid. The fat and protein together are what stop you hunting the vending machine at four.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
13. 3 Smoothie Popsicle Recipes
Same smoothie, different shape, and a much better answer to a hot afternoon. Tropical with frozen pineapple, mango, banana and coconut beverage. Very berry with a frozen berry mix, vanilla yogurt and vanilla almond milk. Just peachy with peaches, vanilla yogurt and orange juice. Two things save you real trouble here: use a silicone mold rather than plastic, because the popsicles actually come out, and use a funnel to fill them.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
14. Healthy Blackberry Smoothie
A quarter cup of quick cooking oats goes in with three quarters of a cup of blackberries, a cup of milk, a third of a cup of vanilla yogurt and a little ice. The oats are the reason this one actually fills you up instead of leaving you hungry in an hour. Honey is optional and depends entirely on how sweet your berries were. Two servings, five minutes, and blackberries are the best berry there is.
Get the full tutorial at Cakewhiz.
15. Refreshing Mango Berry Smoothie
Mango and berries is the pairing that always works, because mango brings sweetness and body while berries bring the tartness that keeps it from tasting like syrup. Use frozen and skip the ice, which is the single best habit in smoothie making. Keep some of both in the freezer and you have a good drink available at any hour without planning for it.
Get the full tutorial at No Gojis No Glory.
16. Chocolate Organic Plant Protein Smoothie
Chocolate and plant protein, built around a whole food protein powder rather than a scoop of something with a long label. The point of the post is the combination: protein, fiber, vitamins and omega 3 in one glass, so it works as a meal and not just a drink. Cocoa makes it taste like dessert, which is how most of us get protein down without arguing about it.
Get the full tutorial at Celebrate Woman Today.
17. Kick Booty Kale Smoothie
Two tablespoons of peanut butter is what makes this kale smoothie drinkable, and I will not pretend otherwise. Two cups of chopped kale with the stems removed, three quarters of a cup of vanilla almond milk, a frozen banana, a quarter cup of Greek yogurt, a quarter cup of frozen pineapple and honey to taste. Four minutes. Pull the stems out properly, because that is where the bitterness lives.
Get the full tutorial at Well Plated.
18. Banana Cream Pie Smoothie
Four vanilla wafer cookies go in the blender. That is the move that turns a banana smoothie into banana cream pie, and it costs about forty cents. Two frozen sliced bananas, a third of a cup of vanilla Greek yogurt, almond milk, honey, a quarter teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg and half a teaspoon of cinnamon do the rest. Three minutes. Grate the nutmeg fresh if you possibly can, it is a different spice.
Get the full tutorial at Baker by Nature.
19. Skinny Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie
Three ingredients, and it tastes like dessert, which is the entire brief this one set itself. No sugar added, and it still reads as strawberry shortcake rather than as a compromise. It is gluten free and vegan as written too, if that matters to you. This is the one to hand somebody who says they do not like smoothies, because it does not taste like a decision they made for their health.
Get the full tutorial at Amy's Healthy Baking.
20. Slim N Energizer Green Drink
This is the big one: orange, half an avocado, ten strawberries, cucumber, banana, green apple, mandarin, three lettuce leaves, two and a half cups of spinach and frozen mango. Everything in the blender at once. It makes four servings, which is the sensible way to handle a list that long, and the frozen mango is what pulls the color back to green when it starts drifting brown.
Get the full tutorial at Eazy Peazy Mealz.
21. Red Grapefruit and Pineapple Smoothie
Grapefruit is the flavor nobody puts in a smoothie and probably should. It is bitter enough to stop the whole thing tasting like candy, which is the trap most fruit smoothies fall into. Twelve ounces of orange juice, a red grapefruit cup, a cup each of frozen pineapple and frozen strawberries, a cup of vanilla Greek yogurt and a handful of ice. Serves two to three.
Get the full tutorial at Happiness is Homemade.
22. Apple Pear Oatmeal Smoothie
Half a cup of old fashioned oats goes into the blender alone first and gets processed until finely chopped, before anything wet joins it. That order is the whole recipe. Then Greek yogurt, a chopped apple, a chopped pear, cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, vanilla and ice. Add the milk a tablespoon at a time. It tastes like apple pie and the complex carbohydrates keep your blood sugar level, which pie never did.
Get the full tutorial at Kristine's Kitchen.
23. The Glowing Green Smoothie
The most famous green smoothie there is, and the ratio is the point rather than any single ingredient: mineral rich greens, then fruit for the vitamins and the sweetness, then lemon to cut through it. Blend the greens with the water first and get them completely smooth before the fruit goes in, or you end up chewing your drink. Make a big batch and it holds in the fridge for a couple of days.
Get the full tutorial at Kimberly Snyder.
