DIY: Fruit Smoothie

The perfect fruit smoothie is usually a combination of 4 key ingredients: fruit, duh, a thickener, frozen items and liquid. There's also the optional items, sugar and spice, but a perfect smoothie can stand alone without those items.

Smoothies take a lot of practice, and even with practice, don't always come out right, but man are they tasty even when it's a mess.

Proper prep + key items = jamba what? jamba who?

First, wash/peel/dice your fruit. Take half of it and freeze it overnight.

Next, chill your liquid for 30 minutes up to an hour. You want the top of the liquid to freeze, but you don't want an ice cube.


Now, you take out your frozen fruit, allowing it to slightly thaw.

Break out your blender and add your liquid. Here's where you also can add your sugar and spices, if your like, and now you add your thickener and set it on the lowest speed that provides continuous motion (i.e. no need to press or pulse). If you have a blender with a feeder, add your fruit, frozen fruit, and lastly ice, gently as the blender goes. Once the last ice cubes is smashed you should have a nice, thick fruit smoothie.

Here I have spent hours.....researching......compiling.....the ultimate smoothie list:

Liquids	Frozen Items	Thickeners
for 16 oz, keep liquid at 6-8 oz
	Ice	yogurt
Liquid - Acidic		frozen yogurt
mango	blueberries	instant shake packets
orange	strawberries	(such as carnation instant
100% juice blends		breakfast)
	Frozen - High sugar Items
Low -cal liquids		pudding mix
	bananas	protein shake powder
Unsweetened almond milk	mangos	peanut butter
water
crystal light	Spice	Accent
coffee
Trop 50	mint	lemon juice
skim milk	cinnamon	canola oil
tea	nutmeg	vanilla extract
silken tofu		rum extract
		chocolate syrup
		lime juice

Sugar

Artifical sweetners

Honey

sugar

agave nectar

fruit nectar

I really didn't spend hours, but I find it a pretty solid list. The first 3 columns are essentials (liquid, frozen item, thickeners), which I placed in bold. The last 3 are accessories (spice, accent, sugar), which I put in italics. You can add all 3 from the bottom, or one, or none at all, but either way it makes a healthy, delicious smoothie. You can even adventure with more items, such as spinach, kiwi, soda (smoothie to float), the idea is the same, although with soda you have to adjust for the carbonation.