Smoothies just hit the spot sometimes! They are delicious, refreshing, cool, creamy and so good for you. I crave smoothies after a long hike or even just when I need to satisfy my sweet tooth. Being able to make your own smoothie at home whenever you want is pretty great I must say!
In this post, I will cover why fruit smoothies are healthy for you, milk based and juice based smoothies, adding supplements to smoothies, and some ideas for great fruit combos so that you can learn how to make healthy fruit smoothies.
Fruit Smoothies – A Healthy Choice
Many people like to have a fruit smoothie in the morning for breakfast or for an afternoon snack. This is a really good way to get enough fruit servings into your daily diet and give your body the energy you need to fuel your cells. 
Smoothies are a very easy and fast way to help you get extra nutrition from whole fruits. Unlike store bought juices, smoothies contain not just the juice of the fruit but usually the skin and sometimes seeds of the fruit giving you more fiber, vitamins and minerals.
A fruit smoothie is also a great way to get some healthy carbohydrates into our body so that we can have the energy we need for a healthy metabolism. The fiber in fruit creates a more complex carbohydrate meaning the fructose enters the blood stream more steadily so that your blood sugar doesn’t spike.
Another benefit of complex carbohydrates is that they digest more slowly, making you feel full so it helps if you are concerned with weight management. You can also add some form of protein and fat to your smoothie to make it a more well-rounded food stabilizing your glucose levels to keep you energized for longer.
Choosing A Liquid Base For A Fruit Smoothie
Fruit smoothies consist of a liquid base mixed with fresh or frozen fruit and sometimes added supplements. Depending on how cold you like it, you can add ice. (I think the colder the better!) But if you are already using frozen fruits, this is not really necessary.
These are a few options you can use for your liquid base:
Milk
Use milk for your liquid base if you are looking for more protein, fat, and calories. A milk-based fruit smoothie will definitely leave you more filled up. Milk will give your smoothie a thick and creamy consistency. It also provides a nice source of protein and fat giving you more nutrition.
If you don’t drink dairy, then you can use nut, oat, coconut or other milk.
Juice
Juice is a great choice as a liquid base for your fruit smoothie. Apple juice has a nice mellow taste that isn’t over-powering and it goes well with most fruit. Orange juice is a great choice to use with berries and bananas and adds a bright citrusy flavor. I recommend using 100% fruit juice so that you aren’t adding a bunch of processed sugar to your healthy fruit smoothie. (That kind of defeats the purpose).
Water
You can always use water as the liquid base to your fruit smoothie. The benefit is that you can still make a smoothie even if you don’t have any juice or milk on hand! However, water will add no flavor or nutrition so keep this in mind and pick flavorful fruits.
Other Additions – Supplements
If you are taking supplements it is easy to throw them in a smoothie and blend them up. This helps cover the taste if you need too, but also, it just helps you get your daily supplements (collagen, protein, vitamins, or minerals) without having to worry about taking them at another time when it is not as easy to add them to your routine.
If you are drinking your fruit smoothie after a hard workout it is ideal to add your protein supplements at this time. The protein contains the essential amino acids needed to build and repair your muscles. Not only that but it will help satisfy your hunger and give you energy.
Some athletes choose to drink a fruit smoothie before a game, competition or workout. This is a good choice if you need a boost of energy. In this case it is best to leave out the added protein and just have fruit. This way the glucose enters your bloodstream giving you the spike of energy you need for the physical task.
OK, so if your fruit smoothie drinking has nothing to do with working out and you just like it for a quick healthy breakfast, make sure you either add protein to your smoothie by using milk, yogurt, or nuts or eat some source of protein with your smoothie so that you don’t spike and then crash a little later. You want to maximize your energy stores for the day!
Awesome Fruit Smoothie Combos
Here are some tried and true amazingly delicious fruit smoothie combos. I like combos of 3-4 fruits. Keep it simple; less is more (wink, wink). Each recipe below is for one person so to increase servings, multiply by the number of servings you need.
Strawberry, Banana, Orange Juice
This is probably my all time favorite and go to smoothie, probably because we have tons of orange trees so it’s pretty easy for me most of the year!
- 1 cup strawberries
- 1 cup bananas
- 1 cup of orange juice
Blueberry, Strawberry, Apple Juice
So sweet and delicious without the citrus, this apple juice smoothie is definitely a cool treat.
- 1 1/2 cups strawberries
- 1/2 cup blueberries
- 1 cup apple juice
Mango, Peach, Strawberry, Milk
Mango is an ingredient I love in smoothies because it makes them so creamy. Added with peaches and strawberries, the flavor of this smoothie is pure delight!
- 3/4 cup mangos
- 3/4 cup peaches
- 1/2 cup strawberries
- 1 cup milk
Steps – How to Make Healthy Fruit Smoothies
What You Need:
- Blender
- Fruit (frozen or fresh)
- Liquid
- Ice (optional – see tips below)
Steps:
Add all ingredients to your blender and mix until smooth. If using only fresh fruit, add a few ice cubes to make it cold.
Smoothie Tips
* Make sure at least one of your solid fruit ingredients is frozen to make your smoothies nice and cold.
* Adjust the liquid if needed to make your smoothie thicker or thinner so it’s just the way you like it.
* Whenever my bananas are getting too ripe for me I peel them, break them in half and throw them in the freezer. Then I always have a frozen ingredient ready and I never have to waste bananas.
* I use whole milk for a good amount of fat and protein.
* If adding a powder supplement, add a little more liquid.
* Experiment with different fruits and liquids and come up with your own favorite concoctions!
Final Thoughts
Fruit smoothies are a delicious and healthy way to get the nutrients your body needs from fruit, giving you the energy you need to get through the day.
Smoothies are simple and quick to make and you can try all sorts of combinations once you get the feel for the amount of ingredients and the fruits that taste good together.
If you have some amazing new smoothie combination ideas, I would love to hear from you! Reach out in the comment section below.
See you next time, In The Kitchen With Me!
This is an excellent article Allie on How To Make Healthy Fruit Smoothies that was fun to read and will be extremely beneficial to anyone looking for another way to introduce healthier habits into their diet.
I personally like using almond milk in my smoothies as I can buy it unsweetened and therefore limit my intake of sugar. Water would accomplish this same goal buy I don’t believe the flavor would be as pleasing.
The fruit and milk option looks like it would taste awesome but that’s too much sugar in the fruit for me. I stick with protein powder, peanuts and collagen supplements.
Your smoothies sound good also. Do you just stick with almond milk, peanuts and supplements? When I don’t want much sugar, I go for peanut butter, milk and protein powder, kind of similar to you. I’ll be posting more about different kinds of smoothies in the future and I want to include green smoothies and protein smoothies. Thanks for reading!
I love smoothies but I do not always have the best combos, so I am quite pleased about the examples that you shared here. I will definitely give them a try! Personally, I don’t like adding ice in the blender because I always make a smoothie to enjoy the following day, so it can sit on the fridge overnight at least and I have never found the right balance with the water or other liquid that I will use. At the end it becomes too liquid.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing your experience about the ice. Yes, sometimes the ice makes it more like a slushy than a smoothie.