Go-to recipes part 4: smoothies!

This is part 4 of my 5-part series, "Go to Meals". These are recipes I do on a weekly basis that I find easy, quick, cheap, and healthy.
Part 1: roasted veggies
Part 2: Easy fritatta
Part 3: Paleo Shepherd's pie

A cold, delicious blend of all my favorite things!

A smoothie made just from fruit doesn’t sound like much of a meal, but if you add other things, it can actually be a very easy and filling meal with minimal cleaning up and no cooking time that can be made any time of day!

Some smoothies can easily go from a “healthy” drink to one packed with over 50 grams of sugar. Yes, it is fruit sugar, but it still isn’t good to have so much in one go. It is much easier to eat too much fruit in one go if it is in a smoothie than if you were just eating fruit. Thats why my smothies use many other healthy ingreditnts along with some fruit.

This post isn't necessarily a step-by-step exact recipe. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever followed a smoothie recipe, but here are a list of ingredients I like to put into smoothies, and you can add them together in pretty much any combination, and they will go. I usually don’t add all of these at once. This is just a list of my arsenal I might choose from. Omit what you like, get creative, and adapt quantities depending on how many people are going to enjoy it!
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• Bananas: I highly recommend using some bananas – frozen or fresh – because it adds texture and makes the smootie smooth and less “slushy”
• Frozen berries: for one person, I usually do about a cup
• Peas: Sounds weird, but if you start with a quarter cup per person, you don’t even taste them and it adds volume without adding tons of fruit sugar.
• Raw egg: 1 per person
• Choice of protein powder: I like this one
• Flax meal
• Avocado: makes it smooth and creamy. I usually use half. Ever have all your avocados ripen at the same time and don’t know what to do? Take out the flesh and freeze them. Although they won’t be the same if defrosted, they work great for smoothies
• Water and ice: often, water or liquid is needed so that the blender can actually work. I usually don’t use more then 3-4 cubes of ice in a smoothie.
• Peanut butter/other nut butter: its easy to go overboard, start with 2 tablespoons per person
• Cacao powder: makes it chocolatey J
• Instant coffee or cold brew coffee
• Stevia extract: This is a super-concentrated, all-natural, sweetener you can find in most stores
• Spinach: just like the peas, if you start with a quarter cup, you won’t even notice itQ
• Yogurt or keifer: If you don’t have protein powder, this is a great way to add protein!
• Cooked pumpkin: I usually use it frozen