After indulging over spring break with ice cream, cookies, and a cocktail nightly, my roommate and I quickly decided we needed a new dessert game plan. Dessert, for the two of us, is somewhat of a necessity and while a chunky chocolate chip cookie with cookie dough ice cream every evening was certainly heaven, it definitely didn’t do us any favors. We decided on smoothies—cheap, nutritious, and quick. We didn’t follow a recipe but we discovered that what we had laying around our kitchen resulted in a delicious smoothie creation. Read on, collegiettes, and try to make your very own healthy dessert.
What you’ll need:
- 12 fl oz orange juice
- 1 banana
- Handful of strawberries (we used 10!)
- 1 mango
- Yogurt (we used two vanilla Dannon Light & Fit- 45 calories each!)
- 3 ice cubes
- And a blender, of course!
What we did:
We started by washing all of our fruits and chopping them up. Here’s how we did it:
Strawberries: Cut off the tops, and divide into four sections.
Bananas: Peel and thinly slice.
Mango: Dice it! Slice lengthwise into two halves. Cut a cross-hatch pattern on both halves, but don’t cut through the skin. Turn the skins inside out and you’ll be able to easily cut the mango pulp off of the skin.
Before putting your fruits into the blender, crush 3 ice cubes in the blender. Once crushed, throw in all of your chopped fruits. Blend until mixed and then add the orange juice- we used 12 fl oz of OJ and that amount worked well! Empty the two containers of yogurt into the blender (we used two 4.4 fl oz containers, but I’m sure a regular-sized yogurt would work perfectly also).
Keep blending until you’ve reached the consistency you prefer! Our results?
A delicious tropical smoothie! We looked up more recipes since this one was such a success and here are three smoothie recipes we found that we plan on trying next:
Triple Berry Smoothies
This recipe is from The Fresh Fridge
Ingredients:
- 2 cups frozen triple berry fruit
- 2/3 cup non-fat plain yogurt
- 1 tablespoon white sugar (or sugar substitute)
Instructions:
Simply throw all ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth!
Banana Blueberry Smoothie
This recipe is from Smoothies Recipe.
Ingredients:
- 2 bananas, peeled, frozen, and cut into chunks
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 Tbs. honey
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions:
Toss in all of your fruit into the blender and mix on low until well mixed. Then add the orange juice, honey, and vanilla extract. Puree on medium until your smoothie is thick!
Kiwi Strawberry Smoothie
This recipe is also from Smoothies Recipe.
Ingredients:
- 3 peeled kiwi
- 1 cup frozen banana slices
- ¾ pineapple juice
- ½ cup frozen strawberries
Instructions:
Easy! Throw all ingredients into the blender until you’ve reached smoothie consistency!
So, collegiettes, I hope our smoothie success has inspired you to try out a few creations of your own! Do you have any good smoothie recipes? What’s your favorite fruit for a smoothie?