This is my confession that I have an addiction. If I don’t have a smoothie bowl before 11 am, I crave it. If I don’t eat one for a whole day, I have withdrawals. We all see the Instagram posts of aesthetic smoothie bowls and satisfying TikTok videos of fruit mixing in a blender, but it seems like too much effort for an everyday breakfast. Beyond that, the videos always show influencers using expensive blenders that no college student wants to buy. I, therefore, take it as my duty, as someone without an expensive blender but with what I like to think is a perfected and easy recipe, to share how I do it.
- Ingredients
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-Half a banana
-2 spoonfuls Greek yogurt
-1/3 (ish) cup liquid: water, milk of choice, juice
-1 cup frozen fruit
-Honey (optional)
The best part of a “smoothie bowl journey” is finding your favorite fruit combinations and discovering what fruits complement each other. My personal favorite is majority strawberries with some blueberries and a couple of mango chunks. If you want to be extra healthy, add in some kale or spinach because you can’t even taste it over all the fruit!
- Technique
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This is the important part. I’ve found that it’s best to use unfrozen bananas but frozen fruit to get the best texture and this way no ice is needed. If you take away anything from this article it is to only use a small amount of liquid! This makes it more difficult to blend, but trust me, it will be worth it. The more liquid you add, the easier it will be to blend, but the thinner the smoothie will be. Our goal is for the smoothie to be as thick as possible. If your frozen fruit of choice comes in large chunks, such as whole strawberries as opposed to sliced, I recommend putting them into the microwave for 10-15 seconds and then cutting them into smaller slices. Make sure, however, that they are still hard and not completely dethawed and soft! This will prevent our cheap blenders from getting stuck and make it easier for them to chop up the fruit.
It’s impossible to blend the fruit all in one go. It will take a few back and forths between mixing the ingredients and blending before everything is combined. If you are using a Magic Bullet you may be able to get away with just shaking the smoothie and not manually stirring around the ingredients with a spoon. Don’t be afraid to add in more liquid or frozen fruit as you see fit!
- Toppings
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A smoothie is undeniably better eaten with a spoon than through a straw because of the toppings. I like to use granola, chia seeds, melted peanut butter (maybe a little too much), and fresh fruit if I have some. It can really be anything you have laying around, such as flax seeds, Nutella, almond butter, coconut flakes, or nuts. This is where you can have fun with making it look pretty! Who doesn’t want to eat a breakfast that looks like it came out of a magazine?
Smoothie bowls are not only fun to make and aesthetically pleasing, but also delicious to eat. Admittedly, smoothie bowls give me a little sense of pride and accomplishment in the morning when I look at how pretty and yummy my breakfast turned out. The best part of it all is that they are healthy for you! It satisfies my sweet tooth without having to eat cereal or pancakes drowned in syrup; it feels like eating dessert for breakfast. The American Heart Association recommends eating eight or more servings of fruit a day and having a smoothie bowl for breakfast makes it a heck of a lot easier to get there. A smoothie bowl a day keeps the doctors away.