Banana-Berry Mango Smoothie

Who doesn’t have some ripe bananas sitting on the kitchen counter that have been deemed good only for baking, which you are so sure you’ll get to…tomorrow. Yeah, that’s me too and my husband is still waiting on that freshly baked banana bread. Well, instead he got a smoothie and he did not mutter a word of complaint! Try this out with these simple ingredients, or create your own with whatever overripe fruit you would otherwise end up tossing in the garbage. It’s not only a great way to use fruit that is coming to the end of its life, but it is also a snack, or meal, that is packed with healthy goodness. Even your kids will love it. My 10 month old slurps it up, and he eats nothing except cheese, beets and strawberries!

Ingredients:

1 ripe medium size banana (or ½ a really large banana) – freeze it ahead of time if you remember to.
1 cup (8-10) strawberries cleaned, hulled and halved
½ cup cleaned blueberries
½ cup (or half) mango, cut into cubes
½ cup of yoghurt (I use plain Balkan style, but you can use any kind, however you will increase the calories of this snack if you use the sweetened kind)
2 cups of juice (I use mango or orange or lime, but you can really use anything that you have; cranberry, apple, even grape could work)
2 cups of ice cubes (about 8-10 standard cubes)

What to do:

Toss it all in a blender and blend until desired consistency.
Serves 4-6 snack size portions or 2 meal size portions


Some Tips:

Is your fruit going bad and you’re not hungry for a smoothie? Wash and cut the fruit and freeze the portions in Ziploc bags to pull out and make a prep-free smoothie when you are in a hungry rush!

I don’t sweeten my smoothies, as I feel that the fruit and juice adds enough sweetness, but if you want to you can always add some honey before blending, just make sure that you do not add any honey if you are serving this to a baby. Honey and babies are a no-no – babies are sweet enough as it is!

If you’re making this into a meal you may want to add a couple of scoops of whey protein to bulk up the meal with minimal additional calories.

Freeze the blended smoothie concoction in popsicle molds and serve on a hot day as a much healthier and yummier alternative to Mr. Freezie!

Share your smoothie tips in the comments section; I’d love to read your ideas.