Spring and Summer are all about fruit if you ask me, and that’s how this Strawberry Mango Smoothie came to be.  Between farmer’s markets, u-pick berry farms, and my garden, fruits and vegetables are not in short supply.  Smoothies are an almost daily occurrence around here, so I’m always trying to come up with new winning combinations.

We have had awesome summer weather and  that’s great for the garden and berries. Strawberries were abundant and mangos, I can put mango’s in just about any meal.  Check out this Mango Zucchini Salad.   I buy mangos  when in season and freeze them to enjoy throughout the winter too.

When making this Strawberry Mango smoothie or any other smoothie,  try to balance out the fruit and the greens.  I feel if a smoothie is all fruit and milk than you might as well call it dessert. Now dessert isn’t bad mind you, and even dessert for breakfast isn’t unheard of in my house, but I like to try to keep a healthy ratio.  I at least limit myself to dessert for breakfast only three out of every five days,  just kidding.  In the smoothies goes at least a cup of greens for every piece of fruit. Now if you are new to drinking green smoothies than you might want to start with a little less greens and slowly increase them as you get accustomed to them.  Perhaps start out with more spinach than kale until your green smoothie taste buds mature, :).

Parsley is something that gives a smoothie a little extra punch, it’s also a great anti inflammatory.  Some people like it and some people don’t, but try it at least once before you turn up your nose.

In every smoothie there should be some healthy fat, like some avocado, including a healthy fat helps your body absorb the nutrients from the greens.  Take the time to include a green smoothie in your weekly menu, several times a week.  It is a great way to increase your intake of greens, these super foods are nutrient dense.  Even kids like the green smoothies and it’s a great way to get more greens into them.  For kids you might start by only using spinach, it definitely makes it green in color, but it doesn’t make it taste very green.

You can choose to use a dairy or non dairy milk in your smoothie or cut the calories and use water, of which I do most of the time.  If you are using hemp hearts in your smoothie, when you combine them with the water and avocado first, before adding the rest of the ingredients, these three ingredients make up a creamy mixture when blended together.  Then add the greens and fruits and viola you have a great tasting smoothie.

One of the best investments I ever made was my Vitamix.  While using a Vitamix to make a smoothie isn’t a requirement, it definitely blends them up super smooth and you don’t have to blend in between ingredients, for the most part you can add all your ingredients at once and use the plunger to push them down if needed.  If you aren’t using a high powered blender, you should be kind to your machine and blend in between every few ingredients.  I don’t profit from recommending the Vitamix, it is just one of my favorite kitchen tools and I use it everyday and sometimes more than once a day.

Be adventurous and join the smoothie revolution.  You can make this Strawberry Mango smoothie or you can mix and match ingredients and make your own winning combinations.

 

Tags:  hemp hearts kale parsley spinach