Fruit and vegetable smoothies are very popular these days as you may have noticed from all the different types of smoothie mixes and recipes at your supermarket. But which smoothie best? Obviously, taste is a big consideration but to help people decide, Consumer Reports took a look at smoothies and here is a summary of what they found:
The best tasting smoothies (rated “Excellent”) were those from:
- Bolthouse Farms (strawberry banana and berry boost)
- Lifeway (keifer lowfat cultured strawberry)
- Sunkist (naturals strawberry dream and strawberry banana)
Runners up (rated “Very Good”) included:
- Naked (berry blast all-natural wellbeing)
- Stoneyfield (organic wildberry)
- Fruit Simple (mixed berry)
- Odwalla (strawberry banana)
- Frusion (strawberry blend)
Those rated as “Good” included brands from
- Dannon
- SunnyD
- Sambazon
What about Price?
When choosing a smoothie, more expensive brands are not necessarily better. According to Consumer Reports, Lifeway which costs on average only 89 cents per serving was just as good as the smoothie by Sambazon, which cost on average 2.38 per serving. Of course, individual tastes may differ so try a few different brands and see which ones you like best.
Smoothie Stores
Consumer Reports also reviewed smoothie chain-stores like Smoothie King. I had the opportunity of trying Smoothie King last year when returning from Florida. I have to say I was not impressed. The Smoothie I bought from Smoothie King was not as good as what I make at home (scroll down for that recipe) . The “fruit” appeared to be a purée slurry rather than actual fruit. It may have been made with real fruit but I couldn’t tell.
I'm basing my opinion on only one Smoothie King store so other locations may be different. I'm sure this smoothie had more calories than what I make at home and that is something to consider if you’re looking for weight loss smoothies.
Ask Questions
Consumer Reports suggests that people ask about the ingredients in Smoothies if you go to the chain- stores. But, when I asked questions at Smoothie King, several people, behind me in line, walked out of the store, apparently annoyed by my questions. My friends still like to make fun of me because of this.
My favorite smoothie recipes
Dinner Smoothie.
Mix the following these ingredients in this order
- 1 orange (pealed of course)
- A handful (or cup) of red or green seedless grapes
- A handful of baby carrots
- A half a pack of Yoplait Triple Berry Smoothie Mix (1/2 pack will be best)
- 1-3 frozen strawberries
Don’t use Yoplait? No problem. Try a half a cup of frozen blueberries and a pinch of frozen raspberries.
For added nutrition, toss in a few leaves of baby spinach (trust me, you won’t taste the spinach)
Add water (varies according to the texture you like)
Blend
I use a Vitamix to for my smoothies but any blender will work.
Breakfast Smoothie
Mix the following in this order
- 1 orange
- 1 /2 Yoplait Triple Berry Smoothie Mix
- 1 scoop Chocolate Muscle Milk
- (this has 15 grams of protein and 150 calories)
- 1 scoop Quaker oatmeal
- Add water and blend
Weight Loss Smoothies
Many people use smoothies to help with weight loss. Because of this you may have heard of various weight loss smoothie recipes.
Do you Have Any Questions?
I have one or 2 smoothies every day. Love them!
Breakfast:
Single serving, made in a Magic Bullet blender. (One day I will own a Vitamix!)
1/8 – 1/4 cup organic coconut milk or almond milk
1-2 scoops vanilla protein powder
1 tbspn milled flax seed
1/4 cup frozen berries (raspberry, blueberry, blackberry)
1 tbspn almond butter
water – fill to top of blender cup (appox 1/4 – 1/2 cup)
Blend and drink. De-lish!
For a lunch smoothie, I use all the same ingredients except take away the berries and add a couple of handfuls of organic baby spinach. Makes a lovely green color that grosses out everyone in the office, but is de-lish. And you DO NOT taste the spinach!
Jeanette, thats great – and glad you dont taste the spinach!
I once made the mistake of buying collared greens thinking it was spinach. I definitely tasted them, yuck! Dont do that 🙂
You wanna laugh, Joe? My husband and I were in Atlantic City over the wknd and I ordered a $7 Strawberry banana smoothie which I knew wouldn’t be the real deal, but I asked if they would throw a small handful of raw spinach into it. The waiter made an ordeal of it back & forth between the kitchen 3 times as our conversation drew the attention of half the breakfast goers. They all looked at me like I had just landed from another planet…….It’s just a smoothie people!
Turns out they wanted to charge me an additional $6.50 for the handful of spinach in my already $7 beverage!!!! Good Lord, maybe they aren’t as popular as one might think….
Btw, my fav for that sweet tooth is an apple (no skin) plus a cup of Dannon’s carmel yogurt, yum!
Hey Lyn, thats Amazing! $7 for some spinach! they stink!! I didn’t mention it in my post but when i was at smoothie king in Fl and started asking questions about the ingredients, my buddies later told me I annoyed people in line behind me, so much so that some left! the people working at smoothie king could not readily answer my very basic questions.
here’s an easy recipe and stays away from buying yoplait at 3.59 a bag for some frozen fruit and yogurt pieces …read your recipe and looked at bag when i was at store …
shopping list :
3 larger containers of low-fat yogurt (not the 6pack size but single serve)
3 apples small ones
3 bananas small ones
blackberries / strawberries / rasp / blueberries…whatever is on sale
(about 1/4 cup each serving)
6 small oranges / tangerines (2 each serving)
box of Quaker oatmeal (1/4 cup each serving)
honey (1 tsp each serving)
bag baby carrots (5 each serving)
1 small yellow squash
baby spinach or Swiss chard
to make 3 days of smoothies fresh each day:
cut squash into small slices and put 2/3 into container for the fridge
in blender add container yogurt, a cored and sliced apple / peeled banana / peeled orange / berries / carrots / squash / oatmeal / honey / a few leaves of spinach or 1 of the swiss chard / 2 trays of ice cubes
blend well. pour 1 glass and drink. with remaining in pitcher, i use a small juice glass and my mid morning snack / mid afternoon snack…or in a large glass as a lunch…it gives you potassium / vit c / fiber / etc..and when i figured out the price after initial purchase of oats / honey….i think it came out around .50 a serving for this….a pitcher gives 3 a day if you use as breakfast and 2 snacks or as 2 if for breakfast and lunch.