For Customizable Cooking this time we decided to make our favorite fruit smoothies using this extreme chart as a guide. See what we mixed up and tell us your favorite combos in the comments!
SOPHIE:
Expertise: Intermediate
Ease: Smoothies are so easy I don’t count them as cooking.
Customizing: I blitz up a lot of kale and spinach together with some almond milk and cold water until it’s smooth and drinkable. Then I drop in frozen mixed berries. If I need it to be a little more filling, occasionally an avocado. If I’m craving something sweet I’ll drop in an apple and blitz it. Depending on what else I’ve eaten that day I’ll add an banana. Every smoothie is a little different!
Repeatability: I already have these every single day so I’m not sure it’s possible to top that kind of repeatability.
Melissa’s Nutritional Tidbit: Smoothies are delicious and refreshing, especially on a hot, sweltering day! They’re also a tasty way to eat your fruits and veggies. To add some staying power, you can add a protein element to it, like any variety milk (like Sophie’s custom recipe).
HADAS:
Expertise: Master!
Ease: Super!
Customizing: 1 banana, 6 frozen strawberries, splash of orange juice, 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal.
Repeatability: Love this and make it all the time. One time I thought I’d add pineapple, BAD IDEA. It tasted like pure sugar candy. If you like that go for it, but it was so gross I had to throw it out.
Melissa’s Nutritional Tidbit: Flaxseeds are nutritional powerhouses, containing omega-3 fatty acids, lignans, and fiber. Lignans are phytoestrogens, plant compounds that have a similar structure to the hormone estrogen. Lignans may help lower blood pressure, triglyceride levels, and cholesterol. It also may reduce your risk for certain cancers.
Flaxseeds come in whole seeds or in powder form. You can put it in pancake mix, hot cereals, or in this case, your smoothies! Once you mix it in, you hardly taste the flaxseeds (especially in powdered form). Flaxseeds are an easy way to boost your fiber intake (and other nutrients too!).
VANESSA:
Expertise: Intermediate
Ease: Easy
Customizing: I make “green cubes” to make it faster in the morning. Take your greens (kale &/or spinach) toss them into a food processor with coconut water. Blend till there are mush. Pour them into the ice cube trays, then pop them into the freezer. In the morning, you can pop a couple of ‘green cubes’ into your smoothie. This way you don’t have to add extra ice or worry if your greens go bad. The rest of my smoothie is 1 banana, 1 cup of blueberries (they can be frozen), 1 cup (or so) Kefir (good probiotic).
Repeatability: Usually every morning.
Melissa’s Nutritional Tidbit: Blending and freezing your greens is a fabulous idea! It saves you time and effort and prevents wasting. Greens, like spinach or kale, get soggy and expire pretty quickly, deterring people from buying them.
I also want to comment on the kefir, which is a great food product to put in your smoothies. Kefir is a sour and tart fermented milk drink that originated from the Caucasus Mountains( located in the Eastern Europe area). It’s a great source of probiotics, the “good” bacteria in your GI tract. The good bacteria keep the number of “bad” bacteria( the type that get you sick) in check. The good bacteria also keep your GI tract and YOU healthy and functioning. Other sources of probiotics include yogurt, sauerkraut, and other fermented foods.
*Melissa is a Registered Dietician working on her Master’s degree in Nutrition Sciences. She’ll be popping up wherever we talk about food to help us understand what each vitamin or mineral does and how we can make our meals healthier.
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