Turn Your Smoothies Into Mini Meals!

Smoothies are a speedy way to boost your nutrition and make sure you eat rather than skipping meals. Don't get me wrong I'd rather have a steak and veg meal but when I'm pushed for time a shake really does the trick. The key is for it to be nutritious and not just heavily dense in one ingredient- it needs to balanced.

Problems I see regularly with people's smoothie ingredients:

- Too much diary
- Not enough fibre
- Too much fruit, people love placing 3-4 pieces in one smoothie- it's going overboard
- Zero to little healthy essential fat
- Not suitable for a proper meal replacement (i.e missing carbs or protein)
- Contains no veg or green element
- People seem so paranoid about adding carbs, you need them for weight loss and fuel- eat 'em!

How to supercharge your smoothies:

Add a green element:

- Spirulina powder
- Greens supplement (free from any sweetener, I like beyond greens)
 - Just add veggies. Kale, cucumber and english spinach are great. It's not green but have you tried sweet potato or pumpkin?

Always add a fat component:

- Coconut oil
- Flax seed oil
- Avo (great to make a creamy smoothie and doesn't taint the flavour of the smoothie)
- Peanut Butter or other nut butter

Fruit:

Choose a small portion (I love frozen fruit but choose your preference or add ice)
1/2 banana, 2 small plums, cup of berries, 1 pear, cup of rockmelon. Just keep it majority low sugar fruit so as not to cause intense sugar spikes in insulin levels. Use 1 serving of fruit not 3 or 4 and keep edible skin on.

"Mixer"

- Almond milk (unsweetened)
- Coconut milk (unsweetened)
- Coconut Water (my personal favourite and virtually no sugar - use Natural Raw C)
-Water (filtered)

Protein

- Pea Protein Isolate
- Whey Protein Isolate
- Whole egg
- Yoghurt

Add a carb/seed/superfood element:

- The Muesli
- Sweet potato or pumpkin (if you didnt use it as your veggie)
- Quinoa (another favourite of mine. I cook a big batch and then it's on hand when I need it, add 1/4-1/2 cup)
- Oats
- cacao
- cinnamon
- coconut shredded/dried coconut (no sugar added)
- Chia seeds
- Sesame seeds
- flax seeds

My favourite combos right now:

MORNING POWER: 300ml coconut water, cup raspberries, tbsp PB, tsp chia, 1/2 cucumber, scoop of Pea protein and 1/4 cup quinoa. Few cubes of ice

ARVO PICK ME UP POWER: 300ml coconut water, yoghurt, cacao, PB, english spinach and cup blueberries, 1/4 cup quinoa or The Muesli

GREEN POWER: 300ml coconut water, 1/4 avo, english spinach, cup frozen rockmelon, pea protein, coconut shredded (tbsp) and 1/2 cucumber

Place all in a blender and whizzzzzzz!

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