Tropical Mango Smoothie Recipe

This one tastes like something you would drink in the middle of summer while you're sitting on the wrap-around porch out front, watching the sunset from a wooden porch swing (piled with cushions, of course). I love it so I hope you do too. =)

Tropical Mango Smoothie
Servings: 2

Ingredients:
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup organic coconut or almond milk
- 6 oz. organic pineapple, peeled, chopped, and frozen
- 6 oz. organic mango, peeled, chopped, and frozen
- 6 oz. organic peaches, peeled, pitted, sliced, and frozen
- 1 organic banana, peeled, halved, and frozen
- the juice of 1/2 organic lime (optional)

Add your wet ingredients to the blender first, followed by the rest of them. Blend until smooth and enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Smoothie!

Hello. My name is Erin and I love chocolate. Well, raw chocolate that is...the dark, pure stuff that's only sweetened with pure goodness and doesn't have any soy or additives in it. Not that contaminated-with-lead grocery store junk. ;) I knew it would only be so long until I would try a chocolate smoothie recipe, and here it is! It even has veggies in it...and you know what?? The kids didn't even notice! Ha! Success! Want the recipe?

Dark Chocolate Smoothie
Servings: 2

Ingredients:
- 1 cup organic almond or coconut milk
- 1 cup water
- 3 bananas, peeled, halved, and frozen
- 4 carrots, peeled, chopped, and frozen
- 3 heaping tsp (a real tsp, not a measuring spoon) of raw, organic cacao powder
- 2-3 TBSP raw, organic almond butter
- 1/4 tsp organic cinnamon

(we buy our almond butter and cacao powder from Mother's)

You know the drill! Wet ingredients into the blender first, add the rest, blend until smooth and enjoy! This smoothie is best enjoyed immediately after blending.

P.S. - If you taste your smoothie and find that you would like it a little sweeter, add more frozen banana. If you want a richer chocolate flavor, add more cacao powder.

Watermelon Jolly Rancher Smoothie

When I tested this recipe for the first time yesterday and all of my taste testers said it reminded them of a Jolly Rancher, I knew I wouldn't be able to wait long to share it with you. It is so refreshing and cooling - perfect for summer. I can't wait to make popsicles and sorbet with this recipe!

Before I give you the recipe, I need to warn you...do not do what I did. See, when I first tested this recipe and let you all know on Facebook that I would be sharing it soon, it looked like this:

Yesterday morning, I prepped my watermelon so I could test this smoothie in the afternoon. I used a melon baller to scoop out all of the fruit, then stuck it all in a gallon-sized freezer bag and placed it in the freezer. A couple hours later, I went to check it to see if it was frozen yet. It wasn't. It was only about half frozen. I decided to go ahead and make the smoothie anyway, and the result was what you saw yesterday. Today, however, the watermelon was completely frozen (obviously...it's been in the freezer now for over 24 hours). Yeah...I learned today that blenders (even the fancy schmancy kind) do not like frozen watermelon. It took me about 15 minutes just to get all the fruit in this thing thawed enough to blend and I had to add way more liquid than I did yesterday. This is why the smoothie in today's picture is much more pink than red. So now you know...don't let your watermelon freeze all the way. Only half-way frozen watermelon for this one. ;)

Watermelon Jolly Rancher Smoothie
Servings: 2

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup organic coconut or almond milk
- 4 cups of organic, half-frozen watermelon
- 7-10 organic strawberries, sans leaves
- 1/2 organic banana
- organic peppermint leaves (optional)

Blend (wet ingredients in the blender first) and enjoy! =)

p.s. If you forget to take your watermelon out of the freezer before it completely freezes, you can still try to blend it...but you're going to end up with more of a sorbet (unless you add a bunch of extra liquid) and it's going to take a lot longer to prep.

Strawberry Peach Pie Smoothie Recipe

Who doesn't love fresh, homemade fruit pies? I don't know if you're like me, but I can barely stand to wait for them to cool down when they are done with their hour-long+ baking session! Two of my favorite fruit pies are strawberry pie (with those fresh-from-the-farm strawberries, yum!) and peach pie. Now, I've been craving fruit pie, but I'm not about to heat up our already-too-hot summery kitchen with the oven (old house, no air conditioning...82 degrees in here as I'm typing this). So I decided to combine the two pie flavors and create a smoothie that will satisfy the hankering I seem to have right now and keep us all cool at the same time! Enjoy. =)

(p.s. - the picky eater taste testing kiddos approved this one)

Strawberry Peach Pie
Servings: 2

Ingredients:
- 1 cup organic coconut or almond milk
- 1 cup water
- 6 oz organic strawberries, tops removed and frozen
- 6 oz organic banana, peeled and frozen
- 6 oz organic peaches, pitted and frozen
- sprig of mint (optional)

As always, add the wet ingredients to your blender first, followed by the frozen ingredients, blend, and enjoy!

Pineapple Creamsicle Smoothie Recipe

I tested this perfect summer smoothie recipe on my husband and some kiddos who are normally super picky eaters. Jon immediately said it is probably his favorite smoothie so far and the kids loved it! We all decided that we are going to have to make this recipe often during the summer and freeze it in popsicle molds for some extra yummy hot-weather goodness. I hope you enjoy it too, because, honestly, it's amazing.

Pineapple Creamsicle Smoothie
Servings: 2

Ingredients:
- 1 cup organic coconut milk
- 1 cup water
- 10 ounces of organic pineapple, chopped and frozen
- juice of 1 organic lime (a normal-sized lime, not a tiny one)
- 1-2 organic bananas, peeled, chopped, and frozen

Instructions:
- Add your wet ingredients to the blender first, followed by the pineapple and banana.
- Blend until smooth.
- Enjoy, enjoy, and enjoy!

Carrot Cake Immunity Boost Smoothie

We love this smoothie because it reminds us of carrot cake - something we used to enjoy, but don't eat anymore for health reasons. It also packs a heap of nutrients into each serving and taste + healthy = win-win for us, so we have one of these almost every day, if not every day.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup almond or coconut milk
- 1 cup water
- 1 large banana, peeled
- 1 large orange, peeled
- 6 large carrots, peeled
- 1 1" cube of fresh ginger, peeled
- ground cinnamon to taste
(Note: add in 4TBSP Natural Vitality's Organic Liquid Vitamins for added nutrition!)

As always, we recommend using only organic ingredients. Add your liquid ingredients to your blender first, blend until smooth, and enjoy!

Blueberry Oatmeal Breakfast Smoothie Recipe

A couple years ago, we were major cereal junkies. Cereal for breakfast almost every day, if not every day...cereal as a snack...cereal for dinner. We just liked cereal. The problem? Most cereals (even "healthy" ones) are loaded with sugar, artificial "vitamins" and other synthetic substances, genetically engineered ingredients, and all sorts of other nasty junk. It took us awhile to find a quick, easy breakfast alternative and in the process of searching, we developed this recipe. We now start each day with a smoothie for breakfast and this one is one of our favorites.

Recipe (2 servings):

1 cup water
1 cup almond milk (organic, unsweetened; or substitute your favorite milk)
1/2 cup organic oats (we use Bob's Red Mill extra-thick rolled oats)
1 cup organic blueberries (use frozen if you don't have access to fresh)
1-2 TBSP organic, unsalted, raw almond butter
1 organic banana
Cinnamon, to taste

Sometimes we substitute blueberries for strawberries or coconut milk for the almond milk. When we've been around sickness or are feeling yuck, we add echinacea powder and vitamin C. Sometimes we add other herbs/antioxidants. You can change it up to suit your tastes or needs. The smoothies in this photo were left kind of chunky, but most of the time we blend them completely.

We have found that smoothies for breakfast are perfect for us. They are quick and easy to make (we prep ingredients for the week on Saturdays and then we just have to blend them in the mornings) and they fill us up. Enjoy!

Question: What do you normally eat for breakfast?