Top 5 Reasons Why Smoothies Should be your Summertime Party Drinks
July 11, 2012Elizabeth Wan |
| Photo Credit D Sharon Pruitt |
The following are the top 5 reasons why you should make
smoothies your summertime party drink of choice:
1. They are easy to
make
To make a basic smoothie all you need are a few cups of fruit
and fruit juice. For example to make a Strawberry Smoothie, you need:
- 2 cups frozen strawberries
- 1 cup frozen pineapple slices
- 1 cup sliced bananas
- 2 cups orange juice
Toss the ingredients in a blender, mix for a few
minutes until you get a smooth consistency, and voila! you have a great tasting
drink full of natural goodness.
2. They are versatile
You can vary a basic smoothie recipe to create numerous
smoothies. For example the Strawberry Smoothie recipe can be modified in the
following way to create a Mango Smoothie:
- 2 cups frozen mango chunks
- 1 cup frozen strawberries
- 1 cup sliced bananas
- 2 cups orange juice
This recipe can also be modified to make blueberry smoothies,
raspberry smoothies, apricot, watermelon and even peachy smoothies. The choice
depends on your fruit preferences and imagination.
The consistency of the smoothies can also be changed. For
example is you love your smoothies thicker, replace half the juice with yogurt.
If you love them thinner, add more juice.
The zing factor of your summer smoothies can also be
changed. If you want more punch, use lemon or lime juice. It you like them a
little sweeter, drop in some honey.
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| Photo Credit D Sharon Pruitt |
3. Smoothies can add
pizzazz to your party
Stand out by serving your smoothies in fancy glasses and
using fabulous garnishes. For example, instead of serving smoothies in plain
glasses and garnishing them with good, old fruit wedges, serve them in martini
glasses, spear a chocolate dipped strawberry or cherry with a long toothpick
and drop it into your smoothie as your garnish.
You can also garnish smoothies
with mint leaves, fresh rosemary twigs, exotic cocktail umbrellas and serve
them in champagne flutes.
4. They are health drinks
You don’t have to feel guilty if you spend a whole afternoon
lying by the pool sipping on smoothies because the fresh fruit, and especially the
berries are full of antioxidants which protect you from heart disease and age
related macular degeneration, to mention just a few conditions that you do not
want to experience.
In addition, they are low in calories and unhealthy fats
especially if you use low calorie fruits such as strawberries and pineapples and
low fat yogurt as you steer clear fat laden fruits like avocados. In addition, smoothies
are also filling and this can help you stop snacking on fattening snacks such as
crisps or drinking empty calorie drinks like soda.
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| Photo Credit Matthias Rhomberg |
5. They do not need a
lot of time to prepare
Summer smoothies can be fixed on the spur on the moment because all you have to do is to blend the ingredients for a few minutes. You can
save even more time, for example if you urgently need a drink to cool of or unexpected guests pop in, by
washing and slicing or cubing your fruits and then storing them in your freezer
in the amounts needed to one round of smoothies.
For example, you can store the 2 cups of washed strawberries
and 1 cup of frozen pineapple slices needed to make the Strawberry Smoothie in
one freezer bag so that when the craving hits, you just have to peel and slice
your bananas and toss them in the blender together with the contents of that
one freezer bag.
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