Secrets to making crazy-good smoothies

For an instant healthy makeover, just add a smoothie into your daily routine. Smoothies are a perfect opportunity to sneak in limitless amounts of nutrition into a killer-tasting glass.

Probably the single easiest concoction to make at home, you really can’t really mess up a smoothie – it’s not like baking where the proportions have to be perfect . . . with smoothies, just keep adding things until it’s tasting good! There’s literally thousands of ways to make a smoothie, but here’s my fool-proof strategy for healthy, simple, and delicious results:

Ice: Always start with a handful of ice at the bottom of the blender. Smoothies are meant to be cold, and putting the ice in first ensures the blender blades crush the cubes thoroughly.

Banana: Bananas add a creaminess and density to smoothies, yet are low in calories. Use ripe (even overly ripe) bananas because they will provide more natural sugars and flavor. Mangos are a good substitute if bananas are not on your “love-it” list.

Frozen fruit: Add next a cup or two of frozen fruit like blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, acai, etc. Although fresh fruit is more than fine, frozen fruit is often less expensive, lasts longer, and provides a better frozen-treat texture.

Nutmilk: Pour in about a cup of unsweetened nutmilk like almond or hazelnut for healthy and delicious creaminess. Allergic to nuts? Try hempmilk, ricemilk, or soymilk instead.

Superfoods and power powders: Here’s where the creativity really sets in. Add in a few spoonfuls of protein powder, superfood powders, freeze-dried greens, etc to really charge up this nutritional meal. Get ambitious and choose your own blend of powders, or find a high-quality whole-food premixed blend.

Stevia (optional): I always put in just a tiny dash of stevia to further draw out the natural sweetness of the ingredients without raising a single calorie. A touch goes a long way/

Water: Top off your smoothie by pouring water into the full blender, just about an inch or two above the rest of the ingredients, so that it’s easy to blend.

Of course the biggest rule is to customize, customize, customize until it becomes your unique and perfect blend! Make your smoothie into something of a daily “healthy insurance policy,” as no matter what happens food-wise the rest of the day, you’ve had at least ONE amazingly super-charged meal to keep you going strong. Your body will love you for it.

Here’s a recipe for an old standby my personal blender has come to know — my Chocolate Goodness Smoothie. Fabulous.