a mixture of nuts (brazil, cashew, almond and / or hazelnuts)
(blend the nuts with a bit of water before adding anything else)
a banana
a pear
some frozen mango, or raspberries, or whatever else, frozen or fresh
rice milk
orange juice (or any other fruit juice you want to try out like grape or cranberry, pear or mango)
soft tofu dessert (makes it thick and smooth and so yummy - you can get some fruit-flavoured tofu, although it’s kinda sweet)
Udo’s oil (just a bit, good for the skin and other stuff)
I’ve made them with peanut butter too, that’s quite delicious, but I’ve been off of the peanut butter for a while. Europe’s Best has a variety of frozen fruit that are very convenient for smoothies - but the strawberries are sometimes just too frozen to properly blend. My roommate uses carrot juice in her smoothies.
The nuts really add to it though, I love it. And the carrot juice isn’t a bad idea.
You can also try adding an apple, or apple sauce…
Yeah, I put whatever I have at my disposal!! It’s always delicious And I get some strange looks from people in the office when I bring it in to work with me… (they like to call it my sludge!)
You’d be surprised how much better soy milk makes a smoothie. I’ve drank the same one made with cow milk and soy milk, and the soy milk is much better, IMHO. It adds the same smoothness and richness but also gives a very slight nutty taste.
I’ll substitute the banana for maybe blueberries or raspberries minus the seeds. Can’t deal with bananas except all by themselves. Maybe some lime. Oh yeah.
I got a blender for Christmas two years ago and have been using only that (Kenmore, from Sears, about $100 or less). My roommate has used the same for even longer than I have.
I’d suggest a blender because it’s so versatile - you can make cream soups in there, or other things that require a blender (I’m not very creative in the kitchen, and have only used mine for smoothies!!).
I’d even suggest you get one with a plastic container if you can, unless you’re very careful with the glass containers. I’ve had to replace mine once because the cat knocked it off the counter and it cracked…
But plastic containers are maybe not as sturdy as the glass ones, so perhaps glass really is better.
That being said, I’ve never used an actual smoothie machine, so perhaps someone else could comment favourably about theirs?
Oh yeah, my blender also came with a food processor attachment which can be handy for grinding nuts (no comment) or making stuff like pesto and… well, again, I’m not creative and have not used my food processor for much else!! But there are plenty of things you can do with that…
We have a commercial Oster Blender that we bought at a fair right after we were married in 1979 (yes, that is almost 25 years ago). Stainless steel container and we have only had to replace the blades once when one of the blades broke.
I think we have gotten our monies worth out of that one!