I’ve so enjoyed writing this report for you – it’s a real fun one, I think! As many of you know, I Love smoothies and I’m also pretty good at creating and production them, so I notion I’d share with you my guide to creating a smoothie bar in your own home that’s good to go at any time of day and is quick and easy to use.
Why smoothies? Because they’re fast, quick, fun, yummy and they are great at any time of day and can often deliver a hefty dose of nutrition in a tasty and beautiful package!
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My kitchen sees a lot of smoothie action, either it be green smoothies for lunch or nut milk-based smoothies for supper… And I hope that with the help of this issue, yours will soon too!
How to Set Up Your Own Super-Smoothie Bar at Home
Step 1: Tool Yourself Up. The only piece of equipment you need to make a great smoothie is, of course, a blender. Now, as may or may not know, all blenders are not equal! legitimately you can get away with a High street blender costing colse to £20-£30 for a fair whole of time if you treat it kindly, but if you’ve got the money and the passion then the best place you could invest your money for the long haul is without doubt in a more expensive ”hardcore” blender th. Some are pricey (especially here in Europe), but they are so worth it. I am fortunate enough to own one myself and like many others who are also proud owners of these beautiful machines I legitimately do think it’s one of the best investments in my condition I have ever made. I use it every day and it’s my favourite piece of equipment in my entire kitchen. All that said, if funds does not permit you to spend nigh on £400 on this particular piece of kit, then all is not lost, just spend the most you can on something that’s got good reviews on the web or similar and when you’ve got that part sorted, you’re ready to go!
Step 2: fetch Your Ingredients. Before you start let’s take a look at what you could have on hand to make your smoothies with.
* Fresh fruit (in a bowl and/or fridge)
* Fresh greens (in your fridge. E.g. Spinach, watercress, lettuce, kale, chard etc.)
* Frozen fruit (in your freezer)
* Ice-cubes (in your freezer)
* Sweeteners (e.g. Dates, agave nectar, maple syrup [not raw], honey, stevia etc.)
* Flavourings (e.g. Mesquite meal, carob powder, cacao nibs/ powder, vanilla pods/ essence etc.)
* Superfoods (e.g. Maca, bee pollen, green powders, hemp protein powder, etc.)
* Nuts and seeds and/or their butters (for nut milks)
* Cartons of coconut water/ milk
* Oils (not necessary, but some habitancy like to use hemp, flax or coconut oil in their smoothies for Efas)
Obviously fresh fruit, greens, nuts and seeds are easy to buy in the shops these days, as are some of the other more specialised foods. But for those ingredients that are new to you or that you can’t get hold of locally, the good news is that all of these ingredients are now easy to buy mail order wherever you are in the world.
If most of these are new to you, then the ones I suggest you start off with are: dates for sweetening and agave nectar (light) if you want something new to try; vanilla pods or essence and/or mesquite powder for flavourings; bee pollen (for non-vegans) as an thinkable, super food and coconut oil for fat if you’d like some.
Whatever you choose, make sure that you fetch all your non-refrigerated ingredients into one place so that they are all together, which leads me nicely on to…
Step 3: Pick Your Spot. either you choose to make your smoothies at home or at the office, picking the right spot is key. Why? Because if it’s somewhere awkward to get to, or not near to the sink or a million miles from your fridge, ingredients or glasses, then you’ll feel much less inclined to legitimately use your smoothie bar! In my current home my smoothie is plainly one quick turn away from my sink, and in my old home, my blender was settled with my sink to the left, my smoothie ingredients to the right on a shelf above (you could have yours in a box or tray if you don’t have shelving in your kitchen) and my glasses were settled up to the right in a cupboard next to the ingredients. And the fridge was just 2 steps away. Even though this all sounds like exquisite coarse sense, it’s phenomenal how many of us make life difficult for ourselves and dot all all over the place! By keeping these 5 things all close to hand, you will now officially have your “bar” in place and will be all set to get creative.
Step 4: choose Your Recipes. Now that you have your blender, your ingredients and your actual “bar” all set up, what are you going to make? Well, this is where old eZines come in. So far I’ve published probably colse to 20-30 dissimilar smoothies recipes in the past, so they should get you started! If you’d like to be super-organised then why not find some smoothie recipes you love (or would love to try) from method books and photocopy them (or print the eZine recipes off) and file them in those clear files you bought and you’ll be all set to go.
Step 5: Get Smoothie-ing! I ordinarily suggest that if you are very new to smoothie production that you start very simply, as I did, with pure water, a concentrate of small bananas (or one big one) and one handful of fresh fruit of your choice. Strawberries work well, as do any berries, or peach, nectarine, pineapple or mango. All of these are good and very uncomplicated to buy and use. From there, when you have your trust up and are ready to try new things, you can start to get a bit more experimental and add in other more unusual ingredients such as the powders and potions and even a slight bit of oil if you’d like to (ideally no more than 2 teaspoons per pint). Personally I keep oils out, but then getting enough calories is not my concern as my needs are pretty low in that department! One step beyond that is to experiment with using nut or seed milks for a base instead of bananas, which is where your nut milk bag will come in. This is legitimately easy to do, but I’ll keep the “How To” for someone else report which will follow. Until then, I’ll be expecting you to set your smoothie bar up to perfection ready and eager to go for next week!
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How to Set Up Your Own Super-Smoothie Bar at Home
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