My amazing friend and fellow Meredith College graduate, the lovely Ms. Angela DePoy, has written a guest post for me! Check out her yummy recipe for inexpensive, outrageously healthy smoothies below:
The Monster-C Smoothie:
Do you love those $5 "fruit" smoothies? I hate them. They're full of crap. Ice, sugar, and fruit sitting in syrup.
I stock up on the huge bags of plain frozen strawberries - about $7 at Sam's Club. I use these as the "base" and make a month's worth of smoothies for 2 people (5 days a week) with one of these bags. Strawberries are super high in vitamin-C. I wish Sam's club had organic strawberries, I know they would cost a bit more, but at least frozen fruit is safe, high in nutrients and much better for you than what you get at the smoothie shops. That's about .17 per pint-size smoothie.
I also buy the huge bags of blueberries (the tiny wild ones are my favorite, but sometimes only the big ones are available). They are about $4 for a bag half the size of the strawberries. Mixed berries are good too, there's a bag with strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Blueberries are great. Full of antioxidants, low in calories..they're our friends. It only takes a few blueberries to flavour up a smoothie, or maybe .20 worth of blueberries.
I hate getting sick. I take Emergen-C religiously. For $17, I get a huge double pack of Emergen-C at Sam's club. Not my favorite flavours (hello pink lemonade, I wish you could be cheaper), but somehow raspberry and tangerine taste a lot better when you think about 80 packs in the box, or, .21 per packet.
I hate soy. Who knows what on earth they put in soy milk? I you've ever made it at home, it tastes nothing like what you get in the store, even if you strain it a million times. If I eat soy, I eat edamame or tofu but soy milk is scary. It doesn't taste creamy and it surely makes smoothies taste strange. I love So Delicious Coconut Milk (the 80 calorie kind). It's about $3.50 at my grocery store, and I use a half cup in each smoothie making it .22 per smoothie.
I also believe in good quality juice. I love organic grape juice, it's the cheapest kind and for around $3 you can get a small bottle - remember a little goes a long way. The little bottle is 4 servings, but you only need a half cup or 38 cents worth.
I keep organic Demerara sugar on hand. Usually there's a Dixie crystals coupon in the paper for it and that lowers the cost. You are only using about .10 worth of it (1 teaspoon), enough to brighten up the sweetness of the fruit.
Putting protein in smoothies is optional. Most Americans eat protein in ridiculous excess. Unless you're an Olympic hopeful or playing in the NFL, I don't see how putting chemically altered stuff full of artificial sweeteners and flavours is good for anyone. Worried about protein? Take a handful of almonds, pulverize them (try a coffee bean cutter, but you can only do a few at a time, or a high power blender). You can put that in a smoothie. I use a Ninja blender, not the fancy one, the $50 one.
12-14 whole frozen strawberries (.34)
1/2 cup wild blueberries or 1 cup blueberries or mixed berries (.40)
1/2 cup coconut milk (not the canned kind) (.44)
1/2 cup good quality grape juice (.38)
1 teaspoon Demerara sugar (.10)
1 packet Emergen-C (.21)
Throw strawberries, blueberries, emrgen-C, coconut milk, grape juice, sugar in Ninja. Pulse it until it is super smooth. You may need a tablespoon or two of water if it gets too thick. Don't overwater, use one at a time. This smoothie will be super "velvety". Yields 2 pint-glass sized smoothies. Total Cost per smoothie: 94 cents. Makes a GREAT breakfast.
Thanks so much, Angela! Sounds delicious and ridiculously healthy!! I still have some strawberries in the freezer that we picked at our friends' farm in the summer that I plan to use for this recipe to make it even cheaper!
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