Smoothies

Trovato Nutrition is a huge advocate of creating smoothies. They are one of the absolute best meals for breakfast or lunch. They are quick to make and convenient to take on the go. Not hungry in the morning? Blend up a smoothie and bring it to work. They keep well in the fridge. Breakfast/lunch is a huge missed opportunity for most people when tyring to consume more essential nutrients. We have found consistent consumption of smoothies to be one of the most powerful additions to anyone’s diet to raise their antioxidant score, get more minrals into their system, and improve overall health.

Smoothies can be made to appear several different colors, and while vibrant colors are visually appealing, I will say that about 90 percent of all the smoothies I make come out green, regardless of the actual flavor due to the added vegetables.

The only time I create a bright purple or orange smoothie (as often seen on the popular infomercials) is when I run out of greens to put in the smoothie. Most of the recipes you will find on popular blender sites like Nutribullet, Vitamix, and Ninja (our three favorite blenders) are very heavy in fruit and quite light in vegetables. Creating all fruit smoothies may look pretty, but they are quite high in sugar for everyday consumption.

Use fruit more as a flavoring option, and the vegetables as your main nutrient providers. The more nutrients you can pack in the better!

Most Common Ingredients Recommended in Smoothies

Vegetables

Always Use Organic

Greens Powder
Baby Spinach Leaves
Kale
Wheat Grass
And Many More

Fat and Oils

Moderation to Watch Calories

Avocado
Coconut Oil
MCT Oil
Grass-Fed Butter/Ghee
Peanut Butter

Fiber

Prebiotic Extras

Psyllium Husk
Chia Seeds
Flax Seeds
Pumpkin Seeds
Pre-soaked Treenuts

Fruit

Organic and Pre-Freeze

Bananas
Strawberries
Blueberries
Pinapples
Apples

A note on "Green Smoothies"

Do not try and blend 10 vegetables together in water. For the most part, this will result in an unappetizing meal that you will not enjoy. The vegetables should be blended with other ingrediets that provide nutrients and flavor!

You can make any smoothie / protein shake a "green smoothie" by simply adding spinach. Organic baby spinach leaves will turn the smoothie bright green, but it blends well, creating no alteration in taste or texture.

Take a look at this pineapple, coconut, and banana protein smoothie that was easily turned into a nutrient dense green smoothie with exactly the same flavor, just by adding organic baby spinach!

Before Spinach

After Spinach

Instructions to Start Creating Your Smoothies

Here is a step-by-step guide on how I create my smoothies every single morning. This particular example is for a peanut butter and chocolate smoothie. The flavoring ingredients will vary depending on the desired outcome. For example, if I were going to make a banana blueberry smoothie, I would not add the peanut butter or the chocolate greens mix.

Typically, the smoothies begin with either water, almond/coconut milk, or a combination of both. I then add protein (usually bone broth / collagen protein – or on resistance training days, I use grass-fed whey) and greens (usually a handful of spinach and a small amount of kale plus a pre-powdered organic greens mix for extra nutrients). Adding healthy fats is also a great idea as long as you are aware of the calories going in. A few great examples: avocado, coconut oil, and MCT oil.

Instructions give you an idea of how to create a smoothie. Experimentation is encouraged once you get the hang of it!

1

Water! Start with a base. In this smoothie, I used water, but a thicker liquid like almond, coconut, or raw milk could have been used as well.

2

Minerals! Optional–add in a teaspoon of liquid minerals. The trace minerals are an easy and effective way to provide your body with extra minerals. Even with an excellent diet, we are often deficient in trace minerals due to the terrible farming techniques that produce our vegetables and fruit.

3

Vegetables! Add in some form of leafy-green vegetable. Spinach is the best because it will not alter the overall taste at all. Kale, chard, and wheat grass are also good options but too much of them will give a bitter taste.

4

Flavor! Adding flavor is needed to make sure you enjoy your smoothie. Fruit is high in sugar (fructose), so you want to keep the vegetable-to-fruit ratio to 3:1 or higher. I typically use one third of a banana that I have already sectioned and frozen. Bananas work great because they help mask any bitter flavor coming from the vegetables. Depending on the recipe, other fruit is used. See our recipe section below!

5

Greens! This is a greens mix. There are many good products on the market that are basically a whole-food powdered form of vegetables. This one is dark chocolate flavored with the added antioxidant properties of cacao.

6

Protein! This is where most of the "bulk" of your smoothie will come from. Picking a high-quality protein is important. This one is made from grass-fed whey, but I also love and use bone broth and collagen protein. There are good-quality plant proteins out there as well. Find one that you enjoy the taste. You want it to have less than 5 grams of sugar, but be careful of "zero sugar". Most proteins with zero sugar sweeten their products with harmful artificial sweeteners.

7

Fiber! I am a big proponent of adding some form of fiber to the smoothie. The source is completely up to you. This just happens to be organic chia seed powder. If you have a dry grinder, you can purchase almost any seed (like flax or pumpkin) and create your own powder to add. Another fantastic option that I use almost daily is organic Psyllium husk. Most of these fibers are completely tasteless and help to make the smoothie have a thicker consistency.

8

Extras! This is just another flavoring option. PBfit is a neat little product that is well made. They dehydrate the peanut butter, turning it into a low-calorie peanut butter powder that acts as a wonderful smoothie-flavoring option.

9

Ice! This will thicken the smoothie so it tastes more like a smoothie/”frosty” and less like juice. Experiment with how many ice cubes produce what consistency. Freezing the fruit (like the banana mentioned above) helps act as additional ice cubes for added thickness.

10

Blend! I normally blend twice for about 10 seconds with a pause in the middle to make sure all the ingredients get a chance to mix and settle to the blades for full emulsion.

Enjoy!

Bulk Ingredients

Buying organic ingredients in bulk is a great way to cut costs and make sure you always have some on hand. Fresh vegetables and fruit tend to spoil quicker than I can use them so I will transfer my ingredients into large bags to store in the freezer. This keeps them fresh for a very long time and makes the smoothie creation simple and quick.

The ingredients that I try to always keep stocked are:

Organic bone broth vanilla protein, organic dehydrated Peanut butter, fiber such as organic FOS, psyllium husk, and inulin, organic baby spinach, organic kale, and organic fruit (mainly bananas, blueberries, and avocado).

Smoothie Inspiration

Trovato Nutrition Recipes

Creative Recipes to Help Start You Out

Like mentioned above, I would add organic baby spinach leaves to every single one of these recipes. Yes, it will change the pretty colors to green, but it will not alter the taste at all. It is just one more way to pack extra nutrients into the smoothie! Another good tip is to prepare and freeze the fruit you will be using as flavoring agents. That way they are ready to go for quick smoothie creation, they will store without going bad, and they will also act as thickeners to the smoothie!