Research the nutrients you need to be taking in to choose which vegetables, fruit, and plants you should be consuming. You don’t have to have every single one every single day, instead spread your nutrient consumption out over a week. For example, if you need beta carotene you can have carrots every other day.

When you’re juicing, don’t try to remove every bit of pulp from your juice. Pulp adds fiber, vitamins, and minerals to your diet. Leaving some in your juice also adds to the flavor and texture of what you are drinking. You can always add a little water if the pulp is too much.

A great juicing tip is to know how thin or thick you want your juice to be. Juicing bananas or avocados for example, will make a puree, which might be way too thick for what you want. Putting these foods in the blender first, will help thin them out.

A great juicing tip that can help extend the life of your juicer, is to only use your juicer on a hard surface. By using your juicer on a hard surface you’ll insure that there won’t be any vibrations. Vibrations, no matter how small, can damage your juicer over time.

If you want to add banana or papaya to your juice, blend it before you add it to the juice. These fruits are so soft and mushy and they are not solid enough for the juicer to handle. However, they taste great and add a tropical taste to any juice.

When you know that you are going to juice on a particular day, try to set your vegetables out at least a few hours before you are going to use them. You want the vegetables to be room temperature because using cold vegetables for juicing can irritate your digestive system can cause numerous different stomach ailments.

Juicing is an extremely healthy way of adding valuable vitamins, minerals, and nutrients into your diet. It can be a beneficial part of your weight loss plan as well. In this article, we have discussed some of the key points that can get you started with your juicing plan. Use them and start enjoying all that juicing has to offer.

Smoothies and summer go hand in hand and are a refreshing relief from the long, hot days that mark the season. Making a smoothie is simple, and they are a great way to improve your diet by ensuring you get your daily intake of fruit.

To get started, the first thing you need is a blender. With so many models to choose from an important feature to look for is the amount of watts a blender has. The more watts, the stronger the motor and easier it is to blend thicker substances or crush ice, which is great for smoothies.

A common complaint among blender users is that thicker blends tend to stick to the sides of the jar. “When we designed the Cyclone Blender we focused on this issue,” said Barry Squire, Product Manager at Black & Decker Home Products. “The jar’s unique shape draws food into the blades, creating a vortex that prevents thicker beverages from sticking to the sides, saving you time and effort.”

Now that you have a blender . get fruit and lots of it! The reason smoothies are so popular isn’t just because of their great taste, they are also very healthy (high in fibre and vitamins). Here are a few recipes that will get you started. Feel free to experiment with fruit pairings and discover your own blender-sensations.

The Breakfast Smoothie:

Trying to eat a good breakfast and get out the door in the morning is tough, so finding a delicious smoothie combination can help. Start with a healthy cereal, perhaps low-fat granola or muesli, mix in yogurt, bananas, blueberries or whatever fruit you like, add some juice, blend and start the day with energy.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cereal (low-fat granola, muesli, etc.)
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt (low-fat)
1 cup ice
1 banana
2 cups juice (orange, apple or whatever you like)

The 5pm Stress Reliever:

After a long day at work, this smoothie will relax and recharge you. Strawberries are a great source of vitamins and nutritional value, which stress at work can deprive us of. Drinking fruit smoothies containing strawberries helps replenish these vitamins, keeping us healthy.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups strawberries
1/2 cup strawberry nectar
1 pitted peach
1 cup low-fat plain yogurt (or strawberry yogurt if you don’t have the nectar)
2 cups ice

These recipes can also be found online at smoothieweb.com

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Smoothies can be the answer. Most children love these drinks. And for the real die-hard kids, we can add just a bit of “bad” food that they will surely come over to the good side! If you have never made a smoothie, it is easy. Just prepare the food as if you were going to eat it raw, put in a blender, and blend away.

One big advantage to smoothies is that it is easy to pick ingredients that give the result an appropriate colour. Young boys are often fascinated by gross looking objects, and some of the smoothies that I make myself sure do look the part. Girls, on the other hand, might like pastel shades, and you can do that as well.

Here are several simple examples.

• 1-1/2 cups frozen strawberries
• 1 cup frozen unsweetened pineapple chunks
• 1 cup low-fat vanilla soy milk
• 2 tsp. honey
• 1/2 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt or vanilla soy yogurt

You could also use regular pineapple and skip the honey.

Here is another.

• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup frozen pineapple chunks
• 1 cup low-fat vanilla soy milk
• 1 Tbsp. frozen lemonade concentrate
• 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

Note: Although these recipes use milk, you can (and should) experiment with adding water instead of milk. The presence of a protein source (the milk) slows digestion and can lead to more gas, and we don’t want that!

You can also add spinach leaves into a fruit smoothie and still get an amazing taste! Experiment by using leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, chard, and celery. These green smoothies are the ones the boys should like, as the colours are not appealing looking to adults. Get creative and come up with interesting names like “Alien Juice.”

Enjoy.

Yes these fruit smoothie recipes really are that good. Try them out and you will see for yourself.

Orange Yogurt Smoothie

This one is really one of the most delicious fruit smoothie recipes. It’s kind of reminiscent of those yummy orange popsicles with the vanilla ice cream inside. Here’s how you make it.

• 2 Eight ounce cartons of Vanilla yogurt
• 3/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
• 1 and 1/2 cups of milk

Place the milk, yogurt, and juice into the blender. Cover and blend until smooth. Make sure that everything is mixed, and serve with a sprig of fresh mint.

This smoothie is so good on a summer day. Try this during a picnic or family barbecue. This makes enough for 4.

Here are two fruit smoothie recipes that you and your family will love.

Cantaloupe Cream

• 1 cantaloupe, seeded and cubed
• About 3 tablespoons sugar, to taste
• 2 cups of ice

Place the cantaloupe in the blender and blend until smooth. Place sugar in blender and continue to mix. If you love cantaloupe, you will love this smoothie. Pour over ice in tall glasses and serve.

Fruit-tastic

• 2 cups strawberries, with leaves removed
• 2 ripe bananas, chopped
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 kiwi, peeled and chopped
• 1 container of strawberry yogurt. 8 ounce.

Mix all ingredients in the blender until smooth for one of the best fruit smoothie recipes ever.

The best place for fruit smoothie recipes is http://www.fruitsmoothies.net

This smoothie is really tropical and delicious. This is a great one for the kids as well if you have a hard time getting them to eat fruit.

They will love the taste, and they’ll still be getting the right nutrition and vitamins. Perfect for a hot summer day. Enjoy.

(original written by Amy Bass and submitted to the article directory at: the Come and Read Article Directory

If you have any comments, or a favourite recipe, please leave a comment.