Peach Mango Smoothie

I find that changing up a smoothie helps the same way that changing up what workouts you are doing. It makes life more interesting and helps to make it something new that you want to try. I started with going to the frozen fruit section of my supermarket for inspiration. I found peaches and mango and knew I already had strawberries at home. Then I looked into add some other ingredients to make it more interesting. I decided to add some ginger root to my smoothie. While ginger isn't commonly used for weight loss it does have use in other cultures to help with the common cold. I figure that if it can help fight a cold it may be able to help prevent one too and have been sick several times this past winter. Plus it tastes great in this smoothie!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Tropicana Farmstand Peach Mango Juice

1/4-1/2 cup Milk (use whatever you have around; regular, soy, almond, etc) 

Handful of frozen Peaches

Handful of frozen Mango

1/2 Handful of frozen Strawberries

1/2 inch of peeled and finely grated ginger root (I use a microplane)

Large Handful Spinach

1/2-3/4 scoop unflavored Whey Protein Powder

Layer in Blender and blend on high until smooth. Start with 1/4 of milk and add more if needed to help blend the ingredients.

***Notice that I don't use any ice in my smoothies. If you use frozen fruit in your smoothies you won't need to use ice and on top of that they won't be watered down. And Bonus frozen fruit is less expensive then fresh fruit!! If you have a good farmers market near you go there to get good seasonal fruit and you can always freeze them yourself for an even better deal.




To freeze your own fruit, follow this process:

1. Find the freshest fruit that you can. Don't use fruit that is over or under ripe because once you freeze it, the quality will remain at that state. 
2. Wash, skin and trim the fruit depending on what it is. For berries with leaves, wash and trim the leaves off. Make sure to dry the fruit thoroughly before freezing other wise you will have a lot of ice crystals which you don't want. Anything like melon or stone fruit (peaches, nectarines, etc) cut to the size you want before freezing. 
3. When ready to freeze place on a cookie sheet and place in freezer overnight. When completely frozen, remove from pan in store in ziplock bags. Stores well for 6 months.