For the last four months I have been having a smoothie for breakfast every single morning.  Wonderful for my health, great for my weight, not so great when I like to have variety in my diet.  I started out with milk and my protein shake.  BORING.  Nasty tasting.  Blech.

Thankfully, in our time we have the wide world of the interwebs to turn to in our time of need.  I headed to the wonderful world of Pinterest to look for ideas.  So many ideas!  Everything from Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie all the way to Fruity Raspberry Lime.  Every one that I have tried was fantastic.

Once I got into the swing of every morning smoothies, I found myself using the same main ingredients over and over.  I now have a drawer in our freezer set aside just for smoothie ingredients.  I stock it with all sorts of frozen fruit, spinach, and cucumbers.  In the cupboard I stock cocoa powder, coconut milk, and instant pudding mix.

Today’s post is all about making the use of only a few ingredients for as many smoothie combinations as possible.  All the recipes today will use only the following ingredients: milk, Thrive Lifestyle Mix, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen peach slices, and frozen cucumbers.

I thought I would take you along for my smoothie experience this week.  Every day I used only these five ingredients to make a different smoothie for breakfast.  You can have a great variety of smoothies with only a few ingredients.

On Monday I made Blueberry Peach.  

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 4 peach slices
• 2 Tablespoons of Thrive

All blended together this makes a lovely blueberry flavored smoothie with light peach undertones.  If you want a stronger peach flavor, add less blueberries and more peaches.

 

 

On Tuesday I made Peach Cucumber.  I really like adding cucumber to my smoothies.  It adds a nice summery flavor that I really enjoy.

• 1 cup milk
• 7 peach slices
• 10 cucumber slices
• 2 Tablespoons of Thrive

All blended together I love the cucumber flavor!  The peaches add a sweetness to the smoothie, but the cucumber is the star.

 

On Wednesday I had simple strawberry.  This is my go to smoothie recipe.  Some days I’ll add in a spoonful of cocoa powder for a chocolate covered strawberry flavor.  Today was just nice and easy plain strawberry.

• 1 cup milk
• 8 frozen strawberries
• 2 Tablespoons of Thrive

All blended together this is simple strawberry.  So easy and satisfying.  This is the comfort food of smoothies for me.

 

On Thursday I had simple blueberry.  Another wonderful, busy morning go to smoothie.  Simple perfection.

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup blueberries
• 2 Tablespoons of Thrive

This one blends into a lovely purple smoothie, perfect for a morning when we are leaving for the first of two field trips in one week.

 

 

Friday morning started super early.  My class was set to leave at 6:30am for our second field trip of the week.  For what it is worth, I am not a morning person.  Seriously, my brain doesn’t turn on before 8am.  For this reason, I do not have a picture of the smoothie for Friday.  Friday I had strawberry peach for my smoothie.

• 1 cup milk
• 5 strawberries
• 3 peach slices
• 2 Tablespoons of Thrive

This blends into a sweet start for my morning, even at 6:30am with 48 students on a bus for two and a half hours.

All in all, six ingredients, five different smoothies, five ways to start my day with a healthy breakfast.  I’m still exploring different recipes and hope to share them with you all as I pick my favorites.  I’d love to hear your favorite smoothie recipes too!  Drop me a comment to share your favorites.  If you are interested in getting started with Thrive, leave me a comment and I’ll get you set up with a customer log in!