Blended Drinks: Iced Coffee & Smoothies

Up until the past year I steered clear of the blender, mostly because I thought it was too much of a hassle to clean. Now it's rare that a day passes without my blending of something or other...and it turns out that blenders are pretty easy to clean.

My favourite drinks to blend are iced coffee and smoothies. I generally use 1 cup of milk, which gives my drinks an extra 9 grams of protein, making them pretty satisfying snacks. I like to keep things simple -- each drink is made from only three ingredients. You really don't need fancy or expensive ingredients to make good smoothies; I modify the ingredients to use whatever I have on hand. Here are my go-to combinations:

Iced Coffee

• 8 coffee ice cubes (the equivalent of half a large cup of coffee)
• 1 cup milk
• half a scoop of chocolate whey protein powder

I prepare coffee ice cubes by making a large cup of coffee, waiting for it to cool, and pouring it into an ice cube tray for freezing. To make my iced coffee, I blend half a tray of these (8 ice cubes) with milk and chocolate protein powder.

coffee ice cubes

Now on to smoothies... I use frozen banana chunks as the base of all my smoothies. At the grocery store I'm always on the lookout for ripe bananas on clearance. When they become spotted they're perfectly ripe and ready for freezing. I break them into chunks and freeze them in Ziploc bags.

preparing spotty bananas for freezing

Berry Banana Smoothie

• 6 frozen banana chunks (0.75 - 1 banana)
• handful of frozen berries (raspberries, blueberries, etc.)
• 1 cup milk

Blend all together and enjoy!

raspberry banana smoothie

Sometimes I add just a splash of milk instead of a whole cup to make raspberry banana "ice cream".

raspberry banana "ice cream"

Green Smoothie

• 6 frozen banana chunks (0.75 - 1 banana)
• a couple handfuls of spinach or kale leaves (torn up)
• 1 cup milk

Blend all together -- the sweetness of the banana compensates for the bitterness of the greens!

banana kale green smoothie