Superfood Super Smoothie Recipes!

Maintaining a proper diet with all the essential vitamins and minerals we need is easier said than done. Trust me! I'm a sucker for all things sweet and unhealthy; no matter how hard I tried to eat healthily, I always found myself going back to my same old routine! After contracting then recovering from COVID, I thought to myself something has got to change in my diet. I wanted to find easy and simplistic ways I could get the proper nutrition my body needed, while also making it as delicious as possible. Then like many millennials before me, I thought of a genius, yet not so innovating idea, smoothies! I mean, who doesn't like a nice cold smoothie to begin their day? Especially while living in a place like Southern California, where its hot and sunny 90% of the time. I figured cold smoothies with Vida Ready products would make it easy for me to begin eating healthy. I didn't want to target a specific area or system within my body; my ultimate goal was to make healthier food choices as well as use these smoothies as alternates to whenever I craved junk food and sweets (mostly sweets).

I wanted to make my 2020 a healthy one by focusing on making myself #VidaReady now and for the future. Below are my favorite smoothie recipes that are as delicious as they are healthy. I found them to be healthier alternatives to my snacking, and quickly they became my go-to "snack" option.

Psyllium Spinach Power Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1 cup of coconut water
• 1/2 cup chopped spinach
• 2 tsp Vida Ready Psyllium Husk
• 1 banana
• 1/4 cup frozen berry mix
• 1/2 cup chopped cucumber
• 1/2 inch chopped ginger
• 1 tsp lemon juice

*OPTIONAL: You can substitute berries for any frozen fruit mix of choice*

This smoothie made me make #VidaHealth a reality because it was a great way to introduce myself to greens that I usually didn't eat. The psyllium husk was also a nice touch as it made the smoothie thicker, and when blended with frozen fruit, it instantly became my "beat the heat" go-to. High in fiber due to the psyllium and twice as refreshing because of the coconut water, this smoothie is sure to become your instant favorite! 

Vida-min C Immunity Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
• 1 cup frozen mango chunks
• 1 banana, 
• 2 tsp. of Vida Ready Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)
• 1 cup milk (regular, almond, soy, coconut, etc.)
• sweetener, to taste (sugar, agave, stevia, honey, maple syrup, dates, etc.)

*OPTIONAL: 2 pouches of Mango Mojito Collagen Sip*

Don't get me wrong, I'm lucky enough to live in southern California, but this heat is sometimes unbearable. This tangy and sour smoothie was a great way to help me drift off to a paradisical island. The perfect amount of sourness of the vitamin c gives this smoothie a unique and different taste from any other smoothie I've tried. The sweet and tangy taste of pineapple and sweetness of the mango makes this smoothie taste like summer in a cup. This refreshing smoothie became my daily go-to because the vitamin c allowed me to boost my immunity. After just recovering from COVID, I wanted to boost my immune system any way I could!

Go Green Spirulina Smoothie 

Ingredients:

• 1 banana, preferably frozen to help give the smoothie a cold, creamy texture
• 1/2 mango
• 1-2 tsp Vida Ready Spirulina Powder
• 1/2 cup natural orange juice, unsweetened and preferably organic
• 1/2 cup milk of choice, plant-based for vegan recipes
• 1/2 of avocado pitted and peeled, helps add a good dose of healthy fats
• 2 cups frozen spinach

*OPTIONAL: 2 scoops of Just Collagen Unflavored collagen peptides, great for added protein and nutritional balance!*

First and foremost, this smoothie's green color is pretty awesome, and to top it off, it also made me feel like I was getting every vitamin I needed in a small little package. Its vibrant green color comes from spirulina, an incredibly nutritious blue-green algae that's high in B vitamins and minerals. Not only is this a perfect drink to refresh, but its high vitamin and mineral content allowed me to get closer to my healthy eating and nutrition goal. This smoothie quickly became my daily morning breakfast smoothie because I always felt energized and good about drinking it. Long gone were the days of an unhealthy breakfast energy drink I tended to gravitate to, and the go green smoothie soon became my drink of choice.

I did notice an overall change in my energy levels and overall health. I feel better now than I did a few months back due to the changes in my diet. For me, daily smoothies containing Vida Ready products made it easy for me to begin eating healthier. They also allowed me to create delicious smoothies that were packed full of vitamins and minerals. Overall these smoothies have put me on a trajectory of healthy eating, and slowly but surely, I find myself replacing more and more sugary snacks with fruits and smoothies. Vida Ready made it easy for me to achieve my goals while detaching me from the stigma of assuming healthy foods didn't taste good.