Over the past few weeks, I decided to get out of my smoothie rut and try something different. While I absolutely love my go-to smoothie for the taste, the nutrients and the ease of making it at 6am, it was time to take action on the several dozen smoothies I’d been pinning!

Hopefully, by trying all of these new ones out, I’ll get a feel for what smoothies I like best. Maybe I’ll find a new favorite. Better yet, after all of this practice, I should be able to just throw in whatever I have on hand. Right?

And so we begin with the first set…

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1) Chocolate Green Smoothie from Greatist

I made: 1/2 Recipe

Variation: I did not add the superfood greens nor the hemp powder simply because I did not have them. I completely forgot the ice because I don’t put ice in my normal smoothies. It came out just fine.

Thoughts: I almost always do a half of recipe because smoothies seem so high in calories and filling to me. I don’t know what I was thinking on this one! It didn’t make very much, nor was it high in calories either, even when I used 1% milk. This was nice and chocolate-y. Looking back, my variation of this smoothie is almost the same as my Magic Green Smoothie, subbing out the cocoa for the peanut butter. The peanut butter version adds protein and more staying power!

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2) Tropical Green Smoothie from Simply Recipes

I made: 1/2 Recipe

Variation: I used a frozen banana, my fresh-frozen spinach, canned pineapple with natural juice. I also didn’t add any water. It didn’t need it. This was runnier than other smoothies I’ve made.

Thoughts: The pineapple was a nice change of pace to usual smoothies. It made it taste more tropical! I made another one of these the next morning to use up some the rest of the can of pineapple.

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3) Best Three-Ingredient Avocado Smoothie from Omnivore’s Cookbook

I made: 1/2 Recipe

Variation: None.

Thoughts: This was my first avocado smoothie! I loved creaminess and also liked that it wasn’t too sweet. The color came out more yellow than the green I was expecting. So flippin’ easy.

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4) – Chocolate Banana Avocado “Milkshake” from Meaningful Eats

First off, I should mention that I had both of these smoothie recipes that seemed so similar:

I eventually decided to make the one without the Greek yogurt first.

I made: 1/2 Recipe which was about 439 calories.

Variation: I didn’t use ice. It was smooth and easy to drink.

Thoughts: There are lot of ingredients in this bad boy! Too many for me to keep track of early in the morning. This one is very chocolately! I liked the addition and the texture of the chia seeds. You may not.

While the avocado makes it a creamy smoothie (at least without the chia seeds), I think I’d rather stick to my nutrient dense spinach for a morning smoothie and save my avocado for a meal later in the day… or have my avocado smashed on whole wheat toast with a sprinkling of salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes instead. 😉

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5) – Chocolate Power Smoothie from Sweet and Savory Eats

I chose to do the smoothie with Chocolate-Avocado smoothie with the Greek yogurt the next day for an easy comparison. Despite the fact that those two recipes seemed very similar, the two smoothies couldn’t taste more different! Again, it was a lot of ingredients…

I made: 1/2 Recipe

Variation: I only had that plain Greek Yogurt, so I added 1/8 tsp vanilla extract.

Thoughts: This one was very peanut buttery. I really love peanut butter, but I just didn’t like this combo at all. Isn’t that strange. It was my least favorite smoothie so far. I wouldn’t make it again. I still think it’s crazy that the recipe seemed so similar to the previous one. It just goes to show that a little tweak can make a big difference!

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That’s it for this week! I’m not going to inondate you with my smoothie experiences all at once. I’ll save the next batch for next week.

Which of these smoothies do you think you’d like best?

Let me know what you think if you try any!

Cheers~
Carrie