Rylie Horrall |  Lifestyle Editor

Smoothies are one of my favorite drinks — or is it considered food? They are great because there are multiple combinations to be made, not to mention they’re healthy. During this quarantine, smoothies can be an easy treat to make and alter, if there’s extra fruit lying around. Here are the basic steps to making a smoothie, along with some fruity combinations to try.

First, grab a blender. Then grab whatever fruit that will be used for the smoothie. Dice all of the fruit up into smaller chunks — they don’t have to be extremely small, just littler pieces than the whole fruit to help with blending.

Once the fruit is diced, add them to the blender along with a couple handfuls of ice cubes. Before blending, make sure the lid is secure to avoid a mess. Blend everything together — some blenders have ‘smoothie’ options, but I personally use the ‘puree’ mode. Adding liquid, such as juice or milk, can make the blending process easier and add more flavor.

There are also other things that can be added to smoothies other than fruits; sometimes I throw in vegetables like spinach and carrots to add extra vitamins. Other add-ins could be coconut, yogurt, flax, chia seeds or honey.

Once finished, pour into a cup — or make a smoothie bowl, if preferred — and enjoy.

COMBINATIONS:

• Strawberry, banana, peach
• Raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry
• Orange, banana, pineapple, coconut
• Mango, pineapple, peach, apple
• Peach, strawberry, mango
• Raspberry, strawberry, kiwi
• Peach, coconut, mango
• Pineapple, strawberry, orange

Contact the author at rhorrall17@wou.edu

Photos by Rylie Horrall