How To Make A Mixed Berry Smoothie Easy Recipe

This healthy mixed berry smoothie recipe is so easy! Add tea for the perfect nutritional boost while bursting with flavor. The polyphenols in the tea and combination of berries plus the omega-3s in the flaxseed provide you with plenty of brain food. 

I love smoothies. They're like miracle-gro for the body; simple, quick, and nutritious. My girls have always loved them since they were little. It's such a simple recipe and an easy way to get the nutrition you need for a quick breakfast or healthy snack. This mixed berry smoothie recipe is packed full of flavor and nutritional goodness.

To get a healthy plant, you amend the soil with nutrients. You water and care for it - it's a continuous process. The same is true with the human body.

How To Make A Smoothie

The basics of any smoothie are one-part liquid to three-parts fruit or vegetable. So for this smoothie, my liquid is black raspberry tea. I like to put a banana in my fruit smoothies since that adds a touch of sweetness and a creamy dessert-like texture.

Try a smoothie if you're having a tough time getting your kids to eat a nutritious meal or snack. They will sometimes drink that before eating any one of the single ingredients in it. It's amazing.

Between the polyphenols in the tea and blueberries plus the omega-3s in the flaxseed, this mixed berry tea smoothie will provide you with plenty of serious brain food.

Smoothie Ingredients

• raspberry black tea
• ripe banana
• blueberries
• strawberries
• plain Greek yogurt
• honey
• flaxseeds
• protein powder

See the recipe card for quantities.

Substitutions

• If fresh berries are not in season you can always use frozen berries for a fruit smoothie.
• Freeze seasonal fresh fruit for later.
• Substitute black tea for green tea or any tea of your choice.
• Substitute caffeinated tea for kid-friendly caffeine-free tea.
• All blueberry smoothies substitute the strawberry with more blueberries.
• Any combination of mixed berries can be used.
• Soy milk, oat milk, coconut milk, or any other milk can be substituted for tea.
• Vanilla greek yogurt can be replaced with any yogurt. (I like the extra protein in Greek yogurt).

Instructions

Combine brewed tea, prepared fruit, yogurt, flax seed, protein powder, and honey in the blender. Blend in a good blender until combined. If using frozen fruit you will need a high speed blender. A ninja blender works amazingly well.

Hint: You can use whole or ground flax seeds.

Smoothie Tips

Pro Tip #1: Use a good quality tea made from loose black or green tea leaves as your base instead of the usual milk or orange juice. If you're looking for a more significant antioxidant boost, you can use green tea since it has higher levels of the potent antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).

Pro Tip #2:  The standard ratio for a nice consistency in a smoothie is 1 part tea to 3 parts fruit. The protein powder and yogurt will thicken it up a bit for a creamy smoothie.

Pro Tip #3: Using frozen fruit and iced tea will make a colder smoothie in record time. You can buy fruit in season and freeze it for future smoothies. Blueberries and strawberries freeze exceptionally well. I've even frozen chopped-up bananas. Chop the banana, place it in a ziplock freezer bag and place it in the freezer.

Are smoothies good for you?

Here's a little smoothie nutrition for you.

Mixed Berry Smoothie Benefits:

Bananas:  They are full of potassium, fiber, and vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 is essential for healthy brain function and keeping your immune system strong.

Strawberry: These little berries are low in sugar, about 6g per cup, and are full of fiber, about 3g per cup. They contain potassium, vitamin C, and antioxidants to help prevent cancer.

Blueberry: Naturally sweet, a good source of fiber, and rich in antioxidant vitamin C. The most prevalent nutrients are vitamin K, manganese, resveratrol, anthocyanins, quercetin (an antioxidant), and kaempferol, another antioxidant found to reduce the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

These nutrients build bones, help blood clotting, promote healthy metabolism of fats and carbohydrates, prevent heart disease, and combat inflammation.

Protein Powder: Here, I used a whey protein. It's high in protein, low in carbohydrates, and contains essential amino acids that facilitate muscle growth.

Greek yogurt: Made from fermented milk, it has twice the protein of regular yogurt at 13g, with a nice dose of calcium in each serving. Greek yogurt adds a creamy texture to your smoothie. Yogurt also contains probiotics. These live organisms can help your digestive system absorb nutrients and improve immune health.

Probiotics help you maintain a healthy level of friendly (normal flora) bacteria in the gut or the intestines. This keeps you fit and minimizes the buildup of toxins that could be absorbed into the bloodstream instead of correctly eliminating and wreaking all kinds of havoc on the body.

Flaxseeds: According to Dr. Patrick Quillin, nutritionist and author of The Wisdom and Healing Power of Whole Foods, flaxseeds are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids that promote eye health and help in preventing dry eye syndrome, macular degeneration, and cataracts. They are also high in fiber, iron, and protein.

Honey: Raw honey is packed with vitamins and antioxidants. Studies have found honey to contain an antimicrobial peptide called bee defensin-1. The antimicrobial properties of honey have been used to heal wounds. Honey also has a low glycemic index.

Tea: Tea is high in polyphenols, a potent antioxidant. Antioxidants have proven health benefits for cardiovascular health.

Black tea contains an amino acid called l-theanine, unique to tea, and has fascinating effects on the brain. L-theanine increases alpha brain waves inducing a calm and deeply relaxed state. Combined with the caffeine, about half the amount found in coffee, the overall effect is focused and calm.

That's a fantastic amount of nutritional goodness packed into one little beverage! That's why I say a smoothie is to the body what Miracle-Gro is to the garden.

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Smoothies Can Be Tailored To Your Needs

Back to the business of what a garden has to do with our body. Detoxify. Remove the weeds, garbage, and toxins from your diet and nourish the soil in you. The healthy garden is self-regulating and self-healing when optimally nourished, and so is the human body.

Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price, which is continuous, unyielding, persistent effort!” – Napoleon Hill, The Law of Success

Stress reduction is another essential part of a healthy body in a healthy garden.

Think about it. In a drought, the plants are stressed-out and not doing well. They wilt. They turn brown. They're not happy. Maybe the plant can tolerate the stress for the short term, but if it continues for too long, it won't survive.

I've cared for enough patients to recognize that what you eat is only part of the whole health picture. All the environmental and lifestyle factors that regulate our stress hormones are also important.

Contributing factors like a good night's sleep, the people who love you, tolerance, forgiveness, our thoughts and self-talk, and our purpose in life. Our home life and work life all play a role in our health.

Deepak Chopra says it best in his book Perfect Health, "every cell in your body is eavesdropping into your thoughts."

So sit a little while in your carefully tended garden, enjoy drinking your smoothie, and de-stress. And yes, think good thoughts.

Best Berry Smoothie Recipe

Recipe

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