When I make smoothies on my own, I usually just toss in a liquid like coconut milk or orange juice, then add in whatever frozen fruit I have in the freezer (typically tropical fruit like mango). Every once in a while I'll get a little adventurous and add in some superfood powder like maca or spirulina to give my drink an extra nutritional boost. I never measure the ingredients, so it often takes a few tweaks to get the taste just right. The Blender Girl Smoothies have inspired me to step up my game. There's no need to experiment myself when Tess has done all of the combination testing! She lives up to her last name because she certainly is a master when it comes to creating a strategy for pairing flavors. Plus, her recipes have encouraged me to play around with all sorts of interesting herbs, spices, oils, and superfoods.

Flip through any page in The Blender Girl Smoothies book or app and you'll land on an enticing concoction that you may not have thought of on your own. For example, it hadn't occurred to me to put cantaloupe in a smoothie as Tess did in Crazy for Cantaloupe (p 56). And I never would have attempted to turn one of my favorite baked goods into a drink, ala Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffin (p 174). It's also really useful to see the benefits of each smoothie at the top of the page, where qualities like "protein rich", "energizing" and "immunity" are listed. If you're making smoothies for a specific health goal, The Blender Girl Smoothies is a fantastic guide.

As mentioned above, smoothies can be a great way to sneak nutritious foods into daily life. Not everyone enjoys eating big salads or munching on raw foods everywhere, but many people are open to consuming them when they're blended along with sweet fruit. The following recipe is a fantastic example. It contains ingredients I wouldn't have thought to blend together, which makes it all the more brilliant and enticing. 

pomegranate slam it!
"With a complex, mind-blowing flavor that explodes like a firecracker (don’t omit the cayenne), this is a heart-healthy delight. Pomegranate lowers blood pressure, keeps arteries supple, decreases inflammation in blood vessels, and helps manage cholesterol. Its phenolic antioxidants (also in strawberries) combat oxidative stress, making this an antiaging tonic."
serves 2

Ingredients:

• • 1 1/2 cups unsweetened pomegranate juice 
  • 1 orange, peeled, seeded, and quartered 
  • 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper 
  • 1/8 cup loosely packed arugula 
  • 1/2 small avocado, pitted and peeled
  • 1 cup frozen strawberries 
  • 1 cup ice cubes
  • optional boosters:
    • 1 tablespoon pomegranate powder 
    • 1/2 cup loosely packed chard leaves 
    • Pinch of cayenne pepper 

Direction:

Throw all of the ingredients into your blender and blast on high for about 1 minute, until smooth and creamy.

In addition to tasting delicious, pomegranate slam it is a great choice when you want to boost your immunity, detox and get alkaline. And extra bonus: it's unsweetened due to the natural sugar in the fruit.

Want one more recipe? Check out this fantastic video that my pal Cobi from Veggietorials created, featuring the Rosemary Melonade. It is sure to get you excited to blend!

Ready to find your perfect blend? You can pick up a copy of The Blender Girl Smoothies book on Amazon or at most major retailers. The app can be download from the iTunes store.

Recipe text and images:
Reprinted from THE BLENDER GIRL SMOOTHIES Copyright © 2014, 2015 by Tess Masters. Photographs copyright © 2014 by Erin Kunkel. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.