I LOVE summer drinks. When you’re sitting outside, it’s so nice to have a cold drink in hand. There are many directions you can go, and smoothies are definitely one of the healthier ones.

Smoothies are perfect for any day and you can pack them with any combination of your favourite fruits (or even some veggies). Today’s smoothie is more on the simpler side, but you could adjust it with your personal touch!

Usually, I love to add spinach to my smoothies, but I omitted it in this recipe because I wanted the colour to be bright and vibrant. Just look at the colour – the purple is beautiful. If I had used spinach here, the colour would have turned a dirty green/brown which would not have been appealing.

This smoothie simply had mango, blueberries and strawberries. It was a nice balance of sweet and sour. I also used all frozen fruit which meant I did not need to add any ice. But if you are using fresh fruit, you would need to add ice when blending.

Another note – if your fruit is not super sweet, you can always add a little sweetener to the mix (ie: honey, maple syrup, agave). I would suggest making the smoothie without the sweetener, tasting it and then adding if necessary. For me, I had to add about 1 tbsp of maple syrup because my berries were quite sour.

This was such a nice drink though, very refreshing and full of nutrients. If you wanted to turn this into a more protein-packed smoothie, you could add a scoop of protein powder or 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt. In that case, you would likely have to increase the amount of milk/water in the recipe to get the right consistency.

Further on the consistency, you may need to adjust the amount of liquid depending on your blender. If you have a high powered one, such as a Vitamix, you may not need the full amount of milk and water that I used. But since my blender is not as strong, it needed all the liquid to help blend everything together. Just try it out and see what ratio of fruit to liquid works for you!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup each: diced mango, blueberries, strawberries
• 1 cup milk (any kind)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1-3 tsp sweetener (ie. honey or maple syrup) (optional)

Directions:

1. Put all fruit, milk and water in blender.
2. Blend until smooth, adding more milk or water until smoothie consistency is reached.
3. Taste for sweetness, and add choice of sweetener if desired.
4. Pour into glass and serve. Makes 1 large or 2 small smoothies.