3 Delicious and Simple Smoothie Recipes: Tiramisu, Banana and Strawberry, and Blackberry and Orange

For some reason, smoothies have remained a fairly Ameri-centric cultural aspect and never really made it to us across the pond in the UK. Well, I'm here to change that and present you with 3 incredibly simple smoothie recipes that'll have you wishing it was summer every day.

Smoothies originated in American health-food stores in the 1930s, when they purportedly began selling a pureed fruit drink that was based on recipes from Brazil, though this could never be verified. They were popularized in the 1940s along with the invention of the modern household blender. There even exists a Juice and Smoothie association. The first Smoothie trademark was established in mid-1970s in New Jersey by the California Smoothie Company. Believe it or not, a copyright in 1972 for a Banana and Strawberry smoothie actually included the ingredient horseradish! Luckily there is no horseradish in any of the recipes I shall show you today.

Of course, when making smoothies a blender is essential, so give up now if you don't have one and stick to plain juice!

Non-Alcohol Tiramisu Smoothie:

- 2 crushed ice cubes

- 200 ml of milk

- 2 tbsp of sugar

- 3 tbsp of coffee

- 5 wafers

Preparation:

Blend the ice then add one after another the milk, the sugar, and the instant coffee. Crush the wafers into the bottom of a glass and serve the smoothie on top of that. Mmmmmmm, delicious!

Classic Strawberry and Banana Smoothie:

A classic favourite of many, this should be your first stop in the world of smoothies.

Ingredients:

- 1 banana

- 10 cups strawberries

- 2 cups of milk

- 1 tbsp of sugar

Preparation:

No real prep work, chop up the bananas and strawberries and whizz everything together in the blender. Uhh, that's it. Serve, enjoy.

Blackberry and Orange Smoothie:

Where I live, you can gather blackberries, pounds and pounds of them, from the local parks and pretty much everywhere. We usually only make Blackberry crumble out of them (more on that another day I guess), but now I have this awesome option in my blackberry repertoire too. You can use frozen blackberries too, which is great because half my freezer consists of blackberries right now;)

Ingredients:

- 2 1/2 cups blackberries

- 1 cup vanilla yoghurt

- 1/2 cup orange juice

- 1/2 glass milk

Sorry, no preparation instructions, but the amounts listed above will give you two delicious servings and only 150 calories per serving! Great!

Banana Diet - Can Losing Weight Really Be So Simple?

If you want to lose weight you've probably heard of the banana diet. However you may have dismissed the diet is being too simple to be effective. Weight loss should be complicated, shouldn't it?

The banana diet is the simplest diet in the world. There's really not much to learn about it. However despite its simplicity, it's powerfully effective. In the past four months, I've lost 25 pounds on the banana diet, and have made just one change to my diet.

1. Why I Love the Banana Diet

Here is the banana diet in a sentence: eat bananas and drink room temperature water for your breakfast. That's it, that's the entire diet. That's why I love the banana diet -- you can remember it, it doesn't take any time at all, and you lose weight.

Of course there's a little more to the diet. Here's the rest of it: you should eat normally for your other meals, and you should go to bed before midnight.

2. How Much Can You Expect to Lose?

I have several clients on the banana diet. They're losing around the same amount of weight that they would lose on more conventional diets, which is around two pounds a week. One client has lost almost 100 pounds so far; she has another 100 pounds to lose. She's excited at her success, and so am I.

That said how much you lose on the diet depend on how much weight you have to lose in total. Why not give the banana diet try? You'll find that you lose weight within the first few days, and what's more you'll feel great.

In fact, that's the major benefit of the banana diet: you'll feel energetic and well and will have lots of energy. One of my clients recently said to me that she had no intention of ever giving up eating bananas for breakfast, because it makes her feel so great for the rest of the day, and she sleeps like a baby.

3. Is the Banana Diet Good for You?

Bananas are packed with nutrients, so the banana diet is good for you. Eating a couple of bananas a day, can actually lower your blood pressure. Since you're eating a normal diet for the rest of the day, the diet is not restrictive. Try it yourself, you'll soon see that you have more energy. I'll be surprised if you decide to try any other form of weight loss.

So can weight loss really be so simple? Yes it can, try the banana diet yourself and you'll soon become a convert and will lose weight effortlessly.