5-Ingredient Smoothies Bound To Start Your Day Off Right

After receiving a Magic Bullet blender for Christmas, I've become slightly obsessed with making smoothies. For those of you who are in college, constantly on the go, not into eating breakfast, or all three of these things (like me), here are six simple, delicious recipes that take no more than five minutes to prep, make, and clean up.

Peanut Butter and Banana

Ingredients:

1 whole banana, sliced

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup ice

For thicker smoothies, put your chopped banana (without the peel) in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer the night before (or at least a few hours before you want to drink it). If you want your smoothie to be thinner, use unfrozen bananas.

Throw all of your ingredients into your blender (I like to put the almond milk in first because it helps keep the peanut butter from sticking to the sides of the cup too much) and blend.

Kiwi, Banana, and Spinach

Ingredients:

1 to 2 kiwis, chopped

1/2 banana, sliced

1 cup spinach

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

You can choose to add either one or two kiwis (or however much you want) to this recipe depending on how much you like the flavor. The fruit can also be frozen ahead of time if you want, but fresh works fine too.

For this one, you should blend the spinach and almond milk together first, and then add the rest of the ingredients after.

Apple and Kale

Ingredients:

1/4 apple, chopped

1 cup kale, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/2 cup ice

Optional: honey

Chop up your apple, kale, and celery beforehand to save time. Otherwise, you just put all of your ingredients in your blender and let it do the work.

The honey is optional for this one, but it helps sweeten it up a lot. The kale tends to make the mixture tangy or especially "green" tasting, so I add between 1 and 2 tablespoons of honey to mine.

Pineapple and Banana

Ingredients:

1 frozen banana, sliced

3/4 cup pineapple chunks

1 cup kale

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

Pineapple can be an overpowering flavor in some recipes so if you like it but don't love it, start off with less since you can always add more as you go. The same goes for kale, so if you're unsure if you'll like it or not just go slow and add more until it tastes right to you.

Like most of the other recipes here, you just throw everything in your blender at the same time and mix it all together until it's nice and smooth.

Strawberry and Kiwi

Ingredients:

1 kiwi, chopped

1/2 cup strawberries, chopped

1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

Apple and Spinach

Ingredients:

1 apple, chopped

1 cup spinach, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1/4 to 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

Once again, if you're short on time, it will definitely save you a few minutes to chop everything beforehand.

I've found it's easier to add the almond milk and chopped apple first and blend those together, then add the spinach and celery, because you run out of room in the small blenders if you try to fit it all in there at one time.

Lemon and Honey

Ingredients:

1 cup Greek yogurt

1/2 to 1 cup ice

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 to 3 tablespoons honey

I've found it's easier to add these ingredients into your blender in the order they're listed above simply because the ice can get stuck under the yogurt and it won't get blended completely.

This one is also pretty bitter because of the lemon juice, but the honey helps sweeten it up so add as much as you need to help it taste good. You can also add sweeteners like Stevia or similar products rather than dumping in a ton of sugar.

Banana

Ingredients:

2 bananas, sliced

1 cup Greek yogurt

1 to 3 cups ice

This one is super simple but it tastes great. Like I mentioned before, I use plain Greek yogurt for all of my smoothies, but the banana flavor completely masks the yogurt. You can also try vanilla yogurt or maybe even banana yogurt if you're really looking for a strong flavor.

Apple and Honey

Ingredients:

1/2 apple, chopped

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

1/4 cup ice

I leave the skin on my apples for all of these recipes because I think it adds just a little bit more flavor, but some people aren't into that. Either way, this one is super sweet and good for a morning snack to help wake you up a little with the apple and yogurt.

Strawberry and Banana

Ingredients:

1 to 2 cups strawberries, chopped

1/2 banana, sliced

3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

For all of these recipes, I use either unsweetened original almond milk or plain full-fat Greek yogurt. Recipes using the almond milk can substitute milk or water, and recipes with Greek yogurt can substitute regular yogurt or flavored yogurt.

Note: Make sure you read the user handbook for your blender before you start making your snacks. Magic Bullet blenders specifically can be worn down and ruined if they're not treated properly.