Saturday, May 2, 2009

Cheap V8 and Smoothie Recipes


Alan asked for a homemade V8 recipe and a smoothie recipe. The V8 is crazy-easy.

12 ounces of tomato paste
48 ounces of water
1 teaspoon salt (adjust to taste but this is what we like)
Tabasco to taste (optional)

Stir it up in a pitcher. It usually cost about $.70 for a whole pitcher full.

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The smoothies are a little different. There is so much room for creativity with a smoothie but this is the basic concept.

Frozen fruit (bananas, berries, melon)
Liquid of choice (milk, soy milk, yogurt, kefir, juice, cold herbal tea, cold coffee for the adults)
Extra options (cocoa powder, protein powder, ground flax seed, milk powder)

The frozen fruit is what thickens up the smoothie. If your fruit is fresh just add ice as a thickener. Basically I start with a cup of frozen fruit and a cup of liquid and blend it on high. Then if it's too runny I add ice or more frozen fruit. If it's too thick I add more liquid. Then I add about a tablespoon of extras. These are so fun and you can get really creative with them. I tend to favor berry, bananas, and yogurt or green tea with banana and peaches or an orange julius smoothie made with orange juice, powdered milk, ice and a little sugar.

Have fun with it!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"V8 100% Vegetable Juice contains the juices of tomatoes, carrots, celery, beets, parsley, lettuce, watercress and spinach."--from V8's site.

Anonymous said...

You made tomato juice ..not V8

Amy said...

Have you ever tried adding spinach to your smoothies? I usually add 5-6 CUPS of spinach to one blender-full of smoothie.

YOU CAN'T TASTE IT.

I promise.

If you stick to green/yellow/orange colors, you get a really BRIGHT green smoothie. If you add anything red (strawberries, raspberries, etc) you might get an ugly brown. My kids drink it anyways though.

Jean said...

I think both "anonymous" posters are taking this WAY too literally. Personally, I think it's great if we can make something thattastes like V8 for only 70 cents. Thanks for the post, Gayle.

Anonymous said...

http://www.recipezaar.com/Homemade-V8-Juice-Raw-Recipe-337449

Jodi said...

Another thing I like to add to my smoothies is 2 Tbsp dry instant pudding mix. It helps thicken the smoothie and you can vary the flavors with whatever you add in. Some suggestions: banana cream pie smoothie with banana and vanilla pudding mix; frozen cherries and either cheesecake or chocolate flavored pudding mix; some coffee with white chocolate pudding mix.

Peggy said...

I don't think the first two commenters are being too literal. It IS tomato juice and not V8. V8 does taste like tomato juice but contains more. Still, this tomato juice recipe sounds like a great one to have around. So basic and easy.