Breville blend active recipes – 5 cold busting smoothies

Motherhood Diaries was gifted an awesome Breville Blend-Active Family Pack* to make some awesome blending recipes using the Breville blend active personal blender. It is a nifty little blender that comes with a Breville Innovative Smoothie Blenders recipe book and a selection of bottles you can blend your ingredients in and drink on the go. There are various different sizes of the Breville blend active personal blender smoothie maker to suit people, large and small, and the travel-sized blender is small enough to take with you anywhere.

Click here to buy the Breville Blend Active from Amazon here*

Breville blend active’s website and social networking sites:

Website:    http://www.breville.co.uk

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/BrevilleUK

Twitter:    https://twitter.com/brevilleuk

YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/user/UKbreville

Pinterest:    http://www.pinterest.com/brevilleuk

So, what is the Breville blend active family pack about?

The Breville Blend-Active Family Pack* is a blender, complete with the following:

• Motor unit
• Blade assembly
• 2 x 600ml bottles
• 2 x 300ml bottles
• Sports-style resealable lids

Each of the blender bottles is made from Eastman Tritan copolyester which is a durable BPA-free, odour, taste and stain-resistant material used for manufacturing sports bottles. It is able to withstand extreme use and repeated dishwasher cleaning.

It’s super easy to use the Breville smoothie maker and create some awesome Breville juice recipes (you can find these Breville recipes below). Just connect the blade to any one of the supplied bottles, fill it with your smoothie ingredients and click it to blend. There is a ‘blend’ button on the front of the blender that, when pressed quickly, the blades burst through the ingredients, and when held down, the blade spins continuously.

I was very impressed that the blender also crushes ice, which meant I could add ice to my smoothies without the fear of them blunting the blades. I love how travel-sized the blender is and the bottles are literally fresh and ready to take away with you wherever you go.

How much does the Breville blend-active family pack cost and where can you buy it?

The recommended retail price is £40.00, but you can currently buy the Family Pack on sale from Breville’s* own website or Amazon. Click here for the current price.*

Click here to buy the Breville Blend Active from Amazon here*

Reviewers:

Pretty much the whole of my family, including my mum, dad and siblings!

Recipes:

So, armed with lots of fruit and veg and, of course, the Breville Blend-Active*, I set about creating five very healthy smoothies, which are perfect for on-the-go and the cold winter months!

5-a-day smoothie

Ingredients

• 200ml Milk
• 2 ice cubes
• Handful of baby spinach
• Large handful of raspberries
• 1 Apple
• 1 Kiwi
• 2 squirts of honey
• 1 peach

The result

A rich and full-flavoured smoothie, with a berry punch. It certainly felt like I was drinking a meal!

Citrus Smoothie

Ingredients

• Juice of half a lemon
• Squirt of honey
• ½ orange
• 1 kiwi
• 2 ice cubes
• ½ Avocado

The result

My favourite of the bunch. I love how the zingy lemon shines through, complemented beautifully by the sweetness of the kiwi and honey.

Cold Busting Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1 Kiwi
• 1 Apple
• 1 Carrot
• 1 Celery
• ½ orange
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• ½ lemon juice
• Couple squirts of honey
• Handful of pineapple
• Handful of Cherries
• Handful of spinach
• Handful of blueberries

The result

It’s a great bug-busting, cold-fighting energy drink, which really spruced me up. Perfect after a gruelling workout or as a breakfast smoothie. Be careful not to overdo it on the ginger.

For a bit of protein, you can either make this a chia seed smoothie and add chia seeds or add a dollop of peanut butter which lowers the GI index of the smoothie too.

Green Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1 Apple
• 1 Celery Stick
• 3 inches of cucumber
• 8 ice cubes
• Handful spinach
• ½ Avocado
• Honey to taste

The result

A nice, light and sweet smoothie that feels healthy and is easy on the stomach.

Fruit Milkshake

Ingredients

• 1 Banana
• 200ml Natural Yoghurt
• 20 Blueberries
• 10 Blackberries
• 10 Raspberries
• ½ Mango

The result

Very fresh and sweet. Bananas are just the perfect sweet little alternative to sugar. Make this a smoothie bowl and add some extra nuts and seeds too for that protein and fibre boost as well.

Free Infographic!

I have created an infographic of the smoothie recipes for you to print out and stick to your fridge or pin to your Pinterest board, so you are filled with nutritious goodness every day of the week. Enjoy!

Click here to buy the Breville Blend Active from Amazon here*

What did I like most about Breville Blend-Active* Family Pack?

What’s not to like? Let me list the benefits out for you:

• You get one travel-sized and very nifty blender with a blade sharp enough to crush ice.
• You can collect and fit tons of food ingredients into the 600ml bottle (just check out my ‘Cold Busting Smoothie’ ingredient list and the other Breville juicer recipes!) and the smoothie comes out (excuse the pun) smooth. Add some water for a more liquid-textured smoothie.

What to watch out for:

My belly was full of fruit and veg after the juicer smoothie recipes creation afternoon and I ended up becoming quite bloated and uncomfortable. Perhaps, one smoothie (or two) a day is enough when you can fit as many ingredients into these bottles as I could. Get into the habit of cooking some of the fruits like apple so it’s easier on the stomach.

Other points to note:

The Blend-Active Family Pack* comes with four bottles and can be used to crush ice too. (I know, I’ve already said that).

Also, the instruction manual lists some awesome smoothie recipes of its own (pages 9 to 10), so it’s worth checking those out, along with the tips on how to create great smoothies generally.

Click here to buy the Breville Blend Active from Amazon here*

For more information on juicing, juicers, juicing cookbooks and juicing recipes app visit the links below for more Breville blender reviews:

https://www.consumerreports.org/nutrition-healthy-eating/green-juice-not-healthy/https://juicerkings.com/best-breville-juicer-reviews/

FAQ

How much nutritional value from fruits and vegetables is lost by juicing?

Other questions asked were:

• When you blend all your fruits with a blender and drink it what effect does this have on the glycaemic index and why should we care?
• Is it better to blend a smoothie than eat whole fruits and vegetables?
• Are smoothies and juices just as good as eating whole fruits and vegetables?
• Does it really matter if you blend your vegetables?
• Does blending vegetables and fruit destroys the fibre. It seems there is no definite and certain reliable answer to this question online?
• Will blending vegetables ruin its nutritional value?
• If I steam my vegetables and then blend them and drink it will I be getting more nutrition?
• Is eating vegetables in the form of a smoothie the same as eating them whole? Do you get the same nutritional value?
• Do smoothie blenders kill the nutrients of fruits and vegetables?
• Does blending fruit add calories?
• Does blending reduce the nutritional content of fruits and vegetables?
• Does the caloric value of food change if the food is liquefied or blended?
• Does blending increase sugar content of fruit?
• Do we absorb nutrients from fruits and vegetables?

When juicing fruits and vegetables some of the healthy fibre is lost. That’s because juicers separate the juice from the pulp and skins (which contain the fibre). As a result, juices can spike your blood sugar in a more dramatic way than if you ate the actual fruit or vegetable. What’s more, you lose some polyphenols and antioxidants which are found in citrus fruits and skins of fruits and vegetables.

When you choose to juice, don’t delay. Drink it straight away so as not to lose the enzyme and antioxidant activity which depreciates over time.

To minimise fibre loss, just add pulp back into the juice.

Does lettuce contain more nutritional value than most fruits and vegetables per kg?

Lettuce is low in fibre but high in minerals like calcium, phosphorous, magnesium and potassium. Romaine lettuce is also high in vitamins C and K, folate and beta carotene which converts into vitamin A in the body. It’s also low in sodium so it’s very nutritional.

Is it true that modern-day industrially grown fruits and vegetables have almost no vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and are therefore unhealthy?

It depends on where the fruit and veg are grown. A landmark 2004 University of Texas study compared what’s now on store shelves to vegetables from 1950 and they saw a decline of 5% to 40% in certain nutrients among 43 types of produce.

Much of what we eat today has lower nutrient levels than when our parents and grandparents were growing up. This is down to mass industrialisation of fruit and veg and much less time devoted to farmland where farmers nurture the crop and provide it with the best love and care through soil, fertiliser and seeds.

Where you can, try to buy organic and stay away from mass-produced fruit and veg which could contain lots of hidden chemicals. Some fruits and veg are waxed so always opt for the unwaxed variety.

How do you use the Breville active blender?

Other questions asked were:

• How does Breville blend active work?

See above for how to work the Breville blend active blender.

Is Breville blend active dishwasher safe?

Other questions asked were:

• How to clean Breville blend active?

You can add the Breville blender and juicer’s blades, bottles and food processor bowl to the dishwasher for safe cleaning.

Can Breville blend active blend ice?

Other questions asked were:

• Does Breville blend active crush ice?

Your Breville active blender can crush ice, but to protect the blades from possible damage, always add a small amount of liquid to the ice before processing. 

What bottles are compatible with the Breville blend active?

The Breville blend active bottle 600ml (spare bottle with green lid) fits any Breville blend active blender. Just use the items in the same way you would use the bottles that the Breville Blend Active provides you with.

How long do Breville blenders last?

A Breville personal blender comes with at least a one-year limited warranty if you need to return damaged items, but with proper care your Breville bottle blender should last for at least a decade.

Rating:

5 out of 5 – The Breville blend active blender and blend active bottle are cheap, high quality and super fun to use. I would definitely recommend the Breville Blend-Active Family Pack* to families who want to live healthier and create fun Breville all in one recipes. The pack also comes with more than enough bottles for the whole family to enjoy, so you can count on this blender to be useful for everyone.

Plus the Breville active blend is a quality small kitchen appliance so it doesn’t take up much space at all, even with the Breville blender bottle. We have been using the Breville blender and juicer to make some delicious Breville Blend Active Milkshake recipes and Breville Blend Active protein recipes too, as well as Breville Blender recipes for weight loss. I also want to invest in a juicer cookbook so watch this space..

To find more Breville Juice recipes download the Breville juicer recipe book which is included within the manual here: Breville Blend Active Recipe Book PDF.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases