4th of July Red White & Blue Smoothie

Who wouldn't want a smoothie that looks like this!

Now, fair warning on this recipe, it'll take you a little bit of time to assemble, since you're going to be making three different smoothies, but it's worth it in the end.

On that same note, this will make three smoothies! So maybe do this when you have some friends over to help you enjoy them.

I wanted to make something fun and festive for the upcoming 4th of July, and after a quick Google search I came across a couple of recipes for smoothies like this and knew I had to make my own.

Fortunately it's super simple to make and all I had to buy that I didn't already have was the blueberry juice.

Serves: 3 - you make three separate smoothies and then layer them together, so you'll either have leftovers or enough to share :)

Ingredients:

Red Layer:
1 cup frozen strawberries (1 purple container)
4-5 ice cubes
1 scoop/packet strawberry (regular or vegan) Shakeology
water to cover

Blue Layer:
1 cup frozen blueberries (1 purple container)
4-5 cup ice cubes
1 scoop chocolate (regular or vegan) Shakeology1 cup blueberry juice (enough to cover)

White Layer:
1 frozen banana (1 purple container, optional)
3 Tbsp fine flaked coconut (1 orange container)
4-5 ice cubes
1 scoop vanilla (only available in regular) Shakeology. If you are vegan or can't do the whey protein in the regular Shakeology, then you can substitute in a Vanilla Fresh packet from the 3-day refresh, or add in some vanilla extract and coconut milk instead...or yogurt!
water to cover

The ingredients!

Garnish:
Fresh strawberries, blueberries & coconut flakes


Directions:

The 'white' layer

1. Chill your serving glasses in the freezer. Cold glasses will help the layers stay separated better.
2. If you're doing this in your blender then do the layers in the following order to avoid mixing your colors...I've moved to doing all my smoothies in regular mouthed Mason jars because then you can just put the lid on and go...less clean up too. Because of this, I did each layer in a different jar
3. Start with the white layer. Add all the white layer ingredients and blend until frothy and smooth. If you aren't using any protein in this layer it may be a different consistency than the other two layers, and that's ok! 
4. Place it in to the freezer while you do the next two layers.
5. Blend the red layer. Add all the ingredients to your blender, and place the red smoothie into a container and place in freezer until needed.



The 'blue' layer

6. Last, blend up all the blue ingredients.

Assembly:

1. Now you can remove the red and white layers from the freezer, as well as your chilled glasses and begin assembling the smoothies.
2. Place enough red smoothie in each glass to fill 1/3 of the glass.
3. On top of this layer, using a spoon, fill the next 1/3 with the blue layer. Using a spoon helps keep the layer separated.
4. Last, spoon the white layer smoothie into the glass until it is filled to the brim.
5. Garnish: Place a sprinkling of coconut, some blueberry and some strawberry slices in each glass.

Serve with cool straws and enjoy!

The 'blue' layer comes out a little closer to purple, but it's as close as you can get using natural ingredients...and it tastes like a chocolate covered blueberry and is probably the best tasting smoothie I've ever made...it will be happening again for sure!

What a yummy way to celebrate red, white and blue!

My glass hadn't chilled for very long so my layers didn't stay as defined
I was hungry and didn't want to wait :)

It's as delicious as it is pretty!

Recipe adapted from: http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/07/red-white-and-blueberry-smoothie.html