Healthy,Quick & Easy Pineapple-Coconut Smoothie

We recently started our own Eureka Factory group on Instructables. Ours is a mobile workshop, sometimes run out of members' garages, often out of public libraries, bringing Instructables builds and other hands on projects to libraries and youth groups in Tampa, and often just building and creating for fun and practicality. We liked the idea of an online group for a virtual makerspace component, and the Instructables community is the perfect place for that. One of the things we decided to try was hosting our own Eureka Factory "Challenge of the Month" for members and for July, we suggested "Summer Beverages".

Here's one of our own favorites: Quick and Easy Pineapple-Coconut Smoothie

We know there's a ton of smoothie recipes out there. That's the joy of smoothies - they're relatively easy to make and you can customize to your palate's desire. Here's our palates' favorite, easy enough for kids to make on their own, with a great return on the five minutes investment of time to make it!

Step 1: Ingredients

You'll need a blender (bonus points if it's harvest gold or avocado green, indicating you've got a more than 30 year old blender that still runs) and the following:

• 2 cups crushed ice
• 1 cup coconut yogurt (we use Greek yogurt)
• 1 20 oz can crushed pineapple
• 1/2 cup pear nectar
• 1 banana (optional, but excellent!)

Step 2: Blend Smoothie Base

We dump in the ice, and then the can of pineapple and pulse the blender a few times to create our smoothie base.

Step 3: Add Fruit Juice and Yogurt and Fruit

Add in your fruit nectar and yogurt. We only use a 1/2 cup of the nectar but you can vary according to taste preferences. You can add banana or other complementary fruits at this point as well.

Step 4: Blend!

We like a little texture in our smoothies, so we try not to over-blend, pulsing our ingredients into we have a nice, slightly pulpy mixture.

Step 5: Pour and Enjoy!

It really hits the spot and it's as healthy as it is tasty, high in protein and potassium, thanks to the Greek yogurt, and rich in vitamin C thanks to the fruit nectar and pineapple.

Enjoy!