If you’re looking for a quick antioxidant boost, a berry smoothie is a great way to go. To make a smoothie, all you need is a blender. Everyone has a blender, right? I feel like smoothies are one of those things that a lot of people talk about but not everybody gets.

Smoothies can be made with so many different ingredients that the possibilities are almost endless. Try soy milk with berries, almond milk with spinach, strawberries with bananas. You have to play around with your favorite foods to know what mash-ups you like. Make a green power drink: think cukes, spinach, kale, matcha, herbs, etc. Add just a few ingredients or you add as many as you like. Try not to drink the same one all the time though – you want to get a good mix of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.

Here are a couple of shots of a blackberry smoothie I made recently with what I happened to have on hand:

Smoothies don’t have to be complicated – you just need some fresh fruits and veggies on hand.

This is how I made this particular smoothie:

• 1 ripe banana broken into chunks
• 2 cups fresh (or you can use frozen!) blackberries
• 1 cup pure pomegranate juice

Blend until well pureed. I usually need to shake the blender around once or twice during blending, to keep everything moving.

Add crushed ice to the blender too, if you like – especially nice In the summertime or after a workout,

I also add ground flax seed sometimes, which is a great natural source of omega-3’s. Know that eating whole flax seeds don’t offer nearly the benefits that ground ones do – your body doesn’t absorb the nutrients from whole ones, because they usually pass through you without breaking down. I grind a batch of my flax seeds in a small coffee grinder and keep them in my fridge, so they’re ready to use. They can go rancid quickly if not stored in the fridge, so consider yourself warned.

For my fellow gardening friends, here’s a shot of one of my flax plants, taken last summer:

How about you – are you a smoothie drinker?