These Frozen Gems Add Calcium to Your Smoothies

Adding liquid to your blender is a must if you're sipping smoothies for weight loss. And instead of plain old water, using ice cubes can make your smoothies colder and creamier. If you've tried the trick of adding potassium-rich coconut water ice cubes to your recipes, you're going to love this clever little smoothie hack, too.

Grab your favorite unsweetened almond milk, and use that to make ice cubes. One cup is 30 calories (regular or vanilla) and offers 45 percent of your daily recommended calcium (regular milk only offers 30 percent). One cup makes about eight ice cubes (depending on the size of your tray). So if you pour half a cup of almond milk into your blender and throw in four ice cubes, you're almost halfway to your calcium intake for the day. Plus, they make your smoothie even frostier and more creamy. I've never tried this with soy milk, but I imagine it'd work just as well — but it offers slightly less calcium, 30 percent per one-cup serving.

You can keep the ice cubes in the trays or pop them out into a freezer bag. Aside from added calcium, these little frozen gems could save you money when buying almond milk in bulk. You don't have to worry about your carton going bad when you can freeze it in ice cube trays to use for later.