Smoothie System

I really like to make smoothies for my family because (1) they're delicious and (2) it's an easy way to get lots of good things in them.  I used to make them sporadically and that didn't work very well because I pureed fruit, but it would sit in the freezer for so long that our smoothies would sometimes end up tasting nasty.  I decided that I needed some more organization if I was going to be more consistent with my smoothie making, so here's an easy way to do smoothies on a regular basis:

1) Buy the fruit and veggies when they're super cheap and puree them.
2) Freeze the purees in ice cube trays. Silicone trays make it so much easier to get the puree out of the tray.
3) Store the puree in labeled Ziploc freezer bags.  I store all of the same type of puree together and on certain shelves in my freezer so that I can find it easily.  This prevents some of the purees from getting lost and buried and never used and it makes it easy to rotate the oldest purees out first.

 

Always have yogurt and frozen juice on hand (if you want to use those).  I started using vanilla Greek yogurt because it has way more protein than regular yogurt.  We usually use orange juice as a base, but we also like berry juices or grape juice.  I really don't like apple juice with my smoothies, but Jeremy does.

Bananas don't puree and freeze well... they taste just like extremely overripe banana in your smoothie.  Although I've heard that freezing a whole banana is good.  I haven't tried that yet - I usually just put them in fresh.

Also, I freeze fruits that you might not think to use for smoothies - like cantaloup, watermelon (don't add a lot or it will taste like a watermelon Jolly Rancher), etc.  I added about 3 cubes of cantaloup to a smoothie with pineapple, strawberry, yogurt and orange juice and it was so yummy!  I've found that if you just a little bit, it just compliments the other flavors.

You can freeze fruits that you don't necessarily like to eat on their own.  We don't usually eat mango on it's own, but we love it in smoothies.

Don't add pomegranate seeds to smoothies - you'll end up with a bunch of gross feeling hard chunks.

Be extra careful when pureeing pit fruits.  I pureed a big batch of peaches and apparently some pit made it's way in because the whole batch was ruined with unappetizing chunks of pit.

The only fruits that I buy already frozen are blueberries and raspberries.  They are usually cheaper frozen than fresh.

If you buy a bunch of fresh fruit to puree and freeze, I would just plan on doing it that day.  I let about 8 clamshells of strawberries sit for a few days too long and I only ended up being able to use half of them.  Such a bummer!  So, now I just try to get it done right away so I don't end up wasting any of it.

We have smoothies every morning and now it's quick and easy to do.  I used to think about making a smoothie, but I didn't want to dig through the freezer to find buried purees or cut up fresh fruit so I would just skip it.  This method is much simpler.

Also, a lot of people like green smoothies (they add spinach, kale, etc.) but I can't stomach it.  I feel like I'm drinking green slime.  And, yes, you can taste kale in a smoothie.  Instead, I add some cooked and pureed sweet potato or carrot to each smoothie.  It's a healthy veggie, you can't taste it (I just add one or two large cubes) and it doesn't turn it into green slime. 

Sometimes, if the smoothie is a bit tart, I add a little bit of honey and that helps a lot.  Jeremy would like it if I put honey in every smoothie. :)

I've tried a smoothie with oats added to it and it was actually pretty good.  I've been thinking of adding them to our smoothies in small quantities.  It's worth a shot. Also, you can add ground flax seed and chia seeds, but stir these in at the end.

Old Navy sells little kid smoothie cups (they go on clearance all the time for about $2.50 - Jeremy says we don't need more than one per child, but we'll see;).

Adelyn usually finishes hers and then commandeers mine.  The other day she took mine and when I asked for a drink she said I could have one, but then looked me right in the eye and, in a very serious tone, instructed, "Don't drink it all."