Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Homemade smoothie freezer packs!

So in light of my love of freezer cooking and of smoothies and of saving money I decided why the heck am I spending $3 on a premade freezer smoothie pack?!?! Especially since the whole family has started drinking them!! I can make my own for under $1 each and they have the added benefits of spinach and protein powder to keep me full!! I bought the separate ingredients (yogurt, bags of frozen fruit, spinach and bananas) and was making them fresh each morning. WAY too time consuming for a busy working mommy of 3 very young kids plus the ingredients being frozen makes a nice thick smoothie. So it dawned on me to make my own preassembled freezer packs!

I've been making and freezing homemade baby food in ice cube trays so I know 2 cups fills my 16-cube trays up perfectly making each cube an ounce. So I put my spinach, yogurt, and protein powder in the blender, added until I got 2 cups, and froze in an ice cube tray! It works like a charm and keeps me full until lunch! Here's the recepie:

Ingredients-
Container of spinach
Large container of plain or vanilla yogurt (32 oz)
Protein powder if you choose
Frozen fruit (I used strawberries)
2 ripe bananas
Milk

For green cubes:
1/2-3/4 large container of plain yogurt
6-8 scoops protein powder (or 4 servings depending on brand)
A couple of handfuls of spinach

You're aiming for 2 cups finished product in your blender. Once mixed well (the spinach takes a little time to become smooth) pour into ice cube tray and freeze.

In 4 sandwich bags: put 4 green cubes, a handful of strawberries, and half a peeled banana. Place baggies in the freezer!! Each morning, grab your baggie, dump into blender, add milk to just below the top of your frozen ingredients, blend, pour, add a straw and enjoy!!! So easy your toddler can help!! :) oh, and if youre trying to stretch your smoothie dollars, and a few handfuls of ice, a little more milk, and you have enough to split! You can change up your fruits to keep it interesting but berries cover the taste of the spinach the best.

I am working on a Protein coffee smoothie recipe next :)