Make Ahead Smoothies

Awhile ago, on Pinterest I believe, I had seen the idea of making smoothies ahead of time, freezing them in small portions, and keeping them in the freezer at-the-ready.  I was in love with this idea (yay for OAMC!), but somehow didn't pin it, and in the meantime, lost it.  Argh.  After a LOT of searching pinterest and a few of my favorite blogs, I realized I wasn't going to find the original post.  Luckily for me, there were a ton of other great ideas out there.  I looked at a bunch of different ideas and then came up with my own.

Strawberry Freezer Smoothies:

• Freeze yogurt in ice cube trays.  For me, a 32 oz container of yogurt filled 2 ice cube trays.
• Fill resealable baggies with 2 cubes of yogurt and around 3/4 cup of fruit.  (I already had some strawberries frozen, so I used those.  If you are putting fresh fruit in your bags, flash freeze them first so you don't end up with one big clump.  To flash freeze, lay each individual piece of fruit on a cookie sheet & freeze).
• Since the resealable sandwich bags I used aren't freezer bags, I put them all in one gallon sized freezer bag.....no freezer burn & it corrals them all into one place.

• To serve, add milk & honey and blend until it's the texture you like.
• Note:  I froze individual servings because I have one of the Magic Blender knock-offs.  If you are making a regular blender full, just adjust the amounts accordingly.

I also decided to try the Green Monster Smoothies I have been seeing.  I am not a huge vegetable fan (AKA I despise most vegetables) and figure if I can sneak a few in here and there, it will be a huge health benefit!  Now, a bright GREEN (spinach) smoothie isn't exactly hiding anything, but trust me, they taste delicious....not vegetable-y at all!

I made two different green smoothies.  For my first batch, I used the basic ingredients of the recipe at NaturallyElla.  I used what I had on hand - so regular milk instead of almond milk, and no flaxseed.  I whipped up the smoothies and froze them in the ice cube trays.  When I prepare these, I'll need to thaw them out a little first, since I won't be adding anything to them.

I also made up my own (similar) version, this time without the milk so it didn't take up so many of my ice cube trays....I can easily add the milk in the day I make them.  I blended 4 large handfuls of spinach, 2 bananas, and added some canned pineapple on hand that I needed to use up, along with it's juice to make blending easier.  (I did use my large blender for this).  To serve, take 2 or 3 of the frozen spinach cubes, add a few yogurt cubes, some milk & honey, and blend.  There you have it.  A spinach smoothie.  Sounds delightful, doesn't it?  But seriously, folks, they are gooooood!  Take a toddler's word for it.....she LOVED it so much she had two!

So easy, and if your family loves smoothies, having some ready-made packs on hand can be a huge time & money saver (have you ever priced the frozen smoothie packs at the grocery store?!)  I love that you can be creative and throw in whatever fruits you have.....it's impossible to make a bad smoothie or get the recipe wrong!

Bonus:  the strawberry smoothies will be perfect for my kids' Valentine's Day breakfast tomorrow!  (Looking for other quick things to do for Valentine's Day?  Click here!)

And the green spinach smoothie will definitely be on the menu for St. Patrick's Day!
 

Linking to:  Craft-O-Maniac,