We came up with the idea for these easy make-ahead smoothies the year my son started school and our mornings got crazy. My husband is gone before anybody wakes up which leaves me one hour to get myself and three kids five and under fed, dressed, packed up for the day and out the door. I found myself falling in to the temptation of offering cereal and a banana every morning often enough that we wanted to have some healthier options for a quick breakfast.
Inspired by an expensive, sugar-filled smoothie kit I saw in the freezer section at the grocery store, we created our own smoothie kits. Basically, I put all the smoothie ingredients ahead of time in quart size freezer Ziploc bags and then throw it in the blender, add milk and yogurt and voila, a one minute healthy breakfast option.
And yes, you could 100% pull all of these ingredients out separately each morning to make a smoothie and it probably wouldn’t take that much longer. But any way to speed up the morning process for parents with school-age kids or folks who work early in the morning or even for those who pack meals for their spouse is a win in my book!
The recipe below is basically what I’ve been using as a base. You can change it anyway you want for your family. Get creative and experiment to see what is yummy. Add or omit ingredients based on what you like or have in your kitchen.
Ingredients
1/2 Cup Frozen Blueberries*
1 Cup Frozen Strawberries*
1 Sliced Banana
1/2 Cup Pineapple*
4 Green Ice Cubes (see below) or 1-2 cup Greens (Spinach, Kale, Chard)
*Use whatever fruit you have on hand! This just gives you an idea of proportion sizes.
Directions
Combine all above ingredients in freezer bags, seal and freeze. When ready to use, pull out bag, put in blender and add 1 – 1.5 cups of liquid (options for liquid in tips section below).
Blend and drink! If smoothie is too thick, add more liquid.
Makes 4-5 smoothies (approximately 8 ounces).
Tips
- Start with frozen ingredients – If everything is thrown in the bag before being frozen, it will all clump together, is hard to get out of the bag and can jam up your blender. I find that if half of my ingredients have already been flash frozen, I can throw the others in and it still separates easily when I put it in the blender. I’d suggest you flash freeze some of your ingredients before putting them in the kits if you don’t have a powerful blender like a Blendtec or Vitamix.
- Green ice cubes – Basically, in the summer when I have lots of fresh produce and greens in my garden I puree them in the blender with a little water and pour them in ice cube trays, pop them out and put them in a Ziploc for the times I don’t have fresh greens. I throw them in pasta, smoothies and soups.
- Liquids – You can use any liquid you like. Some ideas are water, almond milk, coconut milk, whole or non-fat milk, rice milk, orange juice, or apple juice.
Optional Add-Ins
Feel free to experiment and add anything you like in your smoothies!
These are a few items I’ve added in the past.
Flax seed
Hemp seed
Chia seeds
Avocado
Any fruit (pineapple core is yummy!)
Raw steel cut oats
Wheat germ
Pumpkin puree
Cinnamon
Barlean’s fish oil (also found at Costco)
Gelatin
Probiotics (Costco has some good options!)
Good quality whey protein
Homemade yogurt
Shredded coconut
Peanut butter or powdered peanut butter
Leave a comment below if you have any additional smoothie add-in ideas!
If you’re like me and don’t adore cleaning green mustache faces every morning, we use these Stainless Steel Drinking Straws for our smoothies. This pack of 6 straws are 100% stainless steel and are rust and scratch proof AND it comes with two cleaning brushes. Makes clean up so much easier in the morning!
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Green ice cubes?!?!!! Brilliant! 🥰