It’s certainly not the case that you need someone to tell you how to make a smoothie. Put a melange (this is my word of the week) of fruits into a blender, add a liquid, find the blender lid, hold onto your hat (figuratively, mostly), and blend the mixture up. Pour into a glass. Convince yourself you’re about to drink a milkshake. Place the blender in the sink, fill it with water, and neglect to clean it for two days. Decide you want another smoothie, curse yourself for leaving the blender in the sink for so long, wash, and well… do the hold dang thing over again.
So. Now that we have that mutual understanding, I want to introduce you to the VERY low-tech meal-planning happening that’s going down in my kitchen these days. It involves freezer bags, a little time, about 11% of brain power, bananas and berries that are about to lose their cool and go bad, nut and seeds, and a podcast to pass the time.
There are a lot of prohibitive factors when it comes to making smoothies. Mostly it’s the fact that I’m often out of one very important ingredient: no banana, no almond milk, no desire to actually drink a smoothie. You know. The best intentions can go sideways pretty quickly.
By combining smoothie bags made of single-portioned fruit, nuts, and butters, and keeping them in the freezer- all you need in the refrigerator is your milk or juice of choice and you’re smoothie bound.
I swear it’s simple!
Here’s how this goes:
- Grab several sandwich-size sealing freezer bags. Earth-friendly note: consider using freezer-safe tupperware OR stick with sandwich bags, rinse them and reuse them several times. I reuse my bags and really they stay very clean once the fruit and veggies come out!
- What sort of fruit do you have that’s going bad? What do you like in smoothies? Bananas and berries are a great place to start. I chose bananas, strawberries, and blueberries.
- Pick a green. I chose spinach.
- In each bag place a handful of greens, a handful of sliced strawberries or whole blueberries, and half a banana (sliced).
- Add a dollop of almond butter, if you’d like.
- Add a few raw cashews or walnuts, if you’d like.
- Add a sprinkle of whole flax seeds or chia seeds (these buggers will thicken a smoothie when blended so go easy).
- Fold and seal the bag, label the outside with the date and ingredients using a permanent marker, and store in the freezer until ready to use!
When you’re ready for a smoothie… well, first things first, you’ll feel like you’re a real genius who is lookin’ out for yourself. Place the frozen fruit in a blender, add a cup of milk or juice (you might add more depending on how thick you like things to be). Blend and… tahdaaah! Frozen fruit makes for the best smoothies and you’re a success.
Here are some of the extras I add to my smoothies:
- flax seeds – get the whole flax seeds, not the meal.
- chia seeds
- Garden of Life – Raw Proteins and Greens
- Vital Proteins (this version with why, banana and vanilla is very compelling to me.)
- maca powder
- coconut oil
- almond or peanut butter
- raw cashews and walnuts
- matcha powder
To our great smoothie success.
xo
Rob
I love this idea very much!
I’m going to give it a try but not use plastic bags to store the fruit.
It would be nice to see you use a green alternative for the bags as well.
David Kimani
Amazing .
Winnie
This is such a good reminder for me that I should prep smoothies ahead of time. I always end up having fewer than my intentions. I’ll do this on the weekend.
Juliette
I started making smoothies with my immersion/stick blender because it’s so much easier to clean. It seems to handle frozen fruit just fine and doesn’t sap my will to live every time I use it (like the blender does).
Melissa @ Insider The Kitchen
Wonderful idea! Now to get my hubby to eat a smoothie :)
kamal
better way to make a smoothie
Korrin
Smoothies are the best! I don’t morning well so my favorite smoothie is: coffee, chocolate protein powder, roasted hazelnuts, a banana, oats, and spinach (because, vegetables). It tastes like caffeinated Nutella :)
Charlene
I have an “old style” blender and love it for smoothies. I put everything in a pint jar, screw the blade and collar onto it and blend. Put a straw in the jar and done. The blade gets rinsed and the jar goes in the dishwasher.
joythebaker
You’ve got the system down!
Emme
May I gently suggest that we all use something reusable like Pyrex or Tupperware, given that these go straight into a landfill and this would be a small, but good opportunity to take care of the Earth whilst she suffers from calving glaciers, dead reefs and the gradation of nonsense coming from the White House? Please and thank you.
joythebaker
This is a good point I’ll add to the post. I like using freezer safe bags because they take up less room in the freezer and it’s much easier to get the contents out by turning the bag inside out. I always reuse the bags because really, they say clean! I just rinse them out, dry them in the dish rack and reuse them several times.
Sherry Dietrich
I rotate, I actually rush to do a smoothie and pour it into a container and take it to work. I can’t seem to get up early enough to drink it too! This morning I had 2 bananas (not frozen), 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1 cup vanilla unsweetened almond milk, and 2 T. almond butter. Some other versions 1/2 a frozen banana, 1 apple, 1t. cinnamon, 2T. peanut butter, 1/2c. almond milk, and 1/4c. old fashioned oats. I have other versions with spinach. But now I think I’ll pre-prep and freeze these suckers! Great idea!
joythebaker
Great Sherry! I also love your addition of oats! I’m going to join you on that one!
Julie
“Place the blender in the sink, fill it with water, and neglect to clean it for two days. Decide you want another smoothie, curse yourself for leaving the blender in the sink for so long, wash, and well… do the hold dang thing over again.”
SO TRUE!
joythebaker
I know from years of experience.
Anna
So the literally GENIUS thing my fiance taught my recently…put water and soap in blender, and then run the blender and BAM! Clean. Easy peasy
joythebaker
WWUUUTTT. Game = changed
Amber - Loves Food, Loves to Eat
I even know this trick and have used this trick and can confirm it works like a charm and yet … the blender still ends up soaking in the sink for days.
Cy
My dad taught me this. Is truly is genius!
Poppy
i could never get on the smoothie train until i got a rocket blender. idk if it’s just because the cup sneaks in with the other cups, but it does get washed on the regular. now that i love smoothies, i want a blend-tec… ah the circle of life
Faith (Home Ec @ Home)
I have 4 kids and 3 of them are starting to get more independent in the kitchen. They would love both prepping these and having them ready to go in the freezer.
Sheila
Love your posts! You are chanelling Martha when you say mélaaaange. Can you hear her? yes? I make greek yogourt pucks to add to the frozen mélange! just add liquid and you’re done!
joythebaker
I love this idea! I think I’m always trying to channel Martha one way or another… rarely successful.
Cy
That’s a good thing! Martha is amazing, but ever just a bit too control freaky. Love her new show with Snoop Dog though!
fusilliamy
Any word that ends in -NGE is the best to say and probably part of why I love Solange.
I’ve been trying to make a smoothie a day because I’m lazy and you’re right – I feel less guilty about leaving my blender in the sink than other dishes! Also it makes me feel better about all the cheese I’m certain to eat later and Weelicious and her damn adorable children!! This is the inspiration I need to prep and make my life easier and if the spinach is already in the bag I can’t talk myself of using it! Can we talk about this Vital Proteins stuff? I really want to try it for my hair and skin which are not living their best life these days.
joythebaker
I can tell you that Vital Proteins combined with a once a week shower hair deep condition is a game changer! It’s expensive but I LOVE the stuff. I’ve seen a big difference in my hair and nails. And no taste. It’s a good thing.
Kelsey
Is melange your word of the week because you watched the LaCroix Boi video?? (I realized halfway through typing this that his word is ‘menage’ but I was too excited so I’m leaving it)
joythebaker
HAHAHAHA! Off to google what the heck you’re talking about.
Kelsey
You won’t be sorry!!
Ashlyn @ The Pedantic Foodie
Love this!! I love a good meal prep plan that requires minimal effort but still makes you feel like a freakin’ kitchen goddess. ;)
Natalia Elies
Can you please run for president??? Please????
Amy
We’ve just stocked our freezer with some little smoothie bags like this, ready for when our little one finally makes his appearance this summer. I just used fruit in mine, but I’m tempted to go back and add some little extras just for fun! I’ve got some coconut and almond butter that would go down a treat…
Mallory
Why whole flax seeds rather than meal? Do you grind them yourself before adding to the smoothie? I thought you had to grind them to get their nutritional benefits, so I always bought the meal (or had chia instead).
joythebaker
Whole flax seeds retain their nutrients much longer than the meal and once they’re in the bender with the rest of the ingredients, they grind into a meal releasing all their good stuff!
J-Mom
Cleaning food bits from nook and crannies of small appliances can be a pain. Maybe there will be self-cleaning ones in the future (doesn’t hurt to hope).
Laura
I do these a lot and love it as gifts for new moms too. One tip I love is after you blend and empty blender, add a drop of dish soap and some hot water and blend again. Clean blender!!
Kristen
Excellent idea for using up extra fruit, and showing your future self some love! Thanks, Joy!
BR
Yes! I do this and it gets all the little fruit bits out. A quick scrub of any stuck spots with a sponge and a rinse and you’re done cleaning up!
Jodi
Prohibitive factors <3 Great vocabulary in this post Joy. I'm diggin it.
Shannon
Sometimes you just need some visual motivation (isn’t that basically what Pinterest is?) to kick you into that next step. Thanks for the kick, Joy!
Rena
Thanks for sharing this great idea as I love smooties!
xx from Bavaria/Germany, Rena
http://www.dressedwithsoul.com