Easy Smoothies

                            Easy Smoothies

As a busy stay at home mom, I love thinking ahead and preparing for meals. Recently my daughter, Liberty, and I have been on a fruit smoothie kick for breakfast or after school snacks. I would go to the fridge, get the milk and yogurt. Get the individual bags of each frozen fruit out of the freezer. Then I remember to defrost a banana out of the freezer. Then, sometimes, I remember that I like to put a little orange juice concentrate in my smoothies-like my friend Martha does. So, back in the fridge for that. In between each of those tasks, I take each item across the kitchen to where I keep my blender.I really need to move that thing closer to the fridge. Oh yeah, then I would remember the protein powder! Dig that out and get started. By now I am exhausted and irritated. And all we wanted was to enjoy  healthy smoothie!

Today I decided to plan ahead and make smoothie bags. Here they are:

 I recently purchased frozen bags of sliced strawberries, blueberries, and peach slices from Aldi. The cheapest place ever! I also scored a huge tub of plain yogurt at Costco. And the protein powder is to keep us fuller longer. I purchased this one at Walmart. 

So, to get started on simplifying my kitchen smoothie traffic, I got out my trusty sandwich size ziplocs. I opened each one and rolled down the zipper, one turn, so I could pour stuff into them and they would stay open for me. I started with about a third of a cup of frozen blueberries. Then I added the sliced strawberries, about one third of  a cup again. Next I added about four peach slices. (Side note- I always buy a bunch of bananas, with visions in my head of my family eating all of the nutritious fruit. Then, Libby and Scott eat one each and the rest start to brown. I end up throwing them in my freezer with dreams of someday making banana bread. Today I had 10 bananas in my freezer! So I have been defrosting them enough to peel them, then adding to our smoothies!) So, I added a whole peeled banana to each bag of frozen fruit. DONE! This really only took 5 minutes to prepare all these bags. 

Now I have in my freezer, 7 bags of fruit, ready to go into smoothies. And since I freed up all that space in my brain for planning fruit for our smoothies, maybe this will be an easier process for me. I will throw a bag of fruit in the blender, along with a scoop of protein powder, a cup or so of milk and a couple tablespoons of OJ concentrate. 

Blend and enjoy!