If Your Freezer Is Not Smoothie Ready, Neither Are You!
You just came back from a run. Or yoga. Or you just finished doing your 10 minute breathing and movement invigoration with me at home. Yay! And now, you are salivating for that smoothie you want to make. You’ve been thinking about it during your workout and you can almost taste it. You run into the kitchen, pull open the freezer door and stand there in shock. “What? Are we out of blueberries??? No!!!!”
Today’s post makes sure that doesn’t happen to you, because it’s no fun to let a smoothie craving go unanswered.
Since I discovered healthy smoothies as the ideal way to fuel my body after a workout, I have taken my smoothie preparation very seriously. The good news is that it takes so little always be prepared for a delicious amazing smoothie full of nutrition.
The best part is that you don’t have to worry about most ingredients spoiling because they come right out of your freezer. You may still use some fresh spinach or kale, whatever you have in your fridge, and you may need fresh almond milk or coconut milk – I am too busy to make my own so I shop my favorite brands, and they last a good few weeks in the fridge.
But the bulk of your smoothie comes from frozen fruits in your freezer. This is definitely a bonus smoothie have over green juices – I love juicing but it does get frustrating when I don’t get around to using all my fresh produce.
When I was whipping up my 108 recipes for The Healthy Smoothie Bible, I experimented a lot in my kitchen, and super efficiency was my top priority, because making recipes for a book is a lot of hard work. So I learned to find the most common ingredients and stock them all the time. Don’t get me wrong – I am all for adding lots of variety to your smoothie, but having foundational the frozen goodies makes your life a lot easier. Here are the top 10 smoothie must-haves in your freezer.
I like to freeze my own fruit using large ziplock bags. I buy fresh fruit at the Farmer’s Market or at Whole Foods or wherever I can get mostly organic and super fresh produce, and then freeze them. I especially love to freeze my own berries, mangos, avocados, and dates!
10 Must-Haves in Your Freezer to Be Smoothie Ready
The list is in the order of priority. So in my humble smoothie-lover opinion, #1 is more important than #10. Also, #1, #2 and #3 can act as your ‘base’ ingredient which means they add the creamy texture of smoothie and bind the ingredients together nicely.
- Frozen bananas = peeled, halved.
- Frozen avocados = peeled, pitted, cut up into quarter size.
- Frozen mangos = peeled, pitted, cut up in quarter size.
- Frozen blueberries.
- Frozen strawberries = optional to leave the strawberry top on, I like to take them off.
- Frozen blackberries.
- Frozen peaches = unpeeled, pitted, cut into quarter size.
- Frozen raspberries.
- Frozen dates = pitted.
- Frozen cranberries.
Freezing Instructions for the Most “Fruitful” Outcome
Okay I know, that was clever, but hey, I love fruit and I hope you do too. Let me share some of my freezing instructions:
- Wash your fruit thoroughly.
- Discard any soft discolored and rotten fruit or cut out the questionable sections immediately.
- Dry your fruit completely using a paper towel or veggie towel.
- Cut up your fruit into the suggested sizes before freezing them, it helps you measure out what you need quickly with just an eyeball.
- Use one ziplock bag per fruit. You may not want the mixed version for your smoothie and it’s hard to separate out frozen fruit.
- Put today’s date on your ziplock bag with a permanent marker. This way you use your oldest fruit first if you have multiple bags. This is especially true for us with bananas because we go through a lot since I turned my hubby into a smoothie junkie, and he’s happy about it too. It’s helped him shed those extra pounds without much fuss!
There you have it. Don’t be caught off-guard without the 10 must have smoothie ingredients ever! This is serious stuff and a little planning goes a very long way.
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