A MONTH’S WORTH OF GREEN SMOOTHIES – ONLY ONE DAY OF PREP!

Ingredients

1 oz Kale

1 oz Spinach or 1/2 c Parsley

1  Apple

1/2 Orange (optional)

1 Banana 

2- 4 oz water
Ice (optional)

I got Vincent hooked on green smoothies by going to a local smoothie shop for a way to get my picky eater some veggies.  Their Green smoothie was a hit with him! As I watched closely at the ingredients they were adding to their high tech smoothie machine, I thought, I can totally make these at home for him in my Cuisinart blender! The local smoothie shop was closing their doors in a month, so I asked the girl to write down the recipe exactly the way they made it.  So for half the price and the drive just to get veggies in my toddler,  I make them at home!

With so many fresh ingredients, green smoothies require a fair amount of prep.  For one batch, which produces 2 smoothies (usually shared between Vincent and I), I found that I was spending a lot of time in the kitchen washing and chopping kale, parsley and apples, oranges – something I rarely have time for in the mornings! Except when my husband says "Let's juice" then I step away and make breakfast! Yipee!

Another issue I was finding on my green smoothie brigade is that sometimes my kale or spinach goes bad before I can turn them into delicious, nutritious, morning delights.  I HATE seeing food go to waste, so chucking the last few leaves of kale and spinach because I can’t chug my vitamins fast enough is NOT okay with me. Thank goodness we grow parsley!

My solution has been to bulk prep, freeze, and blend as needed – and it’s been working beautifully!

I chop up an entire bunch of kale and an entire bunch of parsley all at one time and measure them out into freezer bags – one green smoothie batch per freezer bag.  Then I fill each bag with one peeled and chopped Granny Smith apple, and one peeled and chopped banana.  (I don’t add any liquid to the freezer bags; I wait until I’m ready to blend to add water.)

I typically get about 8-10 batches of green smoothies per 1 bunch of kale and 1 bunch of parsley.  (Don’t worry if you end up having more kale than parsley or vice versa – just divide your extras evenly amongst the batches.)

When you’re ready for your green smoothie fix, simply fill your blender with water, open up your freezer, and toss in a bag of already prepared smoothie ingredients!  The best part is – there’s no need to thaw your ingredients!  Toss them in frozen, blend, and a minute later you’ll have 2 nice cold smoothies ready to enjoy!  (Or one to enjoy now with your child or one to refrigerate for later!)

Your green smoothie ingredients can keep in the freezer for easily a month and still taste great when you blend them.  I’ve even had green smoothie ingredients frozen for over two months that I’ve blended up and they still taste as great as a freshly chopped up smoothie!  (Don’t worry if your bananas brown up a little bit in the freezer – they’ll still taste great in your smoothie, I promise.)

Here are more ideas I'm fixing to try this weekend:

Cinnamon Apple Smoothie: Unsweetened vanilla almond milk, spinach, apple, chia seeds, and cinnamon.  

Coconut & Banana Smoothie: unsweetened cocunut milk, kale, frozen banana, raw cacao, cocunt oil, flaxseed and vegan vanilla protein powder.

But, honestly, the combinations are deliciously endless, and if you have a favorite of your own I’d love to hear about it!

Happy Smoothie-ing!