Smoothie Basics to Stock Your Freezer With...

Hey friends!! Today is a day to be celebrated. For the past 12 weeks I have wanted nothing to do with smoothies. I could eat the fruit separately, but talk to me about putting them together in a drink and my stomach would turn. Well this morning I woke up and my food aversion towards smoothies has let up. I was able to make my family protein smoothies and not get queasy. It was a hallelujah moment friends. Yeah for morning sickness taking a rest today.

As I was getting our smoothie supplies together, I thought it might be nice to share what my basic smoothie goodies are and how we like to use them.

I like to have a variety of frozen fruit. We use frozen strawberries, mangoes, blueberries, and bananas. I buy a few extra bunches of bananas throughout the month. I then freeze them to use when we are out of fresh bananas. Having a frozen option for bananas allows me to stretch out my produce trips because no matter what type of smoothie I make, I love a banana in it. I typically buy the rest of our frozen fruit at Winco. I get my bag of strawberries for just under $9 a bag.

We also use canned pineapple, peaches, pears, and mandarin oranges for smoothies. I buy these in bulk when they're on sale.

We like to add chia seeds often to our smoothies. Chia seeds are an excellent source of protein and are full of omega-3 fatty acids. They actually contain more omega-3's than salmon. They also act like little scrub brushes in your intestines. My kids always think that tidbit is hilarious :)

We love to have almond milk, apple juice, and orange juice on hand. I buy apple juice in bulk, almond milk from Costco, and orange juice from concentrate at Winco. I store the oj in the freezer, until I'm ready to make some juice for smoothies.

For protein powder, we stick with Target's Market Pantry vanilla and chocolate powders. We get them for under $20 and they last us about a month or two, depending on how often we use them. We also buy pb2 powder. It's dehydrated peanutbutter, so you get the pb taste and protein, but not all the fat and calories. We love to mix a scoop of chocolate protein powder, two tablespoons of pb2 powder, 1 banana, 1 tbl chia seeds, and almond milk for a yummy dessert smoothie. Oh this one is delicious! :)

Oh and I can't forget spinach. Spinach is a great source of folate and can be blended into any smoothie. Spinach is sneaky because it doesn't have a huge taste in smoothies. You can sneak it into your kids drinks without them realizing. Our favorite spinach smoothie is a handful of spinach leaves, 1 banana, 4 strawberries, 1/4 cup blueberries, and juice. Blend and enjoy!

We use our nutri bullet for mixing, but any blender will do.

What are your smoothie basics? Oh and what are your favorite recipes? I'm always looking for new smoothie ideas :)

XO Danielle