Recently my husband has been eating smoothies for breakfast. It's a healthy way to start the day and I'm all for it. Trouble was he was buying those expensive Yoplait Smoothies. I decided we could make them ourselves I mean it's just yogurt with frozen fruit. I can do that.
So first thing was first, I went to Sam's club and bought some frozen fruit. True I could have bought the fruit and frozen it, which is what I did with the bananas, but we just don't have mango's here in this frozen place.
For the bananas I cut them up into slices and put some wax paper on a cookie sheet and then froze them. The bananas stuck to the wax paper but it wasn't hard to get off and I couldn't think of any other way to do this. Any better ideas?
Next I went to Fred Meyer's and bought some yogurt that was on sale. Then I took my ice cube tray and froze my yogurt.
Here's some all done up. The problem with doing this, I forget the yogurt is done in the freezer. I blame kids, I think they take brain cells every time. Plus I was spacey before this so I had no hope.
Then I put half a cup of one fruit or mix in and half a cup of another fruit or mix in. I also added 3-4 cubes of yogurt.
You seal the bag and put it in the freezer. The nice thing is I made a lot and still have a lot of frozen fruit left over. Sometimes I'll add milk to the smoothies but they're best with some juice.
I added some wheat germ to a smoothy, I put some in the blender blended the germ so it wouldn't be as noticeable and then added the rest. Best part was, you didn't know it was there. These are a great way to start the day or end the day with a sweet not fattening treat.
Update February 12, 2012:
So I've been making smoothies for my husband most mornings around 4 mornings a week. I haven't had to make another batch of smoothie mixes since this original post. I think that's amazing. Although we are getting low so I'll be needing to make more soon.
I've also wondered how to add vegetables to the mixes. My husband doesn't care for vegetables and usually avoids them. I wanted to add some vegetables to his morning smoothies but not have him notice. That way he gets a little vegetables everyday. I turned to my friend cauliflower. It's such a great vegetable to sneak into food. It's fairly bland with a wonderfully easy color to hide.
Here's how I get cauliflower into the smoothies. You can't leave it in it's fresh form, it ends up making the smoothie grainy. My husband is interesting and can't handle chunks or grainy in his smoothies. I bought fresh cauliflower, cooked it until it was soft and then put it in the food processor with the water it was cooked in. It's important to add the water, you need it to make the cauliflower a smooth mix. Blend it until it's smooth and creamy. Then I take the ice cube trays and put the creamed cauliflower and freeze it. Once it's frozen pop the now cauliflower pops into a freezer bag. Throw one or two into the smoothie and I promise you or who ever you're making it for will never notice.
I've also added in frozen spinach, just be careful to not add too much or you get a green smoothie.
Next time I make my cauliflower pops, I'll take pictures.
