I love smoothies, but don't always have the fresh ingredients available on hand when I really want one. What was the solution? Prepackage and freeze individual portions!
Below is my absolute favorite smoothie recipe, but you can switch out the orange juice with milk, soy milk, or yogurt (plain or flavor of choice) and any type of berry or combination of berries go well with the banana; for example 1/2 cup blackberries and 1/2 cup strawberries instead of the 1 cup of raspberries. Want to add extra nutrition? Put in a tablespoon or two of vanilla protein powder while blending.
This recipe is for one serving so plan accordingly if you would like a few smoothies ready to have on hand.
Pour orange juice into a container that holds over eight ounces and where the opening is as wide or wider than the bottom of the container (this makes for easy removal once the fluid has frozen). Freeze for at least four hours (I use either 10 oz. Pyrex ramekins or empty cottage cheese containers).
Once frozen remove fluid from container and place into a re-sealable plastic bag, add raspberries and banana, remove as much air as possible and store in freezer.
When ready to serve simply place contents of the bag into a blender and blend until smooth.
By Deeli from Richland, WA
This page contains the following solutions.
I make a lot of edible fruit bouquets which produces a lot of fruit waste. To minimize this, I began saving the "scraps" and tossing them in the freezer. To my surprise, the frozen fruit makes great smoothies and I even use them to flavor my water.
This is a way to save that uneaten yogurt that is near its expiration date. I toss the yogurt container in the freezer and add it to smoothies in the blender as needed.
Use chilled, unsweetened green tea as the replacement for juice or milk in smoothies. The tea is cheaper per serving and provides antioxidants without the sugar of juice.
Frozen bananas make the best smoothies. Blend together bananas, lemon juice, and honey or sugar. Add water, milk, soya milk, or yogurt.
Slice banana into blender. Add remaining ingredients. Blend until pureed. Serve immediately.
Blend until all ingredients are combined. If the mixture seems too thick, add a little bit more milk. If it seems too runny, add a little more frozen strawberries.
I make a smoothie every day with milk, soy milk, banana, apple, frozen fruits and ground flax seed. I make sure I leave a tablespoon or so when I'm done and I massage it gently into the skin on my face and throat.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
Does anyone know of some good recipes to make smoothies, the kind that also help you lose weight? I saw one advertised but I don't want to spend $30.00 on the recipe book. Thanks so much for all the help that I can always get here. This site is a real lifesaver.
It's important to know that if you want to lose weight, the smoothie should be the meal replacement, not an addition to a meal. If that's the case, you want to add protein to the smoothie, not only for nutritional value, but because protein burns fat and makes you feel full. Some supermarkets carry both whey and soy protein - it can also be found at GNC and other sources online. It comes in many flavors and you may want to try several different kinds - just put a scoop or two into your smoothie before blending and you have a delicious protein filled meal that will hold you until lunch or dinnertime.
No such thing as an easy weight loss fix. I make my protein smoothies to drink in place of a meal, however, using 8 oz liquid-low or no cal, 1 scoop protein powder, a handful of ice cubes, and, unless I am making a coffee sm,oothie, fozen fruit. I love using cold coffee, vanilla pro. pwder and ice-the only colroies are the pro powder and this varies depending on the brand you get. I also use low-cal/no sugar fruit juice-4-5 oz juice to same amt of water, pro powder, ice and a handful of fzozen berries or a small banana. Nothing magic about weight loss-just consuming less calories. Note that this is in place of a meal, not in addition to!
I don't know if you've ever heard of Dr. Oz, who has written the "YOU..." books, the latest, YOU: On a Diet. He's on Oprah alot. Anyway, last time he was on Oprah, he gave a breakfast replacement shake that contains flaxseed oil and psyillium seed husks, both of which are fantastic to promote weight loss. He has a lot of free information available on the http://www.realage.com website in case you want to check that out too.
The Quick Magical Breakfast Blaster
2 servings, 136 calories per serving
1 scoop (1/3 cup) Soy protein (like Natire's plus Spiru-Tein)
1/2 tablespoon flaxseed oil
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 large ripe banana (or other fruits of your choice)
1/2 tablespoon apple juice concentrate or honey
1 teaspoon Psyillium seed husks
Peel banana; break into chunks. Put all ingredients in a blender. Add 12 ounces of water and ice, as well as powdered vitamins. Cover, blend until fairly smooth.
Is there a weight losing smoothie that anyone knows about? I want it filled with antioxidants!
I have lost some 40lbs on my own but now i want something that can help me lose the remaing must faster. Please give me some weight loss tips than I can use to speed up the process.
Hi Jamish, Great idea to start using smoothies as a means for weight loss. It's important to note two things; firstly, smoothies should be used in replacement of either snacks or one meal - but should not be a replacement for a balanced diet. Secondly, be sure to target smoothies that will leave you feeling full, especially if you are replacing your breakfast cereal or similar. You can find recipes with oats in that will help you achieve this by combing carbs, fibre and a low GI index (how fast energy is released to your body).
If you wish to see some of my free recipes, I would love you to send me some feedback :) check it out at wwww.healthysmoothies.co.uk/ on the recipe page. Hopefully these will keep you on track to achieve your weight loss goals. Regards, Alex
Smoothies are great but can be also very rich of things you don't want to get into your system. So it's always better to make your own. A good resouce for that you can see here: htpp://harvesteating.com
Another great article one can benefit from can be read here: bit.ly/
Anyone have some good recipes for blending green smoothies?
By judy from Riverside, CA
I found this amazing blogspot on line it is called Barefeet in the Kitchen. Here is a link to it:
barefeetinthekitchen.blogspot.com/
Scroll thru the index till you get to smoothies and she has a bunch of them. I tried her yogurt and frozen fruit of choice and it came out awesome. I also make it with a chilled can of coconut milk, fresh frozen strawberrys and a squish of raw honey and a 1/4 tsp of Pure Vanilla extract (not imitation) This is so darn delish! Wow.
Enjoy!
Smoothies are a wonderful breakfast alternative but some blenders cannot handle the ingredients and ice and will get jammed. This page has advice about what is the best blender for making smoothies.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
Any time I have berries that are not pretty enough to serve, put on cereal or bananas that are over ripe, I make my own recipes for smoothies.
