Friday, August 5, 2011

{The Basics} Smoothie Bag


I've spoken many times here about keeping a "stock bag". Whenever I'm using a whole chicken for a recipe, I save any remaining pieces I might have and store them in the freezer for when I make chicken stock.
Over the past year I have started using the same method for making a "smoothie bag". It came about around the same time my kids became smoothie obsessed. Both my boys love drinking them, but my older one is consumed with the smoothie.
He drinks them every day after school, as his snack. He drinks them for breakfast, or a pre-sports game snack. If he could he would drink them for every meal. But, I had to limit him to one a day...even with good things, it's easy to go overboard.

When it comes to buying organic, fruit is one area I always prioritize. There are so many fruits that are heavily sprayed and it freaks me out. However, buying frozen organic fruit is expensive, and it seemed like we were going through it way too quickly.
Then when it comes to buying fresh fruit...there are plenty of times when it doesn't get eaten fast enough and it's a waste not to use it. That's where the smoothie bag came into play. Any fruit that reaches the still good, but too bruised or soft stage, it gets cut up to freeze. I lay the frozen pieces out on a plastic wrap lined sheet pan and freeze them until hard.
Once they're completely frozen, I toss them in a resealable plastic bag, or storage container and keep them there until we're ready to use them. If you tossed them in the bag straight away the pieces of fruit would stick together. So, freezing them on the pan solves that issue. I have a second freezer, so I keep reusing the same lined pan over and over.

I like to group the fruit in bags based on what tastes good together...so we can grab a handful of whatever assortment is in there and it will taste good. For example, tropical fruit {banana, mango, pineapple}, berries {strawberries, blueberries, raspberries}, or stone fruits {nectarines, peaches, plums}.
My boys have become smoothie masters. Oftentimes developing their own recipes, or improvising with what we have on hand. I will be posting one of our favorites this weekend...

7 comments:

Joanne said...

What a great idea! My roommates and I do this with bananas but we haven't yet extended it to other fruit...guess now we will!

Alisa said...

I have at least one smoothie a day. But I'm going to have to try this out for the fruits. Have tried putting spinach or kale in your smoothies yet? Barely noticeable and a great way to get in an extra serving of veggies!

Rivki Locker said...

So funny. We do the SAME thing. My kids are completely self sufficient at making smoothies too. We have a Magic Bullet and they whip them up on their own!

Kathleen Richardson said...

Love this idea. It's a step up on my long time habit of freezing sliced bananas (which incidentally makes a good finger food for mom and kids on a hot, hot day.

No more freezing fruits separately; now I'll bag them in like groups. Also like Alisa's idea of adding a bit of veg!

tori said...

This is such a great idea. I've always just thrown whole manky bananas into the freezer, but then when I have to defrost them for smoothies or cakes, they make me so sad, the way they sag. Nb, have just discovered your blog and am kicking myself for taking so long. It's brilliant.

katie said...

Alisa-
I have tried adding greens to my smoothies, and I agree the taste blends right in if you're using tasty, sweet fruit...like apples, or bananas. I haven't tried it on my kids yet...it would take some convincing I think :)

Rivki-
We have a smoothie blender {system} very similar to the Magic Bullet, but made by Cuisinart. I LOVE it! It makes it so easy for my kids to make them on their own.

Davin said...

This sounds great! Do you add any liquid (yogurt, orange juice, etc.) to your smoothies?

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