Frugal Friday: Smoothies
Summer is here and that means lots of hot and humid weather in the great state of Kansas. What's the perfect treat for a hot summer day? Smoothies!
We loves smoothies in all shapes, kinds, colors, and sizes at our home and I've found quite a few ways to make them rather inexpensively. Here are just a few ideas:::Buy yogurt in 16 oz. containers when it goes on sale for $1.50 or so. We prefer vanilla or plain yogurt for our smoothies. I add about a 1/2 cup per four servings. You can also make your own yogurt. I've done this before with good success.
::We also sometimes use homemade kefir instead of yogurt. If you have a source for fairly inexpensive milk, this is especially a great option.
::Use whatever frozen or fresh fruit is on sale. Bananas are always a good staple item to throw in smoothies, we get ours at Aldi for $0.44/lb. You can freeze them or use them fresh. We prefer frozen as it helps give a thicker consistency to the smoothies. When frozen or fresh strawberries, raspberries, peaches, blueberries, kiwi, or blackberries are on sale, I try to stock up for smoothies. You can also check for prices from u-pick places, find a friend who has their own fruit trees or plants, or grow your own!
::Add in water, juice, sweetener and/or ice cubes to your liking. We usually add in 1/2 cup or so of apple juice or whatever other flavor of juice we have on hand. This just helps the smoothie mix up more quickly and be a bit "smoother". I also sometimes add in honey or Stevia to taste.
::We like to add flax seed to our smoothies for extra nutrition. Just add around 2-3 Tablespoons per four servings. You can buy this in bulk from the health food store or find it in the health food section of many grocery stores.
How we make our smoothies:I put the whole flax seeds into the bottom of the blender first (flax seeds are most nutritious when ground) and turn it on for 15 seconds or so until they are fully ground. Then I add the fruit, yogurt, and juice and blend until smooth (we prefer to use at least some frozen fruit to help give the smoothie a thicker, icier consistency). I add in extra juice, if needed, and Stevia, if desired. Pour into tall glasses and serve with straws! Delicious!
By buying the yogurt on sale and the fruit on sale and using at least a third or more bananas in the smoothies, they work out to be quite economical. And it's a very nutritional way to start off your day! Also, you can make a batch of fruit smoothies up and then just freeze into popsicles molds or Dixie cups with popsicle sticks for a refreshing afternoon snack.
Related: My friend, Jessica, has a great Blueberry Pineapple smoothie recipe here that we've been using a lot recently.
Does your family make smoothies? If so, what are your favorite things to put in them?
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Labels: Frugal Friday
posted by Crystal Paine at 5:18 PM
38 Comments:
Wow, it is so funny that you wrote this today. I was just sitting here blogging, thinking "I want to make a smoothie!" I absolutely LOVE them. I make all kinds - berries and yogurt, banana and peanut butter, chocolate and strawberries. Yours look so yummy! Thanks for the great ideas!
Yummy! I like your idea of using apple juice to make a smoothie "smoother." I will have to try that next time. The last smoothie I made consisted of banana, soymilk, ice cubes, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. Delish! (Especially right after one has a wisdom tooth taken out!)
Blessings,
Amanda
How do you freeze bananas? We got a huge bag of reduced bananas because I figured we could just stick them in the freezer and thaw them as my son wanted one...but when we pulled it out of the freezer, the peel was black, and after it melted, it was just banana mush, so we ended up tossing most of them. What did I do wrong?
We love smoothies too! I just posted about this yesterday. You can check it out here:
http://blessedfemininity.blogspot.com/2008/06/smoothie-anyone.html
I love your recipes ~ thanks for sharing!
Hi Crystal,
I just linked my very first Frugal Friday post but forgot to put what it was about in parenthesis! Is there a way to change it?
Sorry, I'm kind of new at this1 =)
Melanie
Thank you so much for continuing to host Frugal Fridays each week. It is such a blessing!
oops, I figured out how to do it. I had to delete it and redo it.
Live and learn!
Melanie
Hi. Your smoothie recipes sound delightful! You mentioned freezing bananas? I had no idea you could freeze fresh fruit. Do you mind sharing your tried and true ways?
Thanks for posting.
We make smoothies all the time here, unfortunately more as "dessert" than a whole meal of breakfast. :) I LOVE your flaxseed idea. How pathetic that I was pulling out my coffee grinder to grind them into the blender. DUH!!! Thanks so much for sharing your ideas.
I'm sure you've heard of Agave nectar, but we usually put that in our smoothies instead of honey. Or Stevia, like you mentioned. Love agave!!!
I love smoothies, and so I finally bought a blender this summer. I decided to get an immersion blender, and that makes it easier to make up just the amount I want at once. I don't know how well an immersion blender would work with the flax seed, but I use a burr mill for my flax seed. Strawberry and banana are probably my favorite smoothie ingredients.
For those asking about freezing bananas- I would definitely peel them before freezing, and I think slicing them sometimes helps- after the slices are frozen they can go into a container.
Another great addition to smoothies...that moved our recipe from "good" to "delicious"... was vanilla extract. Yummy!
We bought one of the smoothie makers and it sits on the counter in the summer. (My blender is part of a larger unit and we find it too cumbersome to pull out every time we want a smoothie.) I start with plain yogurt, a banana if we have them, any leftover canned fruit we might have, juice of some kind (lemonade is especially good), and if I still have room for more liquid items, I might add milk. For frozen ingredients, I usually use frozen strawberries, ice cream, sherbet and/or ice cubes. I have used frozen bananas, too.
Other ingredients I've used include coconut milk, maraschino cherry juice, tonic water, and frozen mixed fruit.
Okay, not to gross you out at all, but have you ever added any greens to your smoothies? You just put a handful of romaine lettuce (as its so mild-tasting that you can't even really taste it) into the bottom of your blender with some water and blend it up first before adding your fruits and whatnot. Its DELICIOUS and it ups the nutrient content of your smoothie exponentially. My 3yo and 21mo LOVE them. I drink them by the quart.
Here's a link to the famous "Ode to Green Smoothies" by Victoria Boutenko:
http://www.emaxhealth.com/14/1182.html
To freeze bananas- you need to peel them first, cut them into chunks, and then put them in freezer bags. They can substitute for ice cubes if you want to thicken your smoothie without making it watery.
You can also make banana ice cream with frozen bananas. If you have a food processor, just defrost your bananas enough so that they will blend. Add a little bit of milk, soy milk, or water... maybe a little peanut butter... and then just blend and whip until its the consistency of soft serve. Its soooo delicious and its raw, so you and your kids are getting loads of nutrients without any sugar.
To funny. I just wrote down my smoothie recipe the other day. I guess it was perfect timing.
Blessings,
Kim
We love, love, love smoothies!
Since yogurt is so expensive, the organic one with no preservatives, I have taken to just making my smoothies with fruit. They still taste great and are healthy!
A dollop of coconut oil tastes great and is super healthy too! You can also throw in a handful of greens and no one will notice, as well as some raw nuts for protein!
We are a smoothie family! My hubby was just telling someone how quiet the house gets when the children are slurping up their smoothies! Nectarines/Peaches are wonderful in smoothies. We were so surprised the first time we tried that.
I learned about freezing bananas the hard way! You have to peel them first, and then stick them in a freezer bag. I actually like to cut them up and then put them in the freezer, so it's easier on the blender. They make the smoothie so creamy!
I add spinach or other greens to my smoothies for a "green Smoothie" Lots of extra veggie goodness, but you can't really taste it!
Now I want a smoothie!!!!
I also thing its so weird you posted this today, I am making smoothies for breakfast for the first time today (before I even saw this).
And to the posters who asked how to freeze banana's, you have to peel them first. We froze banana's before to make chocolate covered banana pops!
sounds wonderful! I love smoothies! :)
Did you actually make that smoothie in that blender?! I am amazed. I used to have that blender, and it wouldn't even make a milkshake without "choking."
We make smoothies regularly in our Vita-Mix, and I like to add a few almonds for extra protein, as well as the flaxseeds for their benefits. Carrots are also a good veggie to add for a vitamin boost, as their flavor isn't very strong.
Any leftovers get poured into popsicle molds and popped in the freezer, so we (almost) always have a variety of healthy popsicles on hand.
Also, you may be able to find bananas cheaper. I think I have only once paid as much as 44 cents/lb. for bananas at Wal-Mart. They are usually around .33-.39, and fairly frequently .25.
As to freezing bananas, for those who have been asking - we peel them first. And you cannot freeze them for eating out of hand, because they DO get mushy. You can only freeze them for use in smoothies, baking, etc. (unless you plan to eat them while still frozen, as chocolate-covered bananas).
Smoothies look great, we're going to have to dig out the ole blender and start making some :o)
Rachel: Yes, our blender seems to work pretty well for smoothies. Someday maybe I'll get a Vita-Mix, though. It's on my want-to-buy-someday list. :)
I don't shop at Wal-Mart but maybe once every six weeks or so since it's out of the way and costs extra gas $$ and time and I don't usually find most of the prices to be worth it since I can normally beat them at our must-closer stores with sales and coupons. I'll have to check on bananas next time I'm there, though.
Aldi used to have their bananas priced at $0.33/lb which was the cheapest I could find anywhere. They just raised the price, but it's still about $0.12/lb cheaper than the other two stores I regularly shop at. And they sometimes let me buy off the extra going-bad bananas for like $0.10/lb. :)
I've been making smoothies like you described with the addition of kale. It's really good- you can't taste the kale over other fruits. Just throw in a couple raw leaves. I can get a big bunch of kale for $1, so it's a super cheap and healthy addition!
Smoothies are definately a summer treat for our house, too.
I love that everyone shares their knowledge here - I had no idea you could keep the frozen banana in good shape by peeling it. I just always ended using the black frozen ones for muffins, etc. Thanks to those who left the tip!
I love smoothies, and this looks fab. Thanks for the recipe! I wrote about using cloth grocery bags to take advantage of incentive programs...
Haven't been able to get my family hooked on smoothies yet.... now is probably a good time to start. Thanks for some inspiration!
Angela
Your smoothies look delicious! I might have to make some myself!
Smoothies are HUGE with my kids. I take the bananas that turn brown and freeze them just for this purpose. Trash to treasure...lol.
I've been making smoothies recently and thought about blogging about it... thank you for posting this!
I have a question - is this all you give your kids for breakfast, or does something go with it?
I absolutely love making smoothies for my family and I. My 5 yo daughter is rather picky about eating vegetables, but she willingly drinks spinach in her smoothies. I often add flax seed to my smoothies too! Great tip to share!Homemade smoothies give such a vital dose of pep for us busy mothers. Blessings!
I'm not much of a yogurt fan, so we just throw in all sorts of veggies and fruits! Right now we are using spinach or red leaf lettuce, broccoli, blueberries, grapes, watermelon, carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, pears, mangoes, raspberries, blackberries, bananas, strawberries...every now and then I thrown in an orange but it makes the texture different. Pretty much we use what we have. I guess we have a lot of stuff in our farm box right now! But I agree w/a bunch of other people, my kid probably wouldn't eat this many raw fruits and veggies, so it's great to see him drinking down a green smoothie =)
Love your blog! You have some really great tips and advice. Did your husband go to PHC? I saw him wearing one of their t-shirts in one of your pics. My cousin went there!
http://web.mac.com/smerkin83/Site/Welcome.html
Rachel R- Where do you live that Wal-mart has bananas at .30/pound? I used to be able to get them for about .45, but they are up to .60/pound now, and that includes at Wal-mart!
I love green smoothies. I use spinach frequently and am amazed that they still are so sweet tasting, especially if I use banana in it.
I love smoothies but I hate cleaning the blender- it's so messy- any tips?
Hi Crystal! I am new to blogging...and not as consistent as you are...I recently randomly discovered your blog and I LOVE it! Thanks for sharing. I just wanted to share our favorite smoothie recipe. It came from "Runners World" magazine...so it's healthy and yummy. :)
* 1 cup orange juice
* 2 pineapple rings (canned pineapples in it's own juice) + about 2 tablespoons of the pineapple juice
* 1 banana
* 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
* 1/2 cup frozen fruit of your choice...our favs are frozen cherries or peaches...but I use whatever is on sale or in the freezer
* a handful or dry, roasted, salted sunflower seed (obviously no shells)
Blend and enjoy! This makes 2 large adult servings. The sunflower seeds give it an interesting texture and turn a traditional sweet treat to mostly sweet and a little salty...it sounds weird but it is soooo yummy...sortof like chocolate covered pretzels or kettle corn...except this mostly sweet/wee bit of salty treat is healthy! Does is get any better? :)
We LOVE smoothies too! We call them "banana juice"...since my 3 year old won't eat bananas or drink milk, I started making smoothies. I add ground flaxseed, Juice Plus and Calcimu/Magnesium (since he's not drinking milk!). They are so delicious!
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