Make Ahead Smoothie Packets

Make Ahead Smoothie Packets

MAKE AHEAD GREEN SMOOTHIE PACKETS

Makes 8 smoothies (each bag is enough to make 2 smoothies)

• 1 container (18 ounces) fresh blueberries
• about 5 or 6 ounces fresh tender/baby spinach (I used about 1/2 of a 10 ounce bag)
• 4 ripe bananas

Use 4 quart-sized Ziploc plastic freezer bags. In each bag, place one banana, a big handful of spinach, and 1/4 of the blueberries.  Break up the bananas into a few pieces (this will help them blend more easily when frozen).  Place bags in freezer.

To make smoothies (makes 2 smoothies):  Place the contents of one bag into a blender.  Add 2 cups of unsweetened almond milk (or milk of your preference).  Add in a drizzle of honey, agave nectar, or maple syrup. Blend until smooth and enjoy!

Next time I do this, I will portion my ingredients into 8 smaller bags since I can't get anyone in my house to try my green smoothies.  They just don't know what they are missing.  This was a delicious treat and "NO!... you really cannot taste the spinach!"   

I have seen this idea for make ahead smoothie packets for months and am glad I gave it a try.  Here is my source of inspiration (click HERE) on a blog called Cleanfoodcrush.  The Cleanfoodcrush blog writer points out that making these up ahead of time is a huge time saver.  Who wants to assemble/wash/prep a bunch of ingredients for smoothies first thing in the morning?  And when you blend the frozen ingredients into the smoothie, the texture is thick, cold, and creamy like a milkshake.

I had these packets assembled in no time at all. It's also good to know I can freeze fresh spinach if I can't use it before it's about to go bad.  There is room for a lot of creativity with these make ahead packets.  In some recipes, I saw that you could freeze Greek yogurt in ice cube trays and make a "Peaches and Cream" smoothie with fresh peaches, some frozen yogurt ice cubes, and spinach.  I am sure I'll be making up all sorts of "recipes" for smoothies using this make ahead technique.