Quick Smoothie Tip for Quicker, Healthier Smoothies!

Quick Tips for Yogurt Smoothies!

Strawberry Blueberry Yogurt Smoothie

Hey guys, sorry I didn't post on Friday, but we didn't even get groceries until late last night.  Being down to one car and Patrick working full-time, plus some, has greatly hindered my errand running.  This is actually somewhat good for our budget, bad for keeping food in the house!

Anyway, one of our favorite things to have for breakfast or snack time are smoothies.  I want the kids to keep yogurt in theirs, but they tend to not want to bother.  They end up with milk, frozen fruit and protein powder.  That, and more often than not, they end up with more fruit than anything.  For those on a tight budget, you know that fruit can get expensive, and we need to make it last.

This is what I use to get the yogurt in there!:)

So, the other day I made myself some strawberry protein yogurt (just plain, unsweetened yogurt, strawberries, blueberries and some protein powder.  And I made WAY too much.  This gave me a great idea.  When the kids were babies, I always pureed our food in a blender for them.  I then froze the puree in ice cube trays, leaving me with perfect serving sizes for a baby.  I thought this would be a perfect way to ration out the fruits and make sure the kids were getting some yogurt, too!

Blend the whole container of yogurt, strawberries and blueberries, some liquid stevia for sweetener.  I also added some vanilla protein powder.

I don't happen to have ice cube trays (but I'm going to get some now!), but I poured the rest of my yogurt in ziplock bags and told the kids these were our new smoothie cubes.  Now all they have to do is take some smoothie cubes, add some milk and blend away.  For moms with little ones, it can make smoothie time quicker for you too.

Tada!  I froze them in thin layers in ziplock bags, so one good knock on the edge of the table and it breaks apart for the blender!

Oh!  And a money saving tip... if you can find overripe bananas at your store (I've gotten a 5# bag for less than $1.50 before!) you can take them home, peel and chop into thick slices and freeze in zip lock bags... or, like I mentioned today, puree them with protein powder and yogurt for future smoothies.

*I say "protein powder" often, when, although I use extra protein powder, we use a raw, organic meal replacement powder for our kids snacks or breakfast.  Since we simply can not afford organic all the time, it is nearly impossible in this day and age to get enough nutrition out of our food.  This is not a typical diet meal replacement with artificial sweeteners and sugars, so read your labels.  I do NOT recommend feeding your children 'diet' foods or any meal replacements with artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup or refined sugars.

Another great thing to add to smoothies is spinach, bee pollen and if you're not using yogurt already, probiotics are great as well.

Oh!  And in a "Why didn't I think of this before" moment, my freezer is SO much more useful now, since stuff isn't falling out every day!

Dollar Tree baskets and I'm good to go.  One for fruit, one for veggies!

Have a great week!  I'll see you next week with a video on juicing and possibly wheat grass juicing too, if all goes well!