Time Saving Tip #4

I recently starting making "Smoothie Pouches" mostly because I am trying to be effiecient in the kitchen and trying to cut down on time spent doing the same things over and over- effieciency is part of eating well. If it's too hard, too time consuming, or too strenuous, most likely we won't stick with it. So here's my latest idea.

Time Saving Tip #4: Smoothie Pouches

I package up my smoothie ingredients once a week into 5 bags (Quart Sized Ziplock). I make sure I have ripe bananans for all the bags and then I add my allotted frozen fruit and veggies. Here's where a big time saving tip comes in. I have started freezing my veggies in ice cube trays to make 'veggie cubes" that can be tossed into smoothies. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE having fresh veggies in my smoothie (versus frozen because you loose a little food value when you freeze) but, on days when I don't have any "smoothie friendly" veggies left on hand these Kale Cubes in handy!

 Here's how to make kale cubes:

Add one peeled orange and an entire bunch of rinsed and de-stemmed kale to your Vitamix and blend until smooth. Scoop out with a spoon into ice cube trays and freeze. Then add 2 -3 cubes to your smoothie pouches.

So in each veggie pouch you would find something like this: 1 banana, frozen blueberries (1/2 cup), frozen pineapple (1/2 cup) frozen peaches, and 2 kale cubes. That means when I go to make my smoothie first thing in the morning, I just dump in the pouch and add my coconut milk, water, flax seed, and any other fresh veggies, like a few tomatoes or a chunk of red cabbage and away we go!

This makes making smoothies every morning not so daunting- it's also great to prep if you have a husband who's a little shy on the Smoothie Making Task- this is error proof!

Here's some proof that your kids will gobble them up!

Side note: If you juice, I use to do this with my veggies for juicing. I would wash & cut my carrots, celery, etc. at the beginning of the week and store it with a papertowel in a ziplock. Then they would be ready to juice every morning!