Smoothies: easy dessert/meal, everything!

I just finished making my children and crowd a smoothie. I make smoothies for all occasions. Usually I reserve the smoothie for a mid-afternoon snack before dinner and after lunch. Today it was for lunchtime because I am lazy and the kids love it. I never have to fight to get them to eat these things. As I speak, Judene is licking the last of her very full glass and she is very careful not to spill  any of the precious frozen ooze. This is the same child that wears everything she eats. Everyone and everything else within 50 yards sports the same colors after any meal. Not so with my smoothies. When I don't feel like fighting food down my children's throats, I whip out the smoothie in less than five minutes. The key to this food adventure is the prep-time and tools.
There are some handy tools that I do have at my disposal. I have a deep freezer that I keep in the garage. I also have a blender. I did have a free blender that exploded in my face a few weeks ago. (But I managed to save the smoothie, so it was all good.) My husband, recognizing my dire need to have a blender, (he also likes my smoothies) went immediately to Walmart and bought me another one for 50 bucks. He opted for the stainless steel though all the while joking about the 200 dollar margarita machine.
The prep time doesn't effect me because of when and how I take the time to prep the smoothies. Spring time is great. Strawberries, blueberries and blackberries are on sale at the grocery store. I have been known to buy 10 pounds worth of strawberries at a time when the price is a dollar/pound. As soon as I get home and get the kids happy, I unload the groceries. Unloading and putting away groceries include washing and cutting up the strawberries (just washing the blue/black berries), putting them in freezer bags (I buy in bulk at Sam's club), and sticking them in the freezer.  The prep time is complete.
So when the time comes to make a smoothie for hungry whiny kids (especially children with sweet tooths), I usually experiment with a variety of flavors but I do keep a staple selection for the blender.

My Classic Smoothie:

Always a fresh banana. (best source of potassium and great cheap fruit to keep around the house.(I don't like bananas by themselves so sticking it in a smoothie is about my only way of eating it without gagging.) The banana prices year round range from 43 to 49 cents a pound. Very doable for my budget.

frozen strawberries. (gives me the frozen mush that we so love in smoothies and icies on a hot day)

Fresh spinach. (folic acid and iron. One of the best sources of nutrition EVER)

Blueberries or Blackberries. I usually freeze or add fresh depending. (Best way to hide the fact that you just added spinach. The purple color fools EVERYBODY!)

Unsweetened Almond milk. Read the labels. Even organic has organic cane juice which translated means sugar. I like to decide how much sugar I give my kids not corporate thank you. I know some folks who make their own almond milk. Even better. I will get on board with that eventually. I would also do coconut milk but I have yet to find one with no added sugar. You could do soy milk as well. My kids don't like unsweetened soy but yours might. 

Greek yogurt (optional) If I'm making it an actual meal, then yes. And I used greek yogurt because when I read the ingredient labels on even the plainest of yogurts, there is still a long list of preservatives, etc etc. The ingredient label on greek yogurt: cultured grade A nonfat milk. Pretty simple. I'll stick with that. Plus coupons are easy to find for greek yogurt.

My baby girl is lactose-intolerant and very sensitive to preservatives and chemicals. Normally she can't have yogurt at all. She digests greek yogurt pretty well though. To me that speaks volumes for the product.


honey and vanilla flavoring. I use local honey if I can, to build up my kids' immune system to the local pollen allergies. I get it from a friend who owns a hive. I know not everybody has these resources so even store bought honey is better than sugar, HANDS DOWN. Vanilla flavoring is cheap and lasts forever. I can't do the real stuff, I just don't have the budget for it. I don't use enough to make any real difference other than flavor. I put only the bottle's cap amount in.

Every once in a while I get some cheap or free fruit that I'm  not sure what to do with so I freeze and put in the smoothies. I just got some figs in and I googled figs to see if there was any nutritional value. There is. Huge. Apparently it's excellent for your digestive system, cures pimples and known for its healing properties in cancer. My 15 year old nephew thanks me for his new skin everyday.

So have fun experimenting! I'm thinking of trying a mango/strawberry combo next or peaches and cream. Maybe the cream will the be the greek yogurt. We'll see how these experiments do with the kids. If anybody out there has a few flavor combo ideas, let me know.