Smoothie Packs: Smoothie Making, Made Easier
I keep seeing these popping up all over the internet, so I thought I would make a few and see if they helped me drink more smoothies. One big thing that I find daunting about smoothies is that I always have a million little things I want to add for more nutrition, and dragging out all of those bottles and jars takes time. I decided I would modify others’ ideas of bagging up fruits and veggies for smoothies, and add other ingredients as well, so that everything is packaged up and ready to toss into the blender with the addition of juice, yogurt, milk, etc. to thin it out some.
Here are some of the ingredients we added to the 14 packets we made to freeze. The girls helped me decide various combinations of flavors for the packets, making each different so we get a variety of flavors and vitamins in each.
Bee pollen
Hemp seed
Chia seed
Flax seed
Vitamin C powder
Spirulina
Maca
Camu Camu
Lucuma
Carob
Spinach
Apples
Strawberries
Mango
Raspberries
Cantaloupe
Honeydew
Oranges
Dried, unsweetened coconut flakes
Soaked/Toasted Hazelnuts (would only attempt in Vitamix or they may be grainy otherwise)
I wish I had thought to toss in some coconut oil and psyllium husks, and will be sure to add those to the mix next time, if this works well for us. I was careful about vitamins and supplements that would interact with medicines we may take, because I didn’t list ingredients on each packet (since there were so many.) I also thought about adding Knox gelatin powder, but decided against it since it appears that Lil Pea and I are reacting to beef lately (fodder for another post!), and I’m unsure about whether we would react to gelatin.
On a side note, I absolutely LOVE my FoodSaver that Twig and I agreed to buy as a shared anniversary gift about two months ago. I made some bags with it, dumped about 2 cups worth of fruit and assorted “stuff” into each and then vacuum sealed each one and labeled it with the main ingredients- easy, peasy. Then, I tossed them into the freezer alongside the miscellaneous bags of frozen fruit and other frozen breakfast items, so I will see them every day.
Have you make smoothie packs? Have they made your life easier, or motivated you to consume more vitamins and minerals? What else would you have added to make these more nutrient-dense? I’d love to hear feedback!
