Fruit and Yogurt Smoothies Bags
Did you LOVE the Green Smoothie Bags with Yogurt recipe Kim posted yesterday? It sure looked yummy, but I am not sure my family is ready to tackle the GREEN! If yours are like mine….try this Fruit and Yogurt Smoothie Recipe, and then work your way into the Greens!
My kids LOVE smoothies, and yes there was a time when they were tiny, and life was hectic, that I splurged and would buy the pre packaged smoothie packs from the grocers freezer section. Now, as our boys continue to grow, their appetites do as well (funny how that works), and it soon became “too expensive” to indulge in this little treat. So imagine how excited they were when I came across an idea on Pinterest to make your own freezer smoothie packs! I tweaked the ingredients a bit, and made a dozen various smoothie packs in the first trial run. (6 of which were gone the first weekend!) I love this idea, because it is a great way to use up yogurt that has about reached expiration date in the back of your fridge or that 1/2 can of mandarin oranges that didn’t get eaten at lunch time. The possibilities of fruit combinations are endless, so indulge your family…and share a smoothie!
Fruit and Yogurt Smoothies – Freezer Packs
Lisa @ Onceamonthmom.com
Ingredients:
- 1/4 C yogurt, any flavor
- 1 1/2 C fruit, fresh or frozen
- 2 Tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate, slightly thawed
Freezing Directions:
Place 1/4 Cup yogurt into each muffin well and flash freeze. While the yogurt is freezing, Label quart freezer bags, and divide among them your choices of fruit (1 1/2 cups per bag) and 2 Tbsp of OJ concentrate per bag. When yogurt is frozen, place one serving of yogurt into each bag. Return to freezer until you are ready to make. TO SERVE: Thaw bag on counter for 20 minutes. Dump contents to blender with an additional 1/4-3/4 cups of milk for desired consistency. Blend on high speed until smooth. Enjoy!
Combinations we tried:
- Blueberry & Peach
- Strawberry & Banana (favorite)
- Orange & Banana
- Pineapple, Orange & Banana
Servings: 4
This Post will be linked at:
- Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home’s
-
Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum
-
Friday Potluck at EKat’s Kitchen
-
Grocery Cart Challenge at Grocery Cart Challenge
- I’m Lovin’ It at Tidy Mom
Fantastic idea!!! Thanks!
How do you get the yogurt out of the muffin pans. I have a bunch of yogurt that needs to be used up.
I have found that using a small paring knife, run it around the edge of the muffin tin and they pop right out. You don’t want them to thaw out too much, because then they will lose their “hockey puck” shape. Good luck!
You can also use ice cube trays instead of muffin tins. Just test your trays to see how much each cube holds. Mine is 1/8 c. per cube so I’d need 2 cubes per baggie.
Right now I am trying it in the muffin pans but put plastic wrap over the cups and spooned the yogurt in. They are almost frozen. We will see how it goes. I just didn’t want to scratch up my new muffin pan :).
That sounds like a great idea! Let us know how it turns out.
I used to use this recipe all the time for myself:
1/2 C frozen fruit
1/2 C yogurt (frozen)
1/2 C milk
1/2 C any juice (not concentrate)
I would freeze the yogurt right in the cup it came in and then dump it in a bag with the frozen fruit. When ready to eat, I blend with the milk and whatever juice I had on hand. It usually ended up as strawberry/banana :D mmmmmmm
VERY similar recipe…but easier for me to remember ;)
And for those that want sweeter smoothies, naturally – frozen grapes are PERFECT! Used it this morning with frozen strawberries, fresh blueberries, frozen spinach, plain yogurt and ground flax. :) I actually added about 1T of raw honey and I was afraid it wouldn’t be sweet enough, so I added a few drops of vanilla stevia and 1T of real maple syrup. It didn’t need the honey or maple syrup…but it was VERY tasty anyway. :) And I just thinned it with a splash of water.
Just out of curiosity, what is the advantage of freezing the yogurt first instead of just pouring it into the bag with the other ingredients and freezing it that way (since it all gets thawed first before blending). Thanks for the reply!
Laurie – I am sure you could do it without freezing it before hand…this is just a little easier/less messy on the prep end I think.
I usually make the smoothies in the blender and then freeze individual bags already done. I take it out when I get in the shower, and by the time I go to work, they are ready to squeeze into a cup and go. No need to use the blender in the morning when I’m in a hurry and no cleaningit out every time I want a smoothie…
That is a great idea! I leave for work before everyone else gets up and never want to use the blender because we have a small house and it is LOUD. Thank you for sharing!!
Melissa, I asked for an immersion blender for Christmas, and have found it to be wonderful for the quick smoothie (and MANY other things). It is much quieter than the blender, and even came with it’s own little container to make the smoothies in. I think it does a better job getting it all smooth as well!
can i pin this for later?
Why yes you can. . .
so how do i find it to pin? i’ve only been using it for a few weeks…
Well, we need to add the pin it button but until then, you could go to Pinterest and put their pin it button on your browser so you can pin things easily – http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/ – you can also see all the pins others have done of onceamonthmom.com here – http://pinterest.com/source/onceamonthmom.com/ and repin it.
thanks! i didn’t add the browser thing because hubby freaks on stuff like that but i figured out from the second link how to get it pinned to my recipes board. you’re right, i only knew to look for the pin on your site! ‘night!
Add tofu to the mixture. No added taste! Extra protein!! I add “toad food” to oatmeal and spaghetti sauce when I don’t add meat. When I first started adding the tofu, my family complained. However, when I told them I had been adding it to the oatmeal for weeks they started complaining when I DIDN’T add it. Who knew.
How much tofu did you add? I am not very familiar with using tofu, but could definitely use some extra protien and this sounds like a great way to do that without the family knowing it’s in there. Thanks!
[...] Fruit and Yogurt Smoothie Bags. We got through a lot of smoothies and it’s such a pain to measure everything out. And plus when J1 makes them himself he makes WAY too much and it gets wasted. I’ve seen a lot of recipes out there that add sugar. YOU DON’T NEED TO!!!! Save yourselves the calories and add half of a very ripe banana! Anyway, I made strawberry banana, peach mango strawberry banana, and raspberry blueberry. So good! [...]
Tricia…I am on to something…I found the answer to my smoothie question right here. I never thought of using the muffin cups. This is great!
Looks delicious can’t wait to try it I’m going to try to make it tonight
I love this idea! I had several small “cutie” oranges about to go bad, so I peeled them and put in the blender with a large can of pineapple chunks with the juice. After the fruits puréed, I froze in ice cube trays – filling cubes as full as possible. I put those in one bag & yogurt pucks in another, pulling out what I need when I’m ready for it. I have found 6 cubes + one yogurt puck + milk & a little honey = YUM! If I have a ripe banana, I add that too. Thanks for the great idea!
I made these tonight! :) I used my mini muffin pan…to get the “hockey puck” yogurts out I filled a cookie sheet with lukewarm water then put the muffin pan straight from the freeze on the sheet. It melted them just enough to let go of the muffin pan walls and popped right now!! Can’t wait to make all my smoothies. :) Thanks for posting this