Smoothie Packs

Emily is an amazing woman. I may have never met her, but we chat daily with other May '09 moms and she is amazing. Why you ask? Well, for a million reasons, but for today's entry it's for her brilliant recipe for smoothie packs.

Now, I have wanted to make something like this for a while, and just couldn't find a combination that was good and healthy at the same time. Cue Emily and her super ability to take recipes and tweak them. (You should check out her recipe page on her blog - she has a ton of yummy ones.)

I took Emily's recipe and tweaked it slightly to sneak more healthy goodness into these. Nate and David love them, and now I know how I will survive in July very pregnant. Smoothies by the pool. Well, the wading pool.

Click here for the original recipe and pictures. I am horrible at taking pictures while I make things. Emily is not.

Here is my tweak:
1 can orange juice concentrate
1 1/2 cup greek yogurt (any flavor - I used vanilla)
4 cups spinach - stems removed for easier blending
protein powder - I used 4 good sized scoops of vanilla

I did not add bananas to this base. I'm not a fan, so I left them out. I blended well and used silicone cupcake molds filled full to freeze. We don't have ice cube trays, and those were what I used to make baby food, and they worked great.

I made individual smoothie packs so I could make a quick one in the mornings. To assemble, I added one base and between 1/2 and 3/4 of a cup of fruit. I used a tropical blend, blueberries, and strawberries and just mixed up different fruit in each pack. I even froze some bananas for Nate and David. I placed each pack in a sandwich sized bag. Oh, and the base alone makes a pretty good smoothie too.

To make, let the fruit thaw for a few minutes- or impatient people like me can stick the bag in the microwave for 15-30 seconds. I added 3/4 to 1 cup of milk. Finished, it was about 12oz. Extremely yummy, so the extra 4oz in a serving are needed.

I had enough to make 18ish smoothie packs (I doubled the recipe. I made some packs and saved some base cubes to make more later.). I'm going to make some and see how they freeze to make smoothie pops for the summer. Heaven!

Thank you Emily!