We love smoothies in our house! It doesn’t matter what time of the year, we will always eat them. You might find us huddled around our kitchen table wrapped up in layers of sweatshirts and blankets because we are freezing. It doesn’t matter what the temperature is outside, we will keep drinking this frozen treat!
One of the reasons it is a constant in our home is because I love that my kids will actually be eating something healthy! My kids are uber-picky eaters and feeding them smoothies is one way I can easily get some nutrition into their little bellies.
Here is a recipe for one of our very favorite smoothies!
The hard thing about this is that frozen fruit can be super expensive! Not only is the price hard to handle sometimes but the flavor of store bought frozen fruit is not always wonderful. The solution, start freezing fruit on your own! You will save at least 50%!
Freezing fruit in your own home is super easy and you can buy fruit when it is on sale making your smoothie addiction very affordable!
I was so excited the other day because peaches were on sale for only $0.88 per pound and strawberries for only $0.99 per pound! We love having peaches in our smoothies but they are super expensive to buy frozen (about $4 per pound!) and the frozen ones usually don’t have any flavor. So we bought about 10 pounds and froze them ourselves. We have really been enjoying our peach smoothies lately!
Are you ready to start freezing fruit for your smoothies? Here are the simple steps on how to get the job done and making sure they don’t all stick together. There is nothing worse then going to pull out your fruit to find a ginormous block of frozen fruit.
Steps for Freezing Fruit
1. Start by washing the fruit and then letting it dry completely. This helps make sure that it is clean and letting it dry will help keep ice crystals off the fruit.
2. Now slice of the fruit just how you would want it when you add it to your smoothies. Some examples would be:
• Bananas- remove peel and slice in half
• Peaches – slice in wedges (remove skin if preferred)
• Strawberries – remove stem
• Mangos – remove skin and slice
• Oranges – peel and separate wedges
• Berries – just clean and let completely dry
3. Next cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper or wax paper and place your prepared fruit in a single layer.
4. Put the tray into your freezer until the fruit is mostly frozen and the fruit pieces are hard.
5. Transfer the fruit into a freezer safe bag and put them back into the freezer.
Now you are ready to have a fresh fruit smoothie loaded with a ton of flavor and the “healthy stuff” to feed your family!
What can you use frozen fruit for?
- Smoothies
- Fruit for baking
- Ice cream toppings
- Quick oatmeal add-ins
- Cobblers
What do you think?
What is your favorite fruit to add to your smoothies? Do you have a smoothie recipe that you can’t live without? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to chat!
Joan
April 25, 2020 at 11:42 amHi Brittany. Thank you for this information. While I do use frozen fruit for smoothies, I also use it to infuse water with flavor (usually strawberries, mangos, and raspberries). Will the method you provided above produce liquid from the raspberries and strawberries upon thawing to place in the infuser overnight so there is a greater taste of the fruit in the water?