I've been waiting do this post for some time now. I may have to split it into two parts.
Produce here is so fresh and I LOVE IT. Trying to come up fun snacks for Kinsley and new recipes to keep things interesting is hard work. Pinterest is flooded with ideas and when I get a chance to browse, I'm all over that. Brian has even been on a time or two. Anyways, we got here just in time to pick strawberries and I'm in the process of looking for apple orchards.
Homemade applesauce and apple butter = yummy! Or as Kinsley would say... delicioso! But it sounds more like so so. Thanks to Dora, she can say her first Spanish word.
Okay so I have several bags of strawberries in the freezer. What's the first thing that pops into my head? Smoothies! I quickly search for other ways to make it easy for Kinsley and I to enjoy these delicious treats. With produce being fresh, but not always having the time to go to the store, I came up with a solution. This might not be for everyone but it doesn't hurt to try.
I bought different fruits and vegetables that we both love. Spinach, apples, bananas, carrots, ginger, pineapple and peaches (those two were expensive so I got bags from the freezer section). We pretty much like anything but that's what I started with. Every time we take a trip to the local farmers markets, we always buy blueberries for Kinsley. If she hasn't devoured them by the time we get home, we add them in as well. I've heard of a lot people are using coconut water for smoothies but it hardly stays on the shelf long enough for me to get any. We use juice and water to thin it out some. Several other things I add often; honey, flax seeds, coconut oil and lemon. Lemon helps if you make extra and you want to save some for later. Oh, and we use yogurt too.
My solution to having smoothies whenever we want, blend it and freeze it. I started with spinach (okay I lied earlier I'm not the biggest fan unless it's in my salad and Kinsley has never really had it). Good way to add fiber and iron in her diet. I used the entire bag and even added water to help it blend. Poured it into ice cube trays, freeze and repeat with other ingredients. Once they were frozen, I popped them into a freezer bag with the date on it so I know to use them within a few months. I read somewhere online that they will keep for up to 6 months. Whatever you feel comfortable with and it depends on how often you make smoothies.
Peel and cut the bananas and apples. Then you flash freeze them on a pan for a couple of hours and place in a bag. Somehow the bananas didn't want to cooperate and started to soften once I pulled them out. To make things easier I individually wrapped them with press'n seal so they wouldn't stick to each other.
Note: slices would be much easier when blending if you put them in the blender frozen. I usually thaw out the banana(s) that morning. Oh and the strawberries the night before. My bags of strawberries contain 4 cups each. So when I thaw them out I plan on using all of them within a few days.
I originally wanted Greek yogurt but couldn't find a big enough tub anywhere. So I got what was available at the time. Add however many you like, I use two or three.
A few days later I did carrots with apple juice but didn't get any pictures. I peeled the carrots instead of shredding because it wasn't as big of a mess. Throw the carrots in the blender and add a little water and apple juice to thin it out some. You can get creative and add whatever juice you like. When it's on sale I get mango juice.
Some days Kinsley would rather just have mango juice by itself.
Add any of the fun extras (e.g., flax seed) and there you have it. An easy smoothie without worrying about everything going bad before you can use it. I don't really follow recipes; I just add what sounds good. We usually make either berry, creamy strawberry or tropical smoothies to name a few. But it's nice to be able to hide spinach and carrots in the smoothies as an extra healthy bonus. Apples help sweeten the smoothie rather than add a lot of flavor.
Next: Easy snacks and Food tricks.
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