Now you can add a nutritious fruit smoothie to the grab-and-go rotation on hectic school mornings.
This school lunch solution was something we came up with back when my daughter was in upper elementary school and lunchtime was about socializing and not so much about eating lunch. She couldn’t “waste” her time sitting and eating lunch – she had other classes to visit and people to talk to! We determined that a smoothie was something she could take with her and actually consume while hanging out with her friends.
So now I have a routine that I do to stock the freezer with a variety of flavors that she can choose from. And whenever I’ve spoken about this on social media, the questions come flooding into our inbox. So here we go – let’s go through the routine and answer the questions that keep getting asked.
I like to use a Ninja Smoothie machine – it just seems simpler to me than a full sized blender. I’m not sure why. Maybe because the ratios are already in my head automatically.
I prepare two blender cups with the same ingredients. This will make four 12oz bottles of smoothies. I generally start with a single fruit and then make a two (or more) fruit smoothie batch afterwards so I don’t have to clean the cups in between.
It’s so simple to just pop the cups onto the blender base and hit the smoothie button. No babysitting needed.
To pour the smoothie into the bottles, you’ll need a funnel. The bottles I buy come with a silicone funnel that works well.
And if the smoothie gets a little stuck, squeeze the bottom of the funnel to get it moving. (Make sure the smoothie is not too thick to pour. If it is, add a bit more liquid and pulse it for a few seconds.)
My basic smoothie recipe (as seen in Dinner Done 2) is a combination of greek yogurt, frozen fruit, milk and sweetener. We like maple syrup best in all our smoothies. We played around with adding protein powder for a boost, and we settled on one scoop (a serving is two scoops but we find that makes the texture too grainy) of this Orgain Unsweetened Protein Powder being the right amount. It adds about 5 grams of protein to each bottle of smoothie. And when making a mango smoothie, you should definitely try adding this mango pulp. It really takes the flavor to the next level. It’s already sweetened so you may not need any additional sweetener, or just a little bit if you do prefer it sweeter.
And, of course, make sure to label the bottles with the correct flavors! The Phomemo easily prints multiples of the same label so it’s really efficient.
On school mornings, just grab a smoothie. Wrap it in a paper towel to absorb condensation and put it in a ziploc bag, just in case. Add a smoothie straw. About 4-5 hours later, it should be at the perfect consistency to just shake it up and enjoy! The bottles can be washed and reused – they even come with a little bottle brush. But if they end up at the bottom of a backpack for a couple of days, they’re cheap enough to toss rather than deal with that grossness.
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