Thoughts on Batch Smoothie making & storage

[Nic0]

In recent history I've been trying to eat healither... one of the things I make a LOT of is frozen fruit smoothies.

Typically I'll throw in an orange (to get orange juice), a little cow milk, a cup or 2 of spinach leaves, 1/2 to 3/4 cups of frozen strawberries or some other fruit, and a little bit of some kind of protein powder.

To save myself some on teh dishes, I've been thinking of cleaning out an empty gallon milk jug and make a gallon of smoothie at the start of the week and store it in there (or some large container). THat would cut back on the cleaning of the blender quite a lot. Obviously it won't be frozen after a few days, even stored in the fridge, but I can deal with that.

Anyone done anything similar or have suggestions or thoughts about this?

Thanks!

Nic

 

[pnj]

I have a blended drink almost daily.

I find it easy enough to make it fresh each day.

Clean up is as easy as putting warm water from the sink, some soap and blend for one minute, then rinse and put it in the dish drainer.

My only suggestion is to add 20 minutes of yoga into your day.

 

[Nic0]

Whoops, I figured this thread was long gone. But I still blended up a gallon yesterday and it's stored in a gallon size water jug from our last brew day.

CLeaning up wasn't that huge of a deal... I made one every day of the week last week and after each use of the blender I just rinsed out all the particles and ran some scorching hot water through it and swished it around, and left to dry. As long as I clean right after use, nothing really sticks to the insides.

I think this saved me more time on prep than cleanup. I peel oranges for my smoothies, which takes a little extra time, and I run the blender a few separate times to avoid killing the motor with too much of a load. So as long as it doesn't spoil before Thursday (I figure I'll drink about 1/4 gallon each morning), I think it will have worked out nicely.

I'll think about the yoga. Thanks for the suggestions!

Nic

 

[pnj]

another time saving tip is to peel/prep your food on the weekends. put them into baggies or freeze them, then simply put the bits into your blender and drink.

also, if you find you are really getting into blended drinks, buy a real blender. Vitamix is what I use and it will blend anything. It spins so quickly it can heat water to steaming temps.....

 

[weirdboy]

I use a food processor to make my smoothies. Works very well.

I also use actual frozen fruit that I prep in advance. So the prep time when I'm making one is mostly taking the fruit out of the freezer and dumping in an appropriate quantity.

 

[Nic0]

Hmm, both prep ahead of time sound like good ideas. I may try these ideas.

Also, my blender is an Oster (I think) brand. Seems like it's a 70 or 80 dollar one from Target or something similar. I haven't had any problems with it, I just figured I would take it easy and be nice to it when possible.

I've wanted to get a BlendTec blender for a long time. Their highest end model is over 3 horsepower and costs a grand new... It would probalby be a fun toy but I don't want to pay for it. It would probalby trip a circuit breaker, too.