This is what I did with my box from Daily Harvest! I made fresh, healthy smoothies

Making a fruit smoothie or green drink is one of the easiest ways to treat yourself to:

1. A kick start on meeting your daily servings of fruits & veggies
2. A cool, refreshing, and naturally sweet boost of energy
3. A perfect snack or meal replacement

Save money, save waste…oh, and time too

I love having a green smoothie in the morning (right after my coffee!).  The only challenge is having time in the morning rush to pull it all together.  Did I just hear a “Yes and Amen!”???

There’s always the option of getting frozen smoothies delivered to my door all made up or dropping by Juice Stop on my way to the office. The only problem is that just one will cost me about $7…and what if I want to bring a second one for my hubby? (Yes, we work together) Then I’m out $15 dollars with tax.

To solve this I came up with a way to get my smoothies in the morning, save money and make sure none of my fresh fruits and veggies end up in the landfill. First, I invested a little money in a dozen medium-size Ball glass jars plus some plastic screw-on lids designed to replace the metal canning lids.  The jars were $7.50 and 10 lids were $5…so a $12.50 investment that I can reuse every day.

Then I looked in my fruit and veggie box to check out what I had to work with and then googled around to get some inspiration.

The medium farm box costs $33 and I used a total of about $4 of it to make 6 smoothies. This past week we had apples, cantaloupe, tangerines, peaches, grapes, cucumbers, celery, avocado, and fresh greens.  I used 1/2 cantaloupe, 1/2 cucumber, 1 cup greens, 2 celery, 1/4 bunch grapes, 1/2 lemon, 1/2 lime, and 1/2 avocado.

Googling smoothie recipes

I found so many great smoothie recipes to use those ingredients! Women’s Health had 9 cantaloupe smoothie recipes in one post which were awesome. Another was the Perfect Low Sugar Green Smoothie  and a Ginger Matcha Smoothie . Don’t get too hung up on recipes. If you don’t have one of the ingredients (watermelon, for example) then just feel free to replace it with something else that is in the same taste spectrum (grapes are sweet and juicy too!) I always keep Chia and Flax or Hemp seeds, plus raw almonds handy.

Now all I need to do is chop the fruit and veggies into 1 inch pieces and layer them into the jars.

Don’t need to buy Almond milk

In place of buying almond milk, I just put a small amount of almonds into the smoothie.  When you have raw almonds and a Vitamix you don’t ever need to buy almond milk from the store. Just blend together in a ratio of 3 to 1, water to almonds for 1 minute. Add dates or vanilla for flavoring if you want.

Smoothies I prepped

5 quick smoothie recipes for the workweek

It’s okay to stuff it in the jar tightly. You can use tongs to pull it out later. The ingredients are listed in the order they’re layered in the jars. For added protein, you can add plain yogurt or protein powder. Some people even use a raw pastured egg.

• Summer in a Cup – cantaloupe, grapes & lime juice

• Orangesicle Smoothie – cantaloupe, tangerine or orange, small slice lemon, 10 almonds, chia & flax seeds

• Peach Pizzaz – tangerine, peach, with avocado, greens, 10 almonds. Sprinkle chia & flax seeds on top

• Green Low Sugar Smoothie – celery, cucumber, greens, avocado, 10 almonds, quarter slice lemon & a squeeze of lemon juice

• Cucumber Melon – cucumber, cantaloupe, grapes, chia & flax

Now just screw the lids on and place them in the refrigerator.

Blend it!

Before getting to the finale, I have to take a moment and tell you that I LOVE my Vitamix and now believe every cook needs one. It took me years to break down to buy one and I went through several less expensive blenders with less than great results. In the case of a Vitamix, you really get what you pay for. I purchased a reconditioned Vitamix from the company and have had it for 2 years now with no issues at all.

So, it’s morning and just before I’m ready to get going, I  just toss the ingredients from one of the jars into the blender, add a handful of ice, plus some filtered water or coconut water if I have some and then blend it for 1 minute.

When it’s done, I just pour it back into the jar which is now my smoothie container. For the car, I have a plastic lid with a reusable straw that screws on top.

It’s all good

Prepping smoothies this way really makes me feel good about myself (which is always a nice thing). I’m putting my farm box to good use, creating a guilt-free “fast food” breakfast, saving money, and keeping shipping materials out of the landfill. If you try it, let me know how it works for you and any great smoothie ideas you have.

Here’s a video we made showing the entire process.

Have a great week!