Learning to waste less and the wonderful results- SMOOTHIES!

Americans waste a tremendous amount of food each year, and I'm embarrassed to admit that in the past I have contributed my fair share.  When I had to buy a whole stalk of celery for a recipe that called for 3 ribs frequently the rest would end up wilted and limp in the fridge and eventually in the trash.  As I have improved our family's diet over the past several years and the quality of ingredients I buy one of the ways to make this economical has been to figure out ways to waste less.  There are several recipes that have become the basis of my "kitchen sink" meals that allow me to use veggies and proteins that might previously gone to waste including soups, pastas, frittata, and tortilla cups that I will share in later postS, but to continue the week of healthy snacks today I want to talk about my family's favorite way to save and use fruit that might previously gone uneaten and ended up in the trash:  smoothies.

When almost any fruit hits that day where it's not bad yet, but give it a day and it's likely to be trash worthy.  Now when that happens I'll wash it, peel if necessary, cut it into chunks, place it on a wax paper lined cookie sheet, and place it in the freezer until it is completely frozen, usually 4-6 hours.  Now, you can buy frozen fruit and it can be helpful to have some packaged fruit in the freezer, but there are many fruits that work well that I've not seen in the frozen foods section of the store-canteloupe, watermelon, kiwi, etc. Two standouts are bananas and apples.  Soft slightly overripe banannas can be a great addition to baked goods, but you can also freeze them to give texture and tast to a smoothie.  Apples freeze great if you dip the diced chunks into lemon juice before you freeze them so they don't brown. 

I know that making smoothies is nothing new, and there are a million recipes out there, but we like to chnage things up almost every time based on what the kids are in the mood for so here is our basic recipe that you can swap any fruits for.  Adding the yougurt helps get protein in so that you truly have a complete snack. 

BASIC SMOOTHIE RECIPE

 

1 cup frozen fruit
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1/3 cup 100% fruit juice
1-2 Tbsp. berry sauce

For my kids, the key ingredient is the berry sauce that we make from 100 Days of Real Food.  It allows each child to adjust the sweetness of their smoothie and avoids the sugar or high fructose corn syrup found in flavored yogurts.  I make a double batch on Sundays and we use it for smoothies and to flavor plain yogurt with cut up fresh fruit throughout the week.