Smoothie Prep: How to Make Healthy Eating Easy

Smoothie meal prep

Today, I'm going to answer a question that’s been on my mind lately, “Can you meal prep smoothies ahead of time?”

And, to arrive at the answer, I’m going to experiment by meal prepping smoothies beforehand to see just how easy it is to just dump all the stuff into the blender and then have my smoothie ready in no time.

Now I'm going to show you lots of different tips and tricks along the way, things that are going to help me save time and maybe even save a little bit of money as well. Plus, I’ll be sharing the smoothie prep recipes I make as well.

So what do you say we get started? Let’s learn how to meal prep smoothies together.

Preparing smoothie ingredients

So here's the thing. You don't have to measure very much, and you don’t need to have special ingredients to get started.

You just basically put in whatever you have at home, and it's going to be a good smoothie. 

1. Fruit

One of the main components of a smoothie is fruit. So I've got three different kinds here. I've got some blueberries, frozen sliced bananas, and strawberries.

You can definitely use fresh if you want to. And you could always use other fruit like melons, apples, or kiwis.

2. Vegetables 

I like to add some sort of a vegetable into my smoothies too. So I've got a partial bag of spinach here. Spinach is an excellent addition to smoothies because you can't even taste it really.

Other options include zucchini, celery, and cucumbers. 

3. Fat

I also like to add healthy fat into my smoothies. Today, I am adding in some ground flaxseed. But you could also use avocados.

4. Liquid

Smoothies in general, need a liquid base, which can be anything from water to some kind of milk, like almond milk, soy milk, whatever your favorite is, or juice.

However, I don’t add liquid ahead of time. Instead, I add it directly into the blender when I’m actually ready to blend. 

5. Protein 

Lastly, you need some kind of protein, if you want to keep yourself full. For this, I'm going to be using Greek yogurt.

You could also use protein powder. And just like the liquid, I’ll add the protein into the blender when I’m actually making the smoothies.

Assembling smoothie bags

Now that I have all of the smoothie ingredients prepared, I'm going to be putting everything inside my little freezer bags. As far as the bags go, I bought reusable quart-sized bags.

We're going to put all of our smoothie stuff right in there. The first thing I'll do is attempt to label the bag. I'm going to see if a dry erase marker will work on this. T

he important thing is that you put the date on there as well. That way you know exactly when it went into the freezer, so you know about when to use it up.

You just have to make sure the bag is partially or mostly dry when you write on it, and then hopefully it will come off when I wash them later. 

I have six bags to work with today. My plan is to use up most of the stuff over here to put in these bags. I'm also going to use little bag holders to hold the bag open while I fill them. 

Starting out, I add a half cup of blueberries to each bag. That looks good. I definitely add more bananas than anything else, and I only have a couple little strawberries for each bag, but that's okay.

Next, I'll put a little handful of spinach inside each of them. Then, we're going to go and put a tablespoon of flaxseed in there too.

Now I’m closing up the bags. One thing I have to try to do is squeeze out the air. As you can see, there's a lot of air in there, so open it back up again.

Try to squeeze out as much as you can and that's going to help prevent ice crystals from forming on your food. 

Then, what I'm going to do now is put all of these in the freezer. So if I lay them flat, like as flat as possible, that's going to help save room in the freezer.

They will freeze in probably like 2 or 3 hours. Most of this is already frozen, so it's really just the spinach that we're waiting on.

Making smoothies

When it's time to make the smoothie, go ahead and pull out the bag from the freezer and then add the other ingredients. So for this one, I added one cup of almond milk and about a half cup of Greek yogurt.

So, with the bags, kind of break it apart a little bit so that you can fit all the vegetables and fruit in the blender.

All you do is pour everything in there. I didn't even add ice because the fruits and things were already frozen, so I didn't need to add ice. It already made it nice and creamy. 

Smoothie prep

As you can see, smoothie prep is quick, easy, and fun.

Leave me a comment below and tell me what your favorite ingredients are to put in a smoothie. Do you tend to meal prep them like I do?