Homemade Smoothie Packets

​Summer and smoothies go hand in hand.  As a special treat in the summer, the kids and I will stop at Smoothie King on our way home from the park.  It's a treat for all of us.  We've tried making our own smoothies at home but it seems like we are always out of at least one ingredient when we want to make them.  We like the smoothie packs from the grocery store but they are really expensive.  I saw for homemade "smoothie packs" on pinterest and I took the idea and ran with it.

Since my son is the biggest smoothie lover of us all, I decided to try my smoothie packet experiment on him.  I asked him to tell me his favorite kind of smoothie - chocolate, strawberry, banana.  (Who knew?)

​I started by freezing some yogurt into drops.  If you need the directions for this, check out my blog post on frozen yogurt drops.

​Next, I sliced some bananas and froze them on a waxed paper covered cutting board.

​I had to think a little bit about how  was going to introduce chocolate into this smoothie.  My first thought was cocoa powder but that seemed too powdery.  I considered chocolate chips but those seemed too chunky.  Finally, I decided to use chocolate syrup.  I froze some chocolate syrup in individual cups.   It didn't really freeze completely but it was fudge-like.  

​I bought a bag of frozen strawberries so there was no prep work there.  Once everything was frozen, it was time to start experimenting with quantities of each to make the perfect smoothie.

​My son's perfect chocolate, strawberry, banana combination was:
9 banana slices
5 strawberries
9 yogurt drops
1 container of chocolate syrup

​He added some skim milk, blended it up and voila - homemade smoothie.

​Once we had the combination of ingredients perfected, I used freezer bags to make up our own "smoothie packs."  

​I also made some berry smoothie packs.  I used a bag of frozen raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, some of my leftover frozen strawberries and a few yogurt drops.

We are set for summer now.  We have ready to blend, smoothie packs in the freezer.  Bring on the heat.  

Ciao!