Smoothie Prep

Before lunch I did a little helpful preparation for smoothies that we'll want later. Julia used the last of the pumpkin this morning in her breakfast smoothie, so I prepped more servings. One large can will yield five ramekins of smoothie pumpkin. If you don't want to buy pumpkin pie mix (I never do; this was bought by accident by my mom, I think), you can just add sugar and spices to each smoothie, or add it into plain canned pumpkin, as you prep the ramekins.

I place plastic wrap on each ramekin and freeze these little bowls. When we want a pumpkin smoothie, we simply pop a ramekin in the microwave for 30 seconds to loosen the pumpkin from the sides, chop it up a little with a knife, and dump the pumpkin into the blender. Add milk, ice cream, half-and-half, some banana, more spices, or whatever you like.
I also prepped banana for smoothies. I bought 5 bananas at the local grocery this morning, marked down to 46¢ for the bunch because they were turning brown. Perfect for smoothies, though! I immediately sliced them, spread them on a cookie sheet, and froze them. Then I'll put them all in a ziploc bag in the freezer, and we can have as many or as few as we need in a smoothie.

It's nice not to have to put an entire banana in a smoothie, and the frozen bananas add another "frozen" quality to the smoothie that you usually have to get with ice cream or ice.

They also had a small package of berries on sale for about $1.50. I stuck my thumb in there so you can tell how huge they are. I also froze these, for smoothies. Freezing fruit immediately means you don't end up throwing it away when it rots in the basket on your counter, and it also makes for quick, easy smoothie-making.