Blog, Promos, Smoothie Recipes
Quick Smoothies – A Frugal Recipe [Acuisina Review + Giveaway!]
Amber Shehan • March 28, 2015
I make a smoothie every single morning. While I appreciate the occasional full “homestyle” breakfast with eggs, bacon, pancakes, toast, and whatever else you have room to cook up, most mornings I just don’t have the appetite to handle all that food. So smoothies it is! I know that there are a lot of folks out…
I make a smoothie every single morning.
While I appreciate the occasional full “homestyle” breakfast with eggs, bacon, pancakes, toast, and whatever else you have room to cook up, most mornings I just don’t have the appetite to handle all that food. So smoothies it is!
I know that there are a lot of folks out there who make smoothies regularly and I know that everyone has their own method. My go-to technique is to use a NutriBullet with a mix of whatever fresh fruits and veggies I have on hand, a splash of milk, juice, and a big old plop of yogurt, too!
Make smoothie starters with Acuisina & Pixie’s Pocket!
I wish I could say that all of my food is certified organic, but I just can’t always afford the premium price tag. However, since my smoothies are made from whole fruits and veggies blended with skins and all, I definitely do my best to choose organic produce for this portion of my diet.
Once or twice a month, I receive a CSA delivery from Mother Earth Produce here in Asheville, but I never seem to use up all of the delicious produce before some of it wilts. Until now.
Acuisina large ice trays are a game changer!
Acuisina sent me a few of their Jumbo 2″ Ice Cube Trays
Just after they arrived, I received a beautiful CSA box with plums, strawberries, apples, carrots, cucumbers, and curly leafed kale. I also discovered a HUGE whole milk yogurt tub on sale for $2. Talk about good luck and fortuitous timing…but then I worried about how I’d use it all up in time. Then it hit me: Smoothie Starters!
Quick Smoothies: A Frugal Recipe
The QUICK part of this recipe shows up the following morning when you grab the big cubes of frozen smoothie-starter out of the freezer! The Acuisina silicon trays
The FRUGAL part of this recipe is that you can prepare all of these delicious smoothie cubes when your fruits and veggies are fresh – much less waste, wilt, and rot!
The BEST part of this technique is that you can use whatever you have on hand. Do you like avocado? Throw it in! Prefer non-dairy yogurt and milk? That works, too!
Here’s how it goes:
- Assemble your ingredients.
- Chop your ingredients into small bits.
- Sprinkle those ingredients in the Acuisina large ice tray.
- Add a glob of yogurt to each tray.
- Fill the rest of the way with mil or juice.
- Pop them in the freezer!
- Remove them the next day and put them in a freezer bag or other storage container to enjoy over the coming days.
To prepare my morning smoothie, I grab a cube, toss it in my single serving blender cup, add a splash of whatever juice, tea, or herbal infusion I want to include, and give it a whirr!
The Acuisina Review
These trays have saved me both time and money on my good, healthy breakfast routine!
Being unfamiliar with silicon bakeware, I was concerned that the filled trays would be too wiggly to move without spilling, but these guys are strong! They are also really easy to clean, and the silicon makes popping the cubes out just as easy as pie.
Then I realized that these ice trays can be good for so much more than smoothies. Each compartment can hold 1/2 cup, so you can do a ton of recipes with it:
- Freeze pesto or sauces
- Freeze herbs in olive oil
- Freeze water for ice (duh)
- Freeze healthy baby food
- Freeze yogurt for smoothies or desserts
- Freeze leftovers in single serve, healthy portions
- Bake square brownies or quick breads or cake
- Use as a soap mold
Do you want to give Acuisina Jumbo Ice Trays a try? Buy some here, or enter to win a set of two trays using the widget below!
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Posted In Blog, Promos, Smoothie Recipes
Tagged: mother earth produce, promo, recipe, recipe box, recipes, smoothie
Amber Shehan
Hi! I'm Amber Pixie, and this is my site. Enjoy the recipes, information, posts, and please feel free to message me if you have questions!
I love to freeze nasturtium blossoms, roses and borage blossoms for punch during the Christmas season and these ice trays would be perfect!
What a lovely idea, Nina! I bet those make a lovely bowl of punch. 🙂 Good luck!
I like to freeze my pesto in cubes.
Yum yum yum…I adore pesto!
Smoothies are one of those things I wish I liked more, they’re so good for you! Maybe this summer I’ll finally get better about trying different combinations! Those ice cube trays would be great for freezing broth, I love doing that because I use it to cool off my soup without watering it down!
I can’t do without them now! Easier on my tummy than solid food and quick to make. 🙂 I like your broth cube idea for cooling soup, I never thought of that before! Good Luck, Nicole! (and save me some of that blueberry rum punch, I’m coming over right now!!)
This is a great idea! I would also use them when I’ve juiced lemons or oranges to freeze and save to use in the summer months for lemonade or just o.j. 🙂
Oooh, that sounds amazing. Fresh OJ in winter! 😀 Good luck, Anita!
What a nifty thing! Thanks for running this giveaway – how fun!
Thanks for playing, and good luck, Tessa! 🙂
Pesto, and herbs
I think pesto will be my next project! 🙂 Good Luck!
Would love to have a pair of these! The ones i bought on Amazon specifically made for smoothies, never did work properly, were impossible to get the frozen cubes out and the silicon tore after my third attempt. I’ve been Leary about trying any others I seen on Amazon.
I understand! I wasn’t sure about the silicon at first, but these are surprisingly strong, and the cubes just popped right out when I pushed them…POP! 🙂 Good luck, Anna!
I would use these for freezing herbs.
Yes, indeed! I’m looking forward to trying that myself…I need more freezer space. 🙂
I would use it for herbs and I would use it to infuse my drinks with fruit:)
Most certainly as a smoothie prep is my use. Although, as I ponder, more ideas are jumping onboard.
Cheers,
izzi~avis
I have never heard about this brand before, I would love to have a set so I could try it out. I think I would put herbs in them for starters.
Thank you for sharing, hoping to get a chance to try.
I like to freeze thinks like broccoli-spinach puree for smoothies, herbs+oil for sauteing, and homemade bone broth.
I love the smoothie idea. Currently I use small ice cube trays to freeze fresh-squeezed lemon juice, pesto and leftover broth. I’ve also used them for herbs. It would be great to freeze those in larger containers though, like the ones above, so I could just use one cube instead of many.
This is exactly what I’ve been looking for! Thanks for sharing.
I’d love these for saving lemon and lemon peel, for frozen herb batches, for pesto, for banana in yogurt, for ice to use in the dog water in the car. I’m going to come up with lots of other ideas as soon as I get some!
This is awesome! I could definitely use these! So much better than ice cube trays!
These trays are awesome! I would use them for smoothies I think but also maybe soups for lunch. 1/2 cup is a nice size and you could always add two to your lunch if you were more hungry. This would be a nice way to keep leftover sauce as well. That way you could eat it when you wanted and not let it go to waste because you are bored with that meal. I need this tray lol!
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I love it. Can’t wait to try. I having teeth removed, so smoothies are my go to food.
These trays would be great for Popsicle s or maybe frozen pudding pops.
I would use them to make berry-ice cubs for my tea.
I’ve never seen trays this big, these are GREAT!! They would be perfect for freezing my herbs and bone broth.
I would like to take small amounts of my curry base of caramelized onions, spices and coconut cream and freeze them to drop in dishes conveniently.
Oh, yum! That sounds delicious!!