I usually put my breakfasts on autopilot. I’m one of those people who can eat the same thing every day with no complaints. But I like to get more creative and add new breakfast ideas to the mix when my daughter Norah heads back to school. She isn’t as excited as me to eat the same thing every day, so I try to mix things up and make breakfast a little special. One go-to strategy for making the morning a little more fun is to break out the Wild Blueberries!
September is when most kids are heading back to school, and it also happens to be National Breakfast Month, so there’s no better time to try out a new breakfast recipe. Being fueled in the morning is so important for focus and concentration, especially for children and teens that start the day super early and have to wait a long time before lunch.
Wild Blueberries make a great addition to any breakfast, not only because they’re delicious, full of fiber and are nutrient rich, but also because they’re food for the brain! Recent research shows that eating Wild Blueberries can help with cognitive function and memory, making them the perfect ingredient for back-to-school breakfasts.
The toasted oats are an easy alternative to granola, and take much less time to prepare (but still provide the same crunch and texture). You can make a big batch of these to keep in the fridge for topping on ice cream, hot cereal, or a bowl of fresh fruit. The protein-packed Greek yogurt will keep the kiddos full, and the caramelized Wild Blueberries will make anyone smile.
It’s hard to believe that Labor Day is this weekend. For many of us that means time to go back-to-school and the end of carefree summer days. If you’re planning to “send off” summer this weekend with a Labor Day gathering or party, try an appetizer-only or “small bites” food theme. It’s completely on trend, gives your guests a variety of options to nosh on, and the best thing is that a lot of the work can be done in advance so you can be in the moment and experience all the fun. It also makes clean-up a breeze at the end of the evening.
To help you savor the last days of summer, try these 5 wildly delicious small bite recipes:
What’s not to love about meatballs? They’re an instant crowd pleaser and a classic party staple. These Turkey Meatballs with Wild Blueberry BBQ Sauce offer a new twist on an old favorite, and can be prepped ahead of time and warmed up right before you’re ready to serve. The Wild Blueberry BBQ sauce makes for an unexpected and delicious sweet and tangy dipping sauce.
Tacos are all the rage these days – probably because they’re so easy to make, and the filling combinations are endless. Social media has helped drive this craze as foodie influencers took to Instagram and coined the phrase and hashtag #TacoTuesdays, making this delightful Mexican-themed meal a weekday must. This weekend, set up a taco bar for your guests and let them get creative. We love this Black Bean Taco with Wild Blueberry Sauce recipe from Danielle Omar of Food Confidence. The tasty Wild Blueberry sauce adds a sweet and zesty flavor while packing in plenty of antioxidant goodness.
Pizza is always a family favorite and a dish that can be easily sliced into small tasting bites that both young and old alike will enjoy. Featuring the flavors of summer in every bite, this Wild Blueberry Tomato and Goat Cheese Naan Pizza recipe is a sweet and savory recipe that’s sure to impress. And don’t worry, if you can’t find naan, you can use pita bread or your favorite pre-cooked pizza crust instead. Recipe and photo credit: Backyard Farms
With the new season just around the corner, give your guests a taste of Fall with these Wild Blueberry Sweet Potato Stacks. Wild Blueberries complement the sweet potato perfectly in these amazing pop-it-into-your-mouth bites. You can’t go wrong with this one.
Finally, an end of summer celebration is not complete without a few wildly tasty desserts. These easy no-bake Mini Wild Blueberry Cream Pies have been a fan favorite since our friend Danielle Omar of Food Confidence created them. If you’re more of a traditionalist, consider serving up this this classic Wild Blueberry Pie from Kara Lydon of the Foodie Dietitian. Create small individual pies or make a couple large pies and slice them up small and top with homemade whipped cream or your favorite vanilla ice cream.
Enjoy these last glorious days of summer with your friends and family. I know I plan to!
Summer is here! The kids are out of school, the sun is shining and we’ve (finally) unpacked our summer wardrobe. While we enjoy relaxing by the water, be it a pool, lake, river or pond, many of us are also looking for creative ways to keep ourselves and the kids cool during summer’s heat. We don’t mind the warmer temps here in Maine because that means the Wild Blueberries are ripening in the barrens and harvest is around the corner.
To help you and the family stay cool this summer, we’re kicking off our Wild Blue Summer Sweepstakes today! We’re giving away a NutriBullet PRO, the official blender of Wild Blueberries, every Wednesday and Friday now through July 26th – that’s a total of 6. NutriBullets are an awesome must-have kitchen gadget – great at blending together some amazing recipes, especially smoothies using delicious frozen Wild Blueberries. If this is something your kitchen is missing, enter now for six chances to win throughout the month of July.
As a “thank you” for entering, you will receive our Wild Blue Summer E-recipe book as a FREE download. It contains eight easy-to-make, tasty, summer recipes from some of our favorite registered dietitians and food bloggers that will help you keep things cool during hot days. The refreshing summer recipes include smoothies for any time of day, on-the-go recipes and even some no-bake sweet treats everyone will enjoy.
Be sure to enter our Wild Blue Summer Sweepstakes starting TODAY. We will select winners to receive a NutriBullet PRO every Wednesday and Friday starting July 7th.
The 4th of July is the one day each year where we celebrate our nation’s independence and the birth of our country. Next week, the USA turns 241 years old. This time honored national holiday is also when families and friends traditionally gather for cookouts, parades and fireworks. If you’re hosting a party this Independence Day and need a little all-American inspiration, try whipping up a few easy-to-make, delicious, savory and sweet Wild Blueberry recipes that will really ramp up the “blue” in your patriotic theme.
Here are four simple recipes that will make your Fourth of July celebration sparkle while allowing you plenty of time to enjoy the day.
Appetizers with Flair: Take your basic bruschetta and add some patriotic flair with a pop of blue from frozen Wild Blueberries! This simple Bruschetta with Tomatoes and Wild Blueberries appetizer is a cinch to put together. Before the guests arrive, you can mix-up a large batch of the topping and toast the baguette slices, and then pull it together right before serving. Add a layer of fresh ricotta or cream cheese to really make your red, white and blue combo pop.
Fire Up the Grill: Lighting up the grill is a big part of celebrating the 4th of July. Plain old burgers and hot dogs are cookout staples, but they can get a little boring. These Wild Blueberry & Spinach Turkey Burgers will jazz things up on the grill and impress your guests. They’re moist and juicy thanks to the spinach; the sweet Wild Blueberries perfectly complement the salty bacon and feta.
Festive, Flavorful Salads: Add a colorful summer salad like this Wild Blueberry Orzo and Asparagus Salad to your menu. Your guests will experience an unexpected pop of flavor and antioxidants, and enjoy the bright and gorgeous purple-blue hue. This salad features a Wild Blueberry vinaigrette that is zesty and simple to make and would also taste great drizzled over sautéed vegetables or used as a marinade for chicken or tofu.
Patriotic Desserts: At an outdoor picnic or barbeque, ice cream sandwiches are easy grab-and-go treats! These Wild Blueberry ‘Whoopie Pie’ Ice Cream Sandwiches are out-of-this-world and combine two very classic American desserts – cookies and ice cream. To make them festive and patriotic, make red velvet cookies using a simple box recipe, grab your favorite vanilla ice cream and then add a layer of frozen Wild Blueberries to the outside edges to get that red, white and blue look.
Wild Blueberries are one of the oldest native North American fruits. These special berries have occurred naturally in Maine for more than 10,000 years and have never been planted. Today, Wild Blueberries are nurtured and harvested by a variety of independent family growers – many of whom have done so for generations. Harvested berries are frozen within 24 hours, locking in nutrients and taste at the peak of perfection. These special berries taste the same now as they did 10,000 years ago – making Wild Blueberries a fruit that is as close to how nature intended them, as possible. By adding Wild Blueberries to your July 4th menu, you might be enjoying one of the very same fruits our Founding Fathers did 241 years ago.
The Running of the Bulls (July 7), the return of the Swallows to Central California (March 19), the opening of Copper River Salmon season (May 16), the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau (third Thursday in November). These dates are all celebrated around the country and the world, most with food, all because they have a special significance. Today we can add another lesser known date to our watch list. The third week in May is traditionally when “The Running of the Bees” comes to Maine.
Each year, as many as 80,000 hives of bees are brought to the coastal and Downeast counties of Maine to supplement the over 100 species of native bees from the area, all to help pollinate Maine’s Wild Blueberries. With as many as nine million blueberry flowers per acre, that’s a lot for even these busy workers to do in a short time. The pollination window is typically open from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day, or just about five weeks. Working from sun-up to sun down, the bees take no lunch breaks. Some species of bees return to their hives full of pollen and nectar every five minutes, potentially putting hundreds of miles on their tiny wings every day.
Only about 20% of the Wild Blueberry population is self-pollinating. The remainder of the flora needs extra help from some winged fauna. Pollinators such as flies, moths, butterflies and humming birds are not physically effective for the job, leaving all the heavy lifting to the bees. The shape of the flower and position of the pollen containing stamen make it necessary for the flower to be shaken or vibrated to release the pollen. The “High C” resonance of the bumble bee makes this an easy task. A fully loaded bumble bee can deposit as many as 25 grains of pollen onto a receptive stigma in one shot, as compared with only about 3-5 from a honey bee. It seems that bumble bees, being native to the area, are a bit more adept at the practice than the interloping honey bees.
Recently, we were interested to learn that Dr. Frank Drummond, insect ecologist at the University of Maine and the state’s leading expert on honeybees and wild native bees, is cautiously optimistic about the state of Maine’s native bee population. In a recent article in the Bangor Daily News, Drummond stated that the wild native bee community appears to be faring better than wild native bees in other states. “I think it’s a very optimistic story,” he told the newspaper. “In general, it seems that most of our native bees are pretty stable and not really in decline.”
In fact, the Wild Blueberry industry has been working to support Maine’s native pollinators. Some Wild Blueberry growers have planted pollinator reservoirs or gardens to enhance bee numbers by providing flowering plants for bee food when the crop is not in bloom. The Wild Blueberry industry has funded research that has led to knowledge about protecting native bees. And the industry practices a well-documented integrated pest management system that allows for use of pesticides only when pest densities are at a level that is likely to cause economic loss. The strategy is to use the least toxic insecticides, such as organically approved Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), only when an application is necessary.
The story of the bees is a compelling one – especially in this day when consumers demand to know more about where their food is coming from and how it is produced. Being able to tell the story of the bees adds an element of transparency to the process and intrigue to the products. Imagine hordes of bees buzzing around a starting gate waiting for just the right moment. A whistle blows, the gate is lifted, and they’re off. Bees race to the flowers and back to the hives much like Nyquist, American Pharoah, California Chrome, and other thoroughbreds in the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May.
With the running of the bees, we get yet another spring rite of passage and the promise of Wild Blueberries in the coming months. We also get an amazing, local, seasonal, story filled product – Wild Blueberry Honey. Gathered on the Wild Blueberry barrens throughout Maine, this honey packs a wallop of earthy, fruity, and sweet terroir that will win the hearts and minds of consumers in farmers’ markets and supermarkets alike.
So, let’s hear it for the bees. They work hard for the honey and produce billions of tasty Wild Blueberries in the process.
If you’re lucky enough to walk onto a Wild Blueberry barren in springtime, the experience will take your breath away. Imagine 38 million tiny pink flowers per acre in bloom; a constant humming of bees, and a beautiful blur of soft honeybees – as many as 300-per minute – coming and going from each beehive.
“It’s an auditory as well as a visual experience,” proclaims Frank Drummond, insect ecologist at the University of Maine and the state’s leading expert on honeybees. With nearly 30 years of honeybee study under his belt, Dr. Drummond has a scholarly knowledge of bees, but his passion for the little winged insect is downright contagious, too.
Recently, we were heartened to learn that Dr. Drummond is optimistic about the state of Maine’s honey bee population. In a recent article in the Bangor Daily News, Drummond stated that the native Maine honeybee appears to be faring better than other pollinators. “I think it’s a very optimistic story,” he told the newspaper. “In general, it seems that most of our native bees are pretty stable and not really in decline.”
The importance of the earth’s honeybee population cannot be overstated, especially here in Maine, where these tiny winged creatures are responsible for pollinating the state’s largest fruit crop—the Wild Blueberry crop. The annual pollination of the barrens is also one of nature’s great miracles.
Here’s a quick primer on the pollination on the Wild Blueberry barrens, in 8 amazing steps.
Every spring, about mid-May, honeybees arrive on the Wild Blueberry barrens by the millions. Most of the honeybees are now imported from out of state, but there are local pollinators too, and some of the growers like Greg Bridges of Bridges Wild Blueberry Farm, source their honeybees from Swan’s Honey in Albion, Maine. Swan’s has been providing honeybees to Wild Blueberry growers for generations.
These trucks carry between 50,000-60,000 bees onto the barrens and the hives are delicately transferred at night, when the bees are at home in their hives. The next morning at daybreak, if air temperatures are above 50ºF, the honeybees venture out on an orientation flight.
Once oriented, the honeybees go at it, working from sunup to sundown. Each bee will visit tens of thousands of flowers in one day. Almost all them are females.
As these “foragers” visit one flower after another, they drink nectar from the flowers, which they use for their own energy, and travel back to the hive to feed the larvae, which are hatched from the bee eggs laid by a single queen in each hive.
The queen bee lays an astounding 2,000 eggs per day. And each of those larvae, once hatched from the eggs, needs to be fed.
This is when the magic begins for the Wild Blueberry plants. As each busy little honeybee visits a flower, she drinks the nectar, gets some pollen on her face, and moves on to another flower. Then she sticks her head into a second flower and smears some pollen onto the sticky stigma of the second flower. This process ensures pollination of the plants.
Each Wild Blueberry flower holds its own set of precious eggs, about 60 per flower. To ensure pollination, the flower requires 10-12 of its eggs to turn into seeds, and the honeybee is the carrier of the pollen, which allows this magic to happen.
The pollen goes into the plant’s ovary and fertilizes it. Germination occurs within a few short hours. From there, the Wild Blueberry fruit is formed, and is ready to pick about 8 to 10 weeks later, in late July and August.
The process is stunningly symbiotic. “The honeybee is out for herself and feeding her young,” explains Drummond. “The Wild Blueberry offers its flowers and needs the bee for pollination.” It’s a perfect union, with a nutritious and delicious ending.
On Easter Morning, there’s nothing better than bringing an enchanted smile to the faces of your family and friends, especially the little ones! Creating a special Easter Brunch doesn’t have to be complicated, especially if you have a few recipes you can make ahead of the big day. With Wild Blueberries, it’s easy to add beautiful color and delicious taste to your bunny hoppers’ morning.
Here are 5 make-ahead Easter Brunch recipes that will bring color and dazzle to your Easter morning and allow you to participate in all the fun!
A “Fool” is a mid-17th century English creation that’s made with just three ingredients: fruit, sugar, and whipped cream. But don’t be fooled by the simplicity. This easy-to-make dish is beautiful, tasty, and simply elegant for Easter Brunch (and no one needs to know how easy it was to make).
Mini Wild Blueberry Cream Pie These delicious No Bake Mini Wild Blueberry Cream Pies look like dessert, but with their beautiful color and healthy ingredients, they’re a perfect Easter morning delight. The gluten-free crust is a yummy combination of Medjool dates, chopped walnuts, and rolled oats. And the pastel-colored filling is a tasty combination that includes whipping cream, Mascarpone cheese, Greek yogurt and frozen Wild Blueberries! Wow!
This make-ahead French Toast combines a loaf of brioche-style bread, a dozen eggs, frozen Wild Blueberries, ricotta cheese, and a host of other ingredients in a perfect Easter Brunch creation. With the perfect amount of crunch on the outside and smooth texture inside, all it needs is a drizzle of Wild Blueberry syrup to sweeten the smiles of your little ones.
This gorgeous and festive looking bread – made easy with frozen pizza dough – is a winner for any special-occasion morning. The almond paste, almond extract, and frozen Wild Blueberries give this braided bread that special holiday taste that makes holidays memorable.
And finally, some glazed vegan donut holes that will have your little bunnies hopping around the room. These Glazed Wild Blueberry Muffin Donut Holes are baked, not fried, and they are super fluffy and rich, with loads of healthy ingredients like banana, nuts, flax, oat flour and of course Wild Blueberries. The glaze adds color, flavor, and fun for a vibrant Easter morning.
All the above recipes were developed by registered dietitians, so not only are they tasty, but they have a healthier twist, too. Happy Easter!
The Wild Your Smoothie Contest results are in and you’re going to absolutely love the top three winners! In total, we received hundreds of entries for the contest. You voted. Here are your winners.
Runners Up
We have two runners up for the Wild Your Smoothie contest.
Cara Harbstreet, M.S., R.D., L.D., of Street Smart Nutrition and her Wild Blueberry Mango Lassi Smoothie, inspired by the popular yogurt-based drink from the Punjab region of India, is exquisitely simple, a touch exotic (because of the cardamom and cinnamon), and delicious. Cara’s variation on the traditional Lassi, includes a cup of frozen Wild Blueberries and it replaces yogurt with kefir, adding even more probiotic punch to this tasty treat. Since we are firm believers in sourcing fruit in the freezer aisle, we also applaud the use of frozen mango and frozen Wild Blueberries in this recipe. With only six ingredients (if you don’t count the water), this smoothie is nutritious, easy to make, and well-deserving of its runner-up status. Congratulations, Cara! We love your Wild Blueberry Mango Lassi Smoothie
Shashi Charles of Runnin Srilankan and her Oatmeal Wild Blueberry Breakfast Smoothie is one of the prettiest recipes we’ve ever seen and this smoothie tastes as good as it looks! Like so many of us, Shashi admitted to being in a “smoothie rut” before entering the Wild Your Smoothie Contest. Well, Shashi really broke the mold with this smoothie, and you’re going to love how she blended together a common list of ingredients into something truly special. Shashi starts with a cup of frozen Wild Blueberries, and then adds coconut milk, dried apricots, quick oats, banana, and peanut butter into this blend-and-go breakfast. “My bowl of breakfast oatmeal was my inspiration for this smoothie,” says Shashi. We also noted with pleasure that Shashi included two alternatives for the toppings – one decadent and one naked – after getting some constructive feedback from her daughter. After all, not every smoothie lover is the same. Congratulations, Shashi! We love your Oatmeal Wild Blueberry Breakfast Smoothie
Grand Prize!
First place goes to Charlotte Martin, a registered dietitian and creator of Nutritiously Twisted, an online blog that’s devoted to putting a healthy twist on old standby recipes. Charlotte’s beautiful, gluten-free Wild Blueberry Flax Muffin Smoothie was the runaway winner of the contest, earning 25 percent more votes than any other smoothie recipe in our terrific group of finalists. Charlotte’s delicious recipe brings together a tasty collection of ingredients, including a full cup of frozen Wild Blueberries, almond flour, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and a tablespoon of instant espresso! It’s topped with a gorgeous vanilla Greek yogurt “frosting” that simply takes the prize! (Charlotte, please share how you created that beautiful topping!)
The addition of coffee to Charlotte’s smoothie was another standout. As a self-proclaimed caffeine lover, Charlotte likes to start her day with coffee. But to make her routine fast and easy, she simply blends a little coffee right into her smoothie. “This Wild Blueberry Flax Muffin Smoothie is your whole morning in one,” says Charlotte. “It’s like your Frappuccino and Wild Blueberry muffin had a healthy baby.”
Congratulations, Charlotte, we love your Wild Blueberry Flax Muffin Smoothie recipe and we’re excited to meet you this summer as we explore Bar Harbor and the Wild Blueberry barrens of Maine!
March is National Nutrition Month® in the U.S., and this year’s theme, “Put Your Best Fork Forward” is a great one because it reminds us all that taking steps to improve our nutrition through smart eating is possible. This year’s theme does not demand perfection. Instead, it prods us to take action to make our diets better, to start where we are right now, at this moment, and to acknowledge that every improvement is a step on the good eating journey.
From my standpoint, the annual National Nutrition Month® theme commands more than a little respect. It’s not arrived at willy-nilly or by accident. Rather, the theme and its associated list of recommendations is deliberately arrived at each year by The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics , a professional organization made up of more than 100,000 credentialed dietitians and dietetic technicians from across the country. These professionals know what they’re talking about when it comes to nutrition. Here are some highlights:
Small tweaks can bring big nutrition benefits
Making positive changes to your diet doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing deal. Go big or go home doesn’t apply to healthy choices. In fact, “going big” when it comes to dietary modifications can lead to major feelings of deprivation, which can lead to giving up completely. According to Cornell University researchers, we make about 200 food-related choices every day! Having to give lots of thought to each and every one of those every day would be overwhelming. Doesn’t it make sense to make small switches that you can apply to just some of those decisions? A number of research studies have examined the effect of making small changes, and the studies indicate that this approach is successful for many people. Studies by the University of British Columbia show that focusing on quantity, quality, or frequency of food consumption—not all of them at once—might be the key to sustaining positive dietary changes that truly impact health. Another way to position small changes in your diet is to put the emphasis on adding things to your daily diet, as opposed to always focusing on what you need to eat less of or eliminate. Putting a positive spin on your healthful changes can make them more palatable.
What does putting your “best fork forward” look like for you?
Of course, choosing which small changes you want to work on depends on your health goal. Maybe you’re trying to drop a few pounds, or maybe you’re trying to increase your fruit and veggie intake, maybe you’re trying to establish a breakfast-eating habit in order to get more nutrients into your day. Once you’ve established your goal, researchers say it’s important to look at your eating behavior to pinpoint habits that can be tweaked for improved health. For example, if you realize that you tend to shun water in favor of other beverages because you crave flavor, you might want to add some refreshing flavor to plain water by infusing it with things like mint leaves, lemon slices, and frozen Wild Blueberries. No matter what your goal is, increasing the nutritional content of your diet is a smart move. The latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans advises getting more nutrients into our diets, such as vitamin D, calcium, potassium and fiber, as well as iron for females. What small changes can you make that would better nourish your body?
Need ideas to help you “Put Your Best Fork Forward?”
Here are a couple ideas to get you started. Again, choose a goal, then find one or two small tweaks you can make in your eating plan or your approach to food that will support your goal.
Focus on fiber
Most Americans get far less fiber than is recommended. Women should aim for 25 grams per day and men should get 38 grams per day of fiber. Pack plenty of fruits and veggies into your day, along with whole grains and you can meet your fiber goals.
Switch out your regular cereal for one you enjoy that contains more fiber
Make a point to top hot or cold cereal, as well as yogurt or cottage cheese with a handful of frozen Wild Blueberries and a tablespoon of chia seeds or flaxseed meal. Wild Blueberries are a good source of fiber, with 1 cup providing 25% of the Daily Value for fiber.
Start a habit of swapping cooked whole grains like bulgur, barley, and faro for pasta. And when do you eat pasta, make it one of the higher fiber varieties such as whole wheat, multi-grain or fiber-enhanced pastas.
Bulk up your meals with lots of veggies, which are a good source of fiber and add color, texture, nutrients and flavor to your meals. Pretty much any dish is better with more veggies, so add more of them to casseroles, soups, scrambled eggs, stir-fry, and give yourself a good-sized, satisfying portion of food for fewer calories.
Add berries to your salads. There’s no rule that says salads must only contain vegetables. I love adding a handful of berries to the salad bowl—they’re beautiful and add fiber, color and an enticing sweet taste to your everyday salad.
Skimp on added sugar
Cutting back on sugar is a nutrition goal that will help you cut calories as well as retrain your taste buds to appreciate the natural sweetness in foods. Eating more whole foods and relying on fruit for sweetness in your meal plan is a good start.
Instead of a sugary-sweet dessert, make fruit your after-meal treat at least several nights a week. Frozen Wild Blueberries that have thawed just a little are a sorbet-swap in our house. Opt for a variety of fruits to increase the variety of nutrients you consume.
Give plain fruit a tasty topping with shredded, unsweetened coconut, a dollop of whole-milk Greek yogurt or a little drizzle of good-quality balsamic vinegar.
Skip the sugary soda and go for seltzer instead. Make it even more enticing by stirring in a little pureed or smashed fruit such as frozen berries or peaches. The fruit adds color, nutrients and sweet flavor.
When you bake, aim to make fruit-based sweets, such as cobblers, crisps, fruit pies or tarts, and fruit parfaits. Talk about versatile and delicious—fruit can star in all manner of sweet treats. Check out some of our desserts featuring Wild Blueberries for inspiration.
Most of all, remember to “Put Your Best Fork Forward” every day with joy and without judgment.
Let’s face it – we love smoothies for their convenience, ease and portability. However, in the busy mornings we know that every minute (and every second!) counts. So while it may not take that long to make a smoothie for breakfast before you head out the door, there are some time-saving tips for smoothie making that can help you hit the snooze button one more time, get to the office before everyone else or even better, carve out some time for morning self-care.
I love taking time on Sundays to prep meals for the week ahead. This makes the workweek less chaotic and allows me to carve out some “me time” during the weekly grind. My morning routine is sacred to me. I gave up checking my phone and emails upon waking a long time ago. Now my mornings are my quiet time to meditate or practice yoga to start the day feeling grounded and present. The only way I can find the time to practice self-care in the morning is if I plan ahead and make breakfasts for the week on Sunday.
Now, you may be thinking how can I prepare ahead of time for smoothies? Well, I’ve got 5 simple smoothie-making hacks to share with you today to help make your weekday mornings stress-free.
Make smoothie freezer packs. Ever feel like smoothie making is quite the production? Do you have a counter filled with bags of frozen fruit, liquids, greens, powders, nuts and seeds? Does it take you forever to find that bag of walnuts at the back of the cupboard? Ever wish you could just have all your smoothie-making ingredients ready to go in one place to throw in the blender? You can! Portion out your smoothie ingredients like frozen Wild Blueberries, sliced bananas and kale into freezer Ziploc bags at the beginning of the week and label them with the date and type of smoothie. Come morning all you have to do is open up the bag, toss the contents into your blender, add liquid and blend away!
Take advantage of the ice cube tray. With the ice cube tray, you can add a frosty consistency to your smoothies while adding flavor! No more diluting your smoothie’s flavor with regular ice cubes; think about freezing liquids like coconut milk, juice, coffee or tea. Simply add a few liquid ice cubes to your smoothie and cut the amount of liquid added in half. However, with frozen Wild Blueberries, you don’t have to worry about using ice cubes or diluting your smoothie – they help keep your smoothie cold while packing in deliciously sweet flavor, which is just one of the many reasons I love using them in smoothies. For another time-saver, pre-portion yogurt into ice cube trays and add the yogurt cubes to your smoothie freezer packs!
Don’t waste about-to-turn produce. We’ve all been there – you buy a bunch of bananas only to watch them turn brown in your fruit bowl. Rather than tossing them, avoid food waste and take advantage of their ripeness and flavor and use in smoothies! Puree extra ripe bananas and store in ice cube trays or simply slice them and store in Ziploc freezer bags. Take ‘em out when you’re ready for your banana-powered smoothie.
Batch-make smoothies. Heard of batch cooking to help you save time and energy during the week? It involves making a large portion of a meal to refrigerate or freeze to enjoy later in the week. Well, you can batch-make smoothies too! Make 3-4+ servings of your favorite smoothie recipe on Sunday evening and pre-portion them into mason jars. All you’ll have to do in the morning is grab a mason jar, give it a good shake (as the contents will begin to separate) and be on your way!
Turn leftovers into popsicles. Food waste is one of my biggest pet peeves so I try to repurpose leftovers whenever I get the chance and smoothies are no exception to this rule! Whenever you make too much of a smoothie and have leftovers, pour the remaining smoothie into a popsicle mold and freeze for a refreshing treat another day.
Ready to start hacking away at your smoothie hacks? Try my Wild Blue Velvet smoothie recipe below. You can freeze the yogurt in an ice cube tray and make smoothie freezer packs with frozen Wild Blueberries, beets and yogurt. Toss the contents into the blender in the morning, add your powder and liquid and you’re ready to conquer the day!
