how to meal prep (yes, MEAL PREP) your smoothies
plus, the 5 [very specific] ingredients I put in EVERY smoothie...🤔
You know when someone *swears* that a smoothie actually keeps them full, and you internally roll your eyes?
Like, OKAYYYY, Brittany, I’m sure that $12 fancy, chlorophyll, celery green juice kept you full for more than 20 minutes??????
Well, that was me.
For about a decade.
In my mind, smoothies were just glorified juice boxes— spiking your blood sugar and plummeting it down shortly thereafter (leaving you feeling hangry, shaky, and with an insatiable urge to devour a pastry 40 minutes later)
Well, I was wrong. (Kind of.)
With time, I have discovered that some smoothies CAN actually keep you full all day… (who knew?! Sorry, hypothetical Brittany!)
…but ONLY *if* you are a little strategic with the ingredients you choose.
Because, the truth is, many smoothies ARE grown-up juice boxes with little nutritional oomf— but, with trial and error, I’ve narrowed it down to 5 must-have ingredients and a basic “smoothie formula” that keeps me nourished AND satisfied— one sip at a time.
And, today, I’m going to break it down ⬇️
In this post, you will learn…
How to meal prep your smoothies (you are about to save so. much. time.)
My 5-step ingredient formula to creating a FILLING & hearty smoothie.
One delicious recipe to get ya started! (ahem, it is a “blueberry cobbler” style smoothie, and it’s one of my FAVS)
Ya ready? Let’s do this.
why do I love smoothies?
I think smoothies are an incredible breakfast option because they’re one of the easiest ways to sneak in SO many nourishing ingredients in one fell swoop— veggies! fruit! protein! fiber! healthy fat! micronutrients! polyphenols!
So, while smoothies can have a lot nutritional bang for your buck (when made with 5 verrrry specific ingredients, *wink*), there are a few cons that come with this daily nourishing sip—
In fact, I just got this DM from a follower yesterday when I hinted at the topic of this week’s newsletter:
Smoothies are great, but….
Let’s be real, it takes some TIME to throw those bad boys together!
By the time you open up the fridge, grab out your add-ins, chop up the ingredients, get the blender, and mix it all up you have a delish smoothie,
….annnnnd you ALSO have a mess.
There’s berry juice on the counter. There’s protein powder dust all over the floor. Your cutting board is dirty. You have to grab out 5-10 separate ingredients from the fridge and pantry and put them away.
BUT that’s just the price to pay for a healthy, protein-rich breakfast…right?
^^While I LOVE starting my day with a smoothie, the mess often impedes me from even starting to make it. I just don’t WANT TO grab out 5-10 different ingredients, dirty the cutting board, and chop-up multiple ingredients every morning… *le sigh*
What if it was easier than that?
If you’ve been following along on insta, you’ll know I’ve been a smoothie queen for a long time, and back when I was in grad school I would intermittently order from Daily Harvest (not sponsored) to have meal prepped smoothies ready for me during the busy weeks.
Their containers were stored in the freezer, and then I could easily blend them up whenever I wanted— no prep required!
This system worked great for me and was honestly super helpful to have a ready-to-go healthy breakfast when I was so busy….
meal prepping my SMOOTHIES?!
But recently, I had an epiphany (and tbh I’m a little shocked it took me so long).
If Daily Harvest could do it, why couldn’t I?
For some reason, even though I had a lot of experience meal prepping recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I had honestly never considered that *I* could meal prep my smoothies???
With a little trial and error and “what’s the worst that could happen” attitude, I gave it a try, annnnd… I have absolutely loved it.
SUCH a time saver!
Instead of hand chopping every ingredient every time and making my smoothie completely from scratch every morning, now I grab a little baggie out of my freezer, toss in some liquid, blend it up, and revel in the easy, healthy, smoothie deliciousness.
This one shift has truly taken making a smoothie from a 10ish minute process to a 3ish minute process (and it still has the same nutritional bang for the buck!).
I am saving SO much time, SO much mess, *and* getting a nourishing breakfast in my body (even on the most busy of mornings).
bottoms up!
So, maybe meal prepping your smoothies is most obvious thing in the world to you, but when I tell you that for me it was absolutely earth shattering???????
And of course I’m gonna walk you through it! Below, I will outline the general formula for how to meal prep your smoothies. Then, we’ll dig into my 5-step, fool-proof formula for smoothies that keep you FULL, and one specific recipe to get your smoothie meal preppin’ started!
Let’s jump in!