Weight Loss Wednesday: Make-Ahead Fruit Smoothies

I love drinking fruit smoothies after a workout.  It's a sweet but healthy treat that helps restore your energy.  But I hate getting out the blender and all of the ingredients every day just to make one.  After a workout I am usually pretty tired and don't feel like doing a lot of work to make a snack, so sometimes I will either skip it, or even worse, sometimes I will grab something else quick to eat that isn't very good for me.  So I decided to make several of them at a time and store them in the fridge so they were ready for me when I was done. 

I bought a package of 12 oz mason jars with lids.  If you don't want to spend money on the jars, you could use something else that you have on hand.  You could even save old jars with screw-on lids, like peanut butter or mayonnaise jars, and wash and reuse them.  You obviously can use whatever you want, but I make mine with one container of Carbmaster yogurt, 1/2 cup of almond milk, and 1/4 cup of sliced strawberries.  It comes to a total of 90 calories and 7.4 carbs.

Throw all the ingredients in the blender.  I can make 3 at a time in my blender.  Then pour into the jars and screw on the lids.  BTW, I read somewhere that you can attach a mason jar directly to your blender.  I have not been able to figure this out, since the pitcher part doesn't come off.  Oh well, maybe it just doesn't work on my blender. 

Anyway, that's all there is to it.  Refrigerate the jars and then grab one when you finish a workout or need a quick healthy snack. 

One other thing I wanted to mention, you can use the lids from Parmesan cheese containers instead of the metal lids.  I prefer not to use the metal ones because they are hard to wash and they rust.  Mason jars are a standard size, so check other jars to see if those lids fit too.  I found a peanut butter jar lid that fits, and I'm sure there are other condiment lids that are the same size.