I love to make these DIY Freezer Smoothie Packs! They are easy to put together and, best of all, they are extremely inexpensive. It is a great meal prep idea and you’ll make several days worth in just 10 minutes.
Having a few freezer packs on hand helps make these hot summers a bit more tolerable. Not only are these super convenient, they’re extremely inexpensive and allow you to make a a cool treat in under two minutes. How’s that for a triple threat?
Just dump the contents of the smoothie pack into your magic bullet, Ninja or Vitamix, add water (or milk) and you’re good to go!
Update: I make these even cheaper by making my own yogurt!
🥤 Why This Recipe Works
Inexpensive – As I’ve mentioned, this is a steal as far as breakfast goes. Plus it’s healthy. So often we can get a cheap eat but it’s not healthy or good for us. This one we get both.
Healthy – This is made up of just fruits, ice and yogurt. Feel free to leave out the yogurt, if you like and just use the fruits and ice. Toss in a handful of leftover spinach for extra nutrition.
Versatile – Take this recipe as a guideline and use it as a “how to make” rather than the exact recipe using strawberries, bananas and apples. If you love pineapple, use that. If you have ripe peaches from picking last month, use those.
Fast – You only need a couple minutes to make 15-20 of these which is several weeks worth of breakfast in about 10 minutes.
🍌 Ingredients:
Note: This is just what I chose to go with. Use whichever fruits you’d like!
Fruit – Use any fruit you have left over at the end of the week. I had bananas, strawberries and apples. Don’t let anything go to waste.
Vanilla Yogurt – I used to add a scoop to the blender when it was time to make these, but a reader offered the idea to freeze the yogurt in ice cube trays and include the frozen yogurt in the smoothie pack. What an ingenious idea!
🍽️ Instructions
Step One: Slice your fruit. Any old fruit will do, but I like to use the fruits that are very ripe as they blend easier. Use any leftover fruit from the week. Nothing goes to waste!
Step Two: Line a cookie sheet or cooling tray with wax paper (or foil/parchment paper) and add the fruit in an even layer. If you have a small freezer, just add the fruit to plates and they’ll fit in easy. Flash freeze for at least two to three hours.
Step Three: Spoon yogurt into ice cube trays and place in the freezer along with the fruit. I recommend leaving them in there for at least four hours; I only left them in for two and it made things pretty messy.
Step Four: Put it all together! Place the frozen fruit and yogurt cubes into the snack bags. Each bag contained banana + yogurt, but I varied the strawberries and peaches to create different flavors.
Note: Place the snack sized Ziplocs into a quart sized freezer bag in order to avoid freezer burn. You’ll be able to fit four smoothie packs in one quart sized bag.
Step Five: It’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor (get it?!)
When you are ready to make your smoothie, take it out of the freezer and dump the contents into your Magic Bullet blender. Add a little bit of milk or water and pulse it until it is smooth and creamy.
That’s it! Enjoy your breakfast!
I love making these! They’re simple, smart, frugal and save so much money over time! Please let me know if you make them. I’d love to hear what flavors you try!
🍓 Meal Prep Breakfast
These smoothie packets are low in calories as well, so they make a great breakfast or lunch for those of us that are trying to have a healthier early meal. When using these to stand in for a meal, I like to add in some oats and coconut milk rather than water just to make it more satisfying.
I created 14 smoothie packets and only spent about $8.25 for all of the ingredients. I’ll admit, the packets are on the small side, but I find them perfectly satisfying as-is or with the addition of ground oats to thicken them up (or just use more fruit!).
I added peanut butter to a few, but chose to omit that from the cost since I only added it to a few packets and this was experimental. Verdict: I like the PB with Strawberry/Banana. My husband? Not so much.
📌 Tools
Ziploc Snack Bags – These are perfect size for the single-serving ingredients and makes it easy to keep everything portion-controlled.
Freezer Bags – Don’t skimp here. Definitely get the freezer safe version so your ingredients don’t get freezer burnt. I know these cost a little bit more, but they are reusable, so it is really worth it.
Wax Paper – This is the best thing I could find to help the fruit pop free from the sheet after freezing. Try parchment paper or even aluminum foil if you don’t have any wax paper.
Ice Cube Trays – These are the perfect size for freezing small dollops of yogurt.
Recipe FAQ
If you use regular sandwich Ziploc bags, I would only do 2-3 weeks worth. After that you might start to get the freezer flavor creeping in. If you use regular sandwich bags and then put those in a large gallon freezer safe bag so they are protected, you could keep these up to two months. Print out the Freezer Tips and Storage times for your pantry for quick reference.
That’s tough because everything is frozen rock hard so you need a sturdy blender that is going to have blades and power to cut through the frozen fruit. A regular $20 blender most likely will not cut it. If you have a food processor, the blades on those are stronger and you could use those in a pinch. Try the Ninja as another option.
Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also stay in touch with me through social media by following me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!
DIY Freezer Smoothie Packs
Ingredients
- 2 Peaches
- 2 Bananas
- 10 Strawberries
- 1 tub Vanilla Yogurt
Instructions
Prepare the Ingredients
- Chop up fruit. Use very ripe fruit for the best results.
- Line a baking sheet with wax paper and lay the fruit slices on it. Place in the freezer for 3-4 hours.
- Place a few spoonfuls of yogurt into an ice cube tray and freeze for four hours.
Make the Smoothie Packs
- After four hours, remove all of the ingredients from the freezer
- In a snack-sized Ziploc bag add a few pieces of fruit and one or two frozen yogurt cubes
- Close the bag and place the sealed bags in a larger, quart-sized freezer bag to minimize the chance of freezer burn.
- Add the freezer bag back to the freezer and take out individual smoothie packs when you want a light breakfast
Making the Smoothie
- Add the contents of one bag to the blender
- Add a little bit of water or milk and pulse until smooth
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
How much fruit goes into each baggy?
Reba, it’s up to you how much you put in. I use the snack size bag and fill it up. Then when you pull it out, choose one or two bags depending on how much of a smoothie you like.
Hi- can you explain why the ingredients have to be frozen individually before assembling the packets?
Otherwise you open the bag to blend it and its just one frozen block of ingredients that won’t blend well. With them frozen separately they stay easy to break apart if they get stuck together and can be blended with more ease.
Thank you very much 🙂
Blueberry peach and strawberry peach are also great flavors. I also add oatmeal and ground flaxseed. Seems to keep me full longer. And homade vanilla and/or almond extract for flavor,
I was looking for breakfast on the run a while ago, but I was having a problem with smoothies causing me to have to pee more. Not good on a long commute. I solved that problem, when I started adding protein powder. I usually use non-whey and non-soy protein as directed on the package and more of whatever liquid you’re using, usually almond or coconut milk
I haven’t tried making packets, yet, but I’m looking forward to it when the weather gets warmer.
This is pure genius! I can’t wait to do this. Expecially because my husband is starting collage and a new job this week and I need some fast, easy breakfasts. Thanks a ton!
Thanks! 🙂
I love smoothie packs! We started doing this about a year ago. If we leave the blender right on the counter and wash it out right away so it’s ready to go for the next day it makes such an easy breakfast!
How did you use the left over whey from the yogurt? I see you use the actual yogurt you made but what do you use the whey for? Slightly confused but excited to make my own yogurt. Thanks!
Whey can be added to bread to make it taste good and add nutrients, my step dad puts it in his breakfast oats, and you could add it to a smoothie for extra nutrients.
Thanks for the tips! 🙂
I’m new to the smoothies so I was wondering if you could tell me how much fruit and liquid you use for each package. Thanks :0)
I love this idea…no fruit goes to waste!! I also add blueberries to some of the packets, and am going to experiment by adding orange juice cubes to the strawberry/banana packets.
Oh adding orange juice sounds like a great idea!!
food for thought make it even easier and skip the ice trays put 1 icecream scoops of yogurt in the corner of each ziplock bag . freeze and re open to place your fruit in the empy side