Froze smoothie packs keep my daily smoothie habit going when I'm super busy... or just don't feel like coming up with a recipe to blend. These packs are made using Costco sized bags of produce to maximize my budget and make for easy prep.
Ever wonder if it is possible to prep a month of green smoothies on a budget, using mostly organic produce? Well, I did... so I tried, conquered and am now going to share all my tips with you. Frozen smoothie packs using Costco (not sponsored, just great!) produce that now give you no excuse to having a daily smoothie.
Grocery list for smoothie packs
I'm all about fueling my body with whole foods, yet I also have to watch my family's monthly budget. To do this successfully, I used our Smoothie Digital Guide for our free Smoothie Challenge. This includes a shopping list which makes 10 smoothie recipes using only 10 ingredients!
I invited my friend Erin along for some shopping at Costco, a member-only, bulk-grocery store. We purchased as much organic produce as we could afford, then attempted to make at least a month's worth of smoothies.
Did we succeed? Check out this video below, or read on to see our results!
DIY frozen smoothie packs from Costco
There are so many reasons I love to shop at Costco. They strive to offer organic options, they have a great produce section, and it’s possible to get all the smoothie ingredients in one place! Costco stores can be found all over the world, yet each location has slightly different food selections.
No, we did not get endorsed/sponsored by Costco to do this experiment. Quite the opposite. We actually had to be sneaky in the store so we didn't get kicked out for recording without permission. I felt like I was 15 again. 🙂
Frozen Smoothie Ingredients
To make frozen smoothie packs, I suggest using a combination of frozen and fresh produce. Frozen fruit is not second place to fresh. It's a great option on its own because it's picked at the peak of the season, then sliced and frozen for us. Plus it saves money.... and I'm on a budget here.
In the Costco freezer aisle, you can get organic strawberries as well as pineapple. While we hoped to score some frozen organic mango too, there was none in sight. Sniff Sniff. So we headed to the fresh produce section next.
You don't need all frozen or all fresh ingredients to create smoothie packs. Use a mix of what you can find because they're all going in the same storage containers in the end.
Fresh Smoothie Ingredients
In the fresh produce section, we found organic bananas, mango, oranges, and organic spinach. We couldn’t find any kale (organic or non-organic), so I bought a bag of Organic Power Greens. This mix of all organic baby kale, spinach, and swiss chard is a perfect blend of greens that gives great nutrient variety to our smoothies.
Tips for using organic produce with smoothie packs
The best guide for knowing what produce to buy organically is The EWG List, published annually. When shopping for green smoothies on a budget, use this guide to keep my produce clean, yet still doable.
The produce on the Clean 15 list can be more safely purchased as non-organic, though feel free to purchase these ingredients organically grown as well.
The foods on the Fresh 15 list either have a shell or skin that protects the fruit underneath, or the farming practices do not genetically modify or use the same chemicals as the first list. If buying all organic is not an option for your budget, use these lists as your guide to the safest, most delicious smoothie ingredients.
Month of smoothies for under $50?
We know that fresh produce is often the most expensive stuff in our grocery carts, not to mention trying to buy organic! Here's what we were able to do at Costco with our shopping list and a $50 budget:
- Organic Power Greens = $5.99 per 24 oz
- Organic Spinach = $3.89 per 32 oz
- Oranges = $13.99 for 24 (needed 20)
- Organic Bananas = $1.99 per 8 bananas
- Frozen Pineapple = $7.99 for 80 oz
- Fresh Mangoes = $4.49 for 6
- Organic Frozen Strawberries = $9.99 for 64 oz
Grand Total: $48.33
The best deal in town was Costco!
My goal was a month of smoothies, but I was actually able to prep 36 green smoothies with our Costco ingredients, and spent $48.33 total. That comes out to $1.34 per smoothie, and less than $50 a month!! Beat that price, smoothie bar!
Want to know the difference between shopping at Costco vs. other grocery stores for the same amount of supplies?
- $48 at Costco
- $80 at Trader Joe’s
- $89 at Publix
- $92 at Walmart
- $118 at Target
If that price difference seems crazy to you too, then you’re not alone. Almost a 40% price difference between the same ingredients at Costco and Publix. If you need to pause reading this to get a Costco membership real quick, then don’t let me stop you. Buying green smoothie ingredients on a budget has never been so easy.
Prepping Frozen Smoothie Packs
There are a few ways you can make freezer packs. My favorite are mason jars or reusable bags. Stasher and (re)zip are both great brands that you can reuse over and over because they're made from silicone.
Can you freeze smoothies in freezer bags?
You absolutely can. Yet, I love prepping my smoothies in wide mouth, pint sized ball jars. These jars will fit the blended smoothie perfectly and they are reusable. Also, they fit in all kinds of spaces within most freezers.
Wide mouth jars work the best as the ingredients are easier to get out when I start blending. There is no worry that the glass will break, as the liquid isn't added until blending.
Prepping the Produce
Prepping all the produce before stuffing the jars makes the process faster in our opinion. Grab a friend or family member and start chopping. A few chopping notes:
- When prepping oranges, make sure to peel the tough yellow part, yet keep the white pith surrounding the orange. A lot of vitamin C lives in the pith, and that's what we want!
- Check out this post for my best mango cutting tips!
- Dump the frozen fruits into large bowls for easy scooping when filling the mason jars.
- leave the greens for last when filling the jars, as it is super easy to pack these on top.
How to use frozen spinach in smoothies
While I don't recommend using the boxed frozen spinach since it usually has additives (and reminds me of slime), you can absolutely add fresh spinach to your smoothie prep as I mentioned above.
Freezing your own greens is a great way to avoid produce waste as well as use fresh ingredients year round.
With our Costco haul, we were able to prep 36 frozen smoothie packs with our $50 budget. So grab a friend and some cute tote bags, head to the local farmers’ market or Costco, then get prepping! Drop a comment below and let us know your fav places to buy produce, as well as your money saving green smoothie tips and tricks!
DIY Frozen Smoothie Packs
Rate this Recipe Print RecipeIngredients
Costco Shopping List
- 24 oz power greens ($5.99 per 24 oz bag of organic)
- 32 oz spinach ($3.89 per 32 oz tub of organic)
- 20 oranges ($13.99 for 24)
- 8 bananas ( $1.99 per 8 organic bananas)
- 80 oz pineapple ($7.99 for 80 oz bag of frozen)
- 6 mangos ($4.49 for 6)
- 64 oz strawberries ($9.99 for 64 oz bag of frozen)
Instructions
- Join the Smoothie Challenge and get the recipes we'll be making: https://simplegreensmoothies.com/challenge
- Head to Costco (or store of your choice) and buy the items above
- Get 10 recipes from the 10-Day Challenge and start putting them into the containers (without the liquid).
- Write the name of each recipe and what you still need to add (ex: add 1 cup almond milk)
Video
Notes
- You can shop at other stores as well, yet Costco had the best quality and price we could find down here in Central Florida.
- The nutrition info is based on my sample ingredients. Your nutrition will change based on the ingredients you use.
- Feel free to swap in whatever ingredients you use most for smoothies!
Megan
I’m so excited to get to Costco to try this - thank you so much for sharing it! I signed up for the challenge to get the recipes, but the recipes I received have fruits other than what you purchased at Costco and listed above. So for the 30 mason jars that you prepped using the fruit you got at Costco, did you just divide up all of the fruit and greens evenly? Can you possibly estimate how much you used of each and what liquid you used? Thanks so much!
Simple Green Smoothies
Hey Megan! The smoothies contents were divided up based on the recipes that were chosen for this smoothie prep. This type of smoothie prepping can be done with any recipes you choose! If you want to prep for a month at a time, I would choose about 5 different smoothies so that you'd be making 6 of each recipe for the month. This will cut down on the amount of ingredients you have to buy, rather than trying to make a different one for each day of the month. Click here to browse our free smoothie recipes on our blog ---> https://simplegreensmoothies.com/smoothies
Each recipe will recommend a liquid base, but you can use any that you choose; water, coconut water, almond milk, oat milk, etc. We just like to keep it plant-based and unsweetened! 😉
Hope this helps! Happy Blending!
Polly Levatino
I took the 14-day challenge about a year ago and have been having green smoothies every weekday ever since! I love this recipe and all your others I’ve tried! I’d never had a green smoothie before taking the challenge. I love how I feel and look now! I started with fresh kale and then switched to super greens powder but decided recently to switch back to kale. I feel better when using it. I want to freeze it in cubes but I’m unsure how many ice cubes would equal a cup. Could you help out a rawkstar?
Simple Green Smoothies
Hey there Polly,
Love this question and I've got a great article that would help you out! How to Freeze Spinach
The article is "How to Freeze Spinach" but the same would apply for Kale.
I usually freeze my leafy greens in Ziploc baggies and just dump one in to my blender when I'm ready for it. But if you blend 2 cups of leafy greens with a half cup of water (and a squeeze of lemon juice), that should fill a 12 cube tray. So, you'd need about 6 cubes for a cup of kale.
Michael
What size mason jars do you use? Are they the 16 or 24 oz or bigger?
Simple Green Smoothies
Hi Michael! We use 16 oz. jars here.
Viola Murray
This is such a good idea..........I give it 5 stars.
Glenn
Hello
I would like the recipes for the 36 smoothies please. Don’t know where to get it.
Simple Green Smoothies
Hi Glenn! The recipes used are from our free Green Smoothie Challenge. You can find the current one HERE.
Vicki
Love this! THANK YOU!
dianna
you can freeze these in mason Jars?
thankyou
Zaneta
So I actually learned that as long as your jar doesn't have a lip, you can freeze them!
Lois
Looks good and great price.
Will make some tonight.
Simple Green Smoothies
Setting yourself up for smoothie success, Lois! Way to rawk it!
Susan Callahan
I just made day two Strawberry Watermelon smoothie from the 10 day green smoothie challenge. Easy to make. Ginger was a bit overpowering. Might have to tweak this one a bit.