You can easily freeze oranges for smoothies. Here’s how!
I never liked oranges in smoothies until I invested in a Blendtec. Regular, inexpensive blenders don’t have the power to puree fruit like oranges. This is fine – if you like to chew your smoothies. :) But a high-power blender like my beloved Blendtec easily blends all fruits until they are super smooth. Here’s more info about why I love my Blendtec and why I feel it’s worth the investment!
But back to freezing oranges…
I recently found myself with 5 extra pounds of clementines that were looking a little bit pitiful. Knowing we wouldn’t eat them all before they had to head to the compost, I simply peeled them, separated them, and put them into a freezer bag.
Now, when we want orange flavor in our smoothies, instead of pouring in orange juice, we blend in a handful of these frozen orange slices. These are great with strawberries, bananas, and well, just about any fruit combination!
Here’s our favorite recipe that includes frozen oranges:
Tropical Smoothies
- 1½ cups frozen mango chunks
- 1½ cups frozen pineapple chunks
- 1½ cups frozen orange slices
- 2 cups plain yogurt, milk, or coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor together.
- Blend until smooth.
It’s tough to beat pineapple, mango, and orange all together in a glass! Use coconut milk in this recipe if you want your smoothie to be extra-tropical tasting. And if you do that, it will be naturally diary-free too!
Do you freeze oranges? How do you use them?
BONUS
Then around 2014, there was a crop failure and the price of vanilla beans went through the roof. No longer was I able to share that we should all make vanilla. :( I kept waiting and waiting for the prices to finally go down. But year after year, the prices of vanilla beans have remained crazy high.
This week I saw that 
