Remember last week when I said there would be plenty of snacks at the theater because it's tech? I forgot the part about how I have no self control when it comes to peanut butter pretzels.

So I decided to plan a snack this week in an attempt to stop the madness.

Smoothies. I will drink smoothies this week.

Planning!

I've actually never done this, but an amazing friend mentioned to me about a year ago that she froze smoothies and they would be defrosted by snack time in rehearsal, so I decided to go for it! But then it came to choosing what to put in them, and I couldn't stop thinking "all of the things?" so I followed that vague, exhausted instinct. I have a juicer, but I do not have a blender, and I did not want to do this with my stick blender, so I had to be thoughtful about the food processor. I decided to juice oranges, kale, apples, and ginger, then blend that juice with strawberries, bananas, and coconut milk. A little bit of all of the yummy things. What could go wrong?

Here's the nutritional breakdown from Fitbit...

I'm actually not entirely sure about this, because of course there is food waste from the juicer... how much of the calorie content of the kale for example is left in the "trash" and how much goes with the juice? I'm not sure (it's fine), but I figure this is a useful benchmark at least.

Groceries I had on hand...

• none

Groceries I had to buy...

• 3 oranges (3 @ 3 for $2.00 = $2.00)
• 2 Granny Smith apples (.96lb @ $1.99/lb =  $1.91)
• 3 bananas (1lb @ .79/lb = $.79)
• 6" of ginger root (.28lb @ $2.69/lb = $.75)
• 1 can coconut milk ($1.69)
• kale (.8lb @ $1.99/lb = $1.63)
• 1 lb strawberries ($2.99)

Total monies spent for the entire "recipe": $11.76

Total monies spent for each of these 6 smoothies....

$1.96 per smoothie

Cooking!

I did this all while I was making waffles (yes, I did these again this week!). I cleaned all the fruits and the kale and trimmed everything up. The strawberries and bananas got pulsed in the food processor, then I juiced the oranges, then half the kale, then half the ginger and one of the apples, then the rest of the kale, and then the rest of the ginger and the apples (the style of juicer I have recommends sandwiching greens between hard fruits). I added the juice to the pulsed fruit in the food processor, and the coconut milk, then let 'er rip!

And into the freezer these went! I tasted them before they went in, and I am SO PLEASED with this improv. The ginger comes through, as does the apple. They are fruity and smooth but not too sweet and not too thick. They are fresh and lovely! Bye bye, peanut butter pretzels!