Warning: we eat real, whole foods. We don’t support juicing – also known as the removal of fiber from fruits and vegetables. The short of this post is, we love these specific smoothies because of their ingredients. We’ve never seen anything like it before, and if you’re looking for quick, simple, and kid-friendly then you’ve found your new favorite subscription box! Use THIS LINK and use code SBSPECIAL20 to get $20 with the early bird special this week only. [more details below]
Reporting from our make-shift garage kitchen, with SmoothieBox to our rescue!
While we are big fans of subscription boxes and receive quite a number of them each month, even we were surprised and impressed with the BRAND NEW subscription box service SmoothieBox, run by the experts at ButcherBox. Specifically we love that these smoothies include all macronutrients thanks to grass-fed collagen, organic fruits & veggies, and coconut (no tree or peanuts).
In this summer heat, with no workable kitchen from renovating (see Instagram for the details on all of that!), having a quick breakfast smoothie ready to go is a huge help! It’s even easy enough for the kids to make themselves, which Finn (our mini-chef) is always excited about. When your shipment arrives, four boxes will contain frozen packs of fruit and veggies, and one is packages of collagen. One box makes 20 smoothies, but honestly those serving sizes are so generous – we shared one serving among us! Bonus: the packages contain dry ice which is always a fun science experiment with the kids.
While we were thrilled this arrived, we immediately realized that in our pre-order state over a month ago, we’d forgotten and packed up our blender for the kitchen renovation. *gasp* But! Like Tim Gunn says, we had a make it work moment and used our food processor. A blender would make your smoothie much more, well… smoother. Finn didn’t mind!
Flavors
The flavors are Cacao, Clementine, and Green Smoothie. You add the frozen produce, a packet of collagen and 7 oz of “liquid of choice”. We put our recommendations for each below, but it’s personal preference. We blended, and sipped. Our family favorite was definitely Cacao – I love that it includes veggies but feels like you’re having a chocolate milkshake!
Cacao: Banana, Zucchini, Kale, Coconut Water, Grass-fed Collagen Protein, Sunflower Seeds, Banana Puree, Coconut Cream, Cacao Nibs, Cacao Powder, Sea Salt
we recommend your favorite milk or milk substitute, we used vanilla unsweetened almond milk, if it’s not sweet enough for your palette we like this Sweet Leaf Vanilla Creme Stevia drops
Green: Spinach, Avocado, Pineapple, Grass-fed Collagen Protein, Lemon Juice, Pineapple Juice, Water, Ginger, Date, Flax Seed, Sea Salt
this tastes more like food than smoothie, we had limemade that was perfect when added, SmoothieBox recommends coconut water which would be great PWO but I’d add more citrus (lemon or lime) as well
Clementine: Mandarin, Sweet Potato, Carrot, Ginger, Grass-fed Collagen Protein, Coconut Cream, Pumpkin Seeds, Coconut Water, Date, Lemon Juice
the ginger in this is very strong with the citrus, almost Asian in flavor, it worked well with a nut milk but would also be great with coconut water or juice to sweeten it more for kids
There are over 20g of protein in each one! That’s as much as a lot of protein shakes that don’t contain nearly the nutrients and veggies that this does! Plus they’re nightshade free, nut-free, egg-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, no added sugar, you name it!
Why These Smoothies?
So, let me preface our flavor discussion by telling you that these are no sugar added NOT Tropical Smoothie concoctions. These are real food smoothies and won’t be as sweet and desserty as most commercial smoothies. You can always add dates, stevia, or honey to your smoothie for the preferred sweetness. Frankly, I love that starts not too sweet so that it’s adjustable for each person’s preferences!
The boys really liked the cacao version, which is made mainly of bananas and cacao. Meanwhile, Stacy picked the Green smoothie, which contains spinach and avocado with pineapple juice. And Cole, the banana-hater, chose the Clementine smoothie.
But, you may ask, why smoothies? Isn’t the trend right now juicing and juice fasts?
NO! Not in this house! Juicing is NOT a healthy choice. Your body needs fiber! If you juice a fruit or vegetables, all you’re doing is extracting the sugary water from it and removing nutrients and fiber. Why would you do that? Instead, make a smoothie with the WHOLE fruit or vegetables and get ALL of the goodness! What we genuinely love about these smoothies is that because they include collagen, seeds, coconut, fruits and veggies they really do fill you up and can truly take the place of a meal for under $5.
PLUS COLLAGEN. You KNOW how this house feels about collagen! No? Here’s our FAQ on all it’s magical powers and a link to a special discount for collagen protein.
Early Bird Special
If you’re even thinking about trying this subscription out, definitely do it this week. When you use THIS LINK and Coupon Code: SBSPECIAL20 at checkout it’ll get you $20 off through August 7, 2018. That’s $1 per smoothie and really make the price point worth trying. Then you can decide if you want to continue or not.
If you didn’t get in on the pre-order you still get the deal, but only through this week. Then going forward you can choose if and when you want future boxes with FREE delivery. Order yours HERE!
