Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Freeze Your Own Acai Juice For Smoothies & Acai Bowls

You may know that I've been eating gluten free for almost seven months now. I've found that the hardest meal of the day to eat gluten free is breakfast. Most of it involves bread of some form- toast, bagel, cereal, muffin, donut, pancake, waffle... you get the idea. I WISH I liked eggs, but I really have to force them down with bacon or sausage in the same bite. I recently got introduced to acai bowls, and I LOVE them! The problem is, all of the recipes I've found involve frozen acai smoothie packs. I went on a quest to find them, and the closest place I found to my home is 45 minutes away at a Whole Foods. The other thing is...they're expensive. It was $6.99 for FOUR little frozen packets.
I found fresh acai juice in my local grocery store (Savemart for locals), and tried making bowls with that. The problem was, they were really runny, really quickly because there was so much liquid. The other thing to think about is this large bottle of juice is $6.99, but has to be used within 7 days of opening it. Then one day I had a brainstorm! What if I froze the juice in ice cube trays, then dumped the cubes into a freezer bag to pull out when I needed them? Hello, genius! 
I'm happy to say, it worked!! One large bottle is enough to make 3 ice cube trays. I estimate that one big bottle should end up making about 10 smoothies or acai bowls, for the same price you would get FOUR at the store. I thought I'd give you the recipe I've ended up with after many trials and errors.

 First up, cut your fruit that will top it. It can be anything you want- strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, nectarines, bananas, whatever you'd like. You want to cut it first so that you are ready to assemble your bowl when the smoothie part is ready.
The toppings I use are my gluten free granola, sliced raw almonds, and hemp hearts. Hemp hearts sound weird, but they're really good for you, and when you are eating something with a lot of flavor, you really can't taste them.
 In your blender (just bought a Ninja last week and I LOVE it!), drop in 3-4 acai frozen cubes, half of a sliced frozen banana, 1/3 cup frozen raspberries, 1/3 cup frozen blueberries, 1 cup organic apple juice. I pulse it a few times, and then blend until smooth.
 This recipe makes 2 snack size bowls, or one BIG (meal size) bowl. When it's done it should look like this, see how it has almost a thick ice cream consistency? Yep, not runny anymore!
 Now is the fun part, just top it with your goodies! I spill on some granola, hemp hearts, and almonds.
 Then I top with the fresh fruit! This is SO super yummy, and acai is REALLY good for you! If I eat this, I am full for hours.
Enjoy! Let me know if you try freezing your own acai juice!

2 comments:

  1. I will try that for sure. Freezing Acai Juice Blend is a wonderful idea. I love this fruit as it contains high amount of antioxidants that promotes so many health benefits.

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