Fruit for smoothies

A question about : Fruit for smoothies

Hey folks, I got smoothie maker for Christmas and so far i love it . I quite like the bags of mixed frozen fruits and berry's to which i just add natural yogurt and a banana also a little honey sometimes. Now I'm over the initial binge buying of fruits and natural yogurt at probably over priced rates, i was interested to see if anyone else was into their smoothies and where they source the fruits from. Just to see if there's any specific places people go to either bulk buy mixed frozen fruit or any good deals i may be missing out on in the smoothie scene as it were
Thanks

Best answers:

• both into smoothies myself, but:
  Look out in you local market for offers on kiwi, mango, berries. Ours often has bowls of mangoes at the end of the day for a Ј1, you can sometimes get two punnets of strawbs or rasps for Ј1.
  Also your local greengrocer can have good deals ours in the summer had two punnets for a Ј, they had strawbs, rasps, blueberries, cherries.
  Also try the reduced section in supermarket for reduced fruits.
  I think farm foods do a variety of frozen fruit but not sure what, and sainsburys basics frozen red fruit mix is nice
  Mango and berries can be frozen, so can melon, so if you can get some cheap, cut up, freeze on trays and then bag up when frozen, you can then use a mixture of what you want when you reach inside the freezer.
  Also I am told that tinned peaches do work well in smoothies (obviously in juice better for you than in syrup)
• We like smoothies - I buy bags of mixed frozen fruits whenever I see them on offer but I also freeze any fruit that I have bought fresh if it isn't eaten quickly enough (particularly sliced up bananas)or if I've bulk bought fruit I've seen cheap on the market.
  Also, you can freeze plain yoghurt in ice cube trays and then pop the cubes into the smoothies rather than keeping it in the fridge if you find you aren't getting through it quick enough before it goes off.
• I got one of the Breville active blender for xmas - not used it yet but keen to do so liking some of the ideas/frozen fruit suggestions above.
• I got the active blend for Christmas, I've used it everyday, you can buy decent frozen fruit in lidl, so far I've just bought reduced fruit.
• I make up smoothie bags full of the right amount of fruit. It's a combo of reduced price, left overs and frozen smart price berries or stuff foraged I. The summer! Then you can just add your liquid I use natural yoghurt smart price again! And hey presto instant smoothies x
• We use frozen and fresh fruit. In summer it's easy to grow strawberries and raspberries so there is always a bountiful supply. Store bought frozen fruit is ok in Tesco and aldi and sainsburys.
  We're going to start experimenting with veg smoothies as well, spinach and other green leafy veg is also very easy to grow, so it won't cost as much to fund our smoothies in the warmer months of the year.
• Frozen fruit on offer in Lidl from 8th Jan
  750g for Ј2.29 or 1kg for Ј2.29
  Rasps, Strawbs and Black Forest fruits
• Carrot is rather nice in smoothies. I use the carrot to ration my fruit quantity if I am using the more expensive type like raspberries and blueberries. I discovered this after getting fed up of banana as no matter what I mixed with it all I ever tasted was banana. My favourite smoothie is kiwi, I add carrot to it so to ration my kiwi also. I've started to use a scoop of ice cream instead of yoghurt as a treat on occasions.
• I've never had a smoothie.
  I have read on here comments from people who have bought a smoothie maker which has been found a new home at the back of the cupboard with other useless gadgets. The top complaint seems to be they take a lot of cleaning. The other thing i've heard people complain about is it takes a lot of fruit to make a drink, so are expensive.
  If you want all the 'goodness' of the fruit, why not just eat it rather making a drink from it ?