Smoothy Groovy Rides Again

I wrote a post about a month ago about how I have lately added smoothies to our daily diet as a frugal way to address (ahem) certain nutritional deficiencies in our family diet.

As I have been going to the smoothy well at least twice a day I soon discovered a bit of a problem.  I didn’t have enough portable cups suitable for taking my healthy concoctions on the road.

The shaker type with the sippy hole in the lid are best for the purpose.  I have one of these I bought from Tupperware years ago.  Well, actually, I have the lid; I don’t know what happened to the bottom part.  I also have a shaker-type cup with a lid with no sippy hole.  This isn’t so convenient for commuting. So I sent my husband off to work daily with a big plastic cup filled with healthy smoothy, but with no lid.  A little risky what with all those crazy drivers out there.

But one day I found just what I needed at Sprout’s Farmers’ Market - the aforementioned shaker type cups with sippy lids.  But wait a minute - on taking a closer look I see that they are $8.99 each.  That’s a lot of dough for a hunk of plastic.

Back to the drawing board.

A couple of days later I was rummaging around in my kitchen with this problem in mind.  I found 2 blue plastic soda cup lids with straw holes in one drawer, and the QT Gas Station plastic soda cups that the lids fit on the highest shelf of a lonely kitchen cabinet.  I even have nice tall, big fat straws that are perfect for conducting thick smoothies from the cup to the lips.  They fit perfectly in the lid (they could actually be QT straws, now that I think about it).

I save all my straws from occasional fast food outings, because I use straws all the time at home.  They’re easy to wash in the dishwasher.  Just twisty-tie them together in a bunch, and put them in the silverware basket.  You can wash them a gazillion times before they wear out. When they wear out I toss them in the recycle bin.

Yay! Problem solved.  QT sodas are cheap, I think maybe .65 for a 32 oz soda.  These cups and lids are hearty - they have gone through my dishwasher several times and are still in fine shape.  It sure beats $8.99.  I told my husband that the next time he stops at QT for gas and happens to buy a soda, DON’T throw the cup away.  It has a place in my frugal kitchen.

Here it is: the Frugal commuter’s sippy cup, filled to the brim with a nutritious green smoothy.  I put my husband’s initial on the lid, just to make sure his smoothy doesn’t get confused with all the other smoothies lurking out there.  Plus, I want to make sure I get that cup back!