How come kids come home from school starving every day? I swear I make them eat breakfast before they head out in the morning and then they really do have a packed lunch. Somehow the refrian still is when they come thundering in the back door “Mom! Is there anything to eat?”.
Walmart asked me, for my very last post in the Walmart Moms program (they are winding down the program) to share an after school snack. So here’s a blast from the past that can make a great snack–an Orange Julius! Are you old enough to remember these things? 
When I was a kid up near Bangor Maine, we had two Malls. There was “The Bangor Mall”–the bigger, new mall outside town to the north. It was Bangor, so it wasn’t a huge mall, maybe 20 or 30 stores? The other mall was the Airport Mall, located by the airport. Yeah. We were big on creative names. Anyway, The Airport Mall was the original one in the area-actually it was the first enclosed mall in the state of Maine. I’m sure in the late 70’s it was probably the place to be, but by the time I was a teen it was the dead mall–probably only half the stores were open. But the things that were there were ONLY there, so occasionally we had reason to be over on that side of town and go in. What I really remember about the Airport Mall was that it had an Orange Julius in all it’s burnt orange and mustard yellow glory.
Orange Julius was a shop that pretty much only sold their namesake drink. There may have been a few other things on the menu, but not much. What was an Orange Julius? Well it’s not exactly a shake, and not exactly a smoothie. . . it’s a drink made from milk and orange juice with ice whipped to a froth. I realize that sounds kind of gross, but it’s much tastier than it sounds! Apparently a guy named Julius owned an orange stand back in the day but didn’t have much business. He personally couldn’t drink much orange juice–the acidity would bother his stomach, so he came up with a drink that combined orange juice with milk and didn’t bother his stomach at all. He started offering it at the stand and folks LOVED it. They’d come in and say “I’d like an orange, Julius.”. Eventually that became “I’d like and Orange Julius” and the name of the drink was born.
The main ingredients of an Orange Julius are milk and orange juice. You also use a bit of vanilla, some sugar and ice cubes. One of the things I like about this drink is you can easily adjust it for dietary preferences. Don’t want to use whole milk? Go ahead and use 2% or Skim. I don’t even see why you couldn’t use soy or almond milk instead, although I haven’t tried it. Prefer organic? Use organic milk and juice! The recipe calls for orange juice but when I got home from Walmart I realized that the Harvest Select Orange I had picked up was actually a blend of orange and apple juice–that’s ok, it worked fine too!
I like that this recipe gets and extra serving of milk and fruit juice into my kids but doesn’t fill them up so much that they are going to have problems eating their supper. And although this drink does have sugar in it, it’s 1/4 C for two servings. That’s 2 TBS per serving, which really isn’t a lot of additional sugar. If you are trying to avoid white sugar you could always try making it without the sugar, or using a different sweetener.
The recipe is simple, although a good blender that can really crush up your ice cubes is essential. You simply blend together 1 C of milk, 6 oz (or half a can) of frozen orange juice concentrate, 1/4 C of sugar and 1/2 tsp of vanilla in your blender. Then you 6 ice cubes, add one or two cubes at a time and pulse them until they are all broken up and frothy. Pour into two glasses and enjoy! That’s it, really!
So how does it taste? Sweet and frothy, but not super sicky sweet. It’s fruity, but not overwhelmingly orange or milky–it’s just something of it’s own. Buddy’s comment on tasting it was “Now I have a new favorite drink!”
Homemade Orange Julius
Ingredients
- 6 oz Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate
- 1 C Milk
- 1/4 C Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 6-8 Ice Cubes
Instructions
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Blend all ingredients except ice cubes.
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Once all combined, add ice cubes a few at a time, blending to make sure they are smooth.
****This is a sponsored post****
Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This can also be made with real frozen oranges. When you have oranges that are getting a little dry or otherwise not great for eating fresh (but not grossly rotten either) just slice and peel and freeze them. Then they can take the place of both the ice and juice concentrate. I actually prefer it this way. The concentrate always has a bitter aftertaste for me that the real oranges don’t.
Wow, I haven’t had an orange Julius in about 20 years. I loved the stand at the mall, I was so sad when it closed. Thank you for sharing the recipe, we will definitely be making them this weekend!