After I realized how nutritious green smoothies were, and I had created the awesome habit of drinking them myself regularly, I knew I needed to get my kids to drink them. I have 4 kids. My baby will eat just about anything so I wasn’t worried about him, but my other 3 I knew would need some coaxing.
After a lot of trial and error, I found 2 things that made my smoothies delicious tasting to my kids:
1. Add enough fruit and even a touch of natural sweetener (truvia, honey, stevia, agave) to make it sweet.
2. Make it creamy. I use a base of homemade almond or coconut milk.
Also, the best greens for kid smoothies are the milder flavored ones. My favorite are swiss chard or spinach. If I use kale, I always add juice from 1 lime to counteract the stronger flavor. To this day, my 4 year old STILL asks me every time I hand her a glass of my latest concoction, “Did you put milk in it?” If I answer no she wont even touch it. Just sayin’ it really makes a difference. Also, I use a high-powered vitamix blender. You’ll need one to really make this smooth. A blendtec will also work. I’m not familiar with any others.
(Shopping for Greens)
Here’s my base recipe, that makes 6-8 cups.
Creamy Green Smoothie
3 cups almond or coconut milk (Homemade tastes wonderful. Store bought, not so much)
3-4 cups fresh or frozen greens
1-2 teaspoons of honey (or other sweetener)
1 banana
2 handfuls of frozen strawberries
2 handfuls of frozen pineapple
Other variations:
Mango lime: Substitute 1 cup mango instead of pineapple, and add juice of 1 lime. Add more sweetener if needed.
Purple Green Smoothie (as my daughter calls it): Substitute blueberries instead of strawberries. I just add enough to make it turn purple 🙂
Tropical: Use coconut milk as a base, then omit the berries and just use 2 bananas, 3 handfuls of pineapple and 1 tsp vanilla.
Other additions: Sometimes I add the following: 2 tbls, chia or flax seed, grapes, apples. Make your own creation depending on what your family likes!
Here’s a link to my homemade almond milk recipe: https://www.upliftingmayhem.com/homemade-almond-milk/
Heres a link from Wellness Mama for homemade coconut milk: https://wellnessmama.com/2447/homemade-coconut-milk/
Also, canned coconut milk works great also, but I have found that store-bought ALMOND milk DOES NOT.
HAPPY BLENDING!!