Food for thought

August 5, 2009 | Print

Summer Smoothies

Smoothies are ideal for letting kids “cook” in the kitchen–they love creating their own smoothie snack or breakfast, they don’t mind if we add some good stuff like flax seeds, and the only clean up is the blender.

We set the ingredients on the counter, and the kids pour what they want in the blender. We watch so they don’t add too much of one thing, otherwise it’s their creation. They push the buttons on the blender with our supervision. When they find a favorite combination, we help remember the recipe, and they choose a name, like “Blueberry Bubbles”.

Organic ingredient ideas: fresh or frozen fruit (frozen for that icy taste and fresh banana for sweetness), ground flax seeds (Lyndsey’s kids say they LOVE flax in their smoothies), apple juice/water, rice or oat milk, Acai smoothie packs (unsweetened from the freezer section), goat yogurt, and a touch of vanilla extract.

Besides the flax, other fun smoothie finds from the health food store are Goji Berries, hemp seeds, Incan berries and Sun Warrior Protein Powder (made from organic sprouted brown rice). Smoothies are also a great way to get kids to take their supplements, like probiotics which don’t mix as well in juice or water.

Smoothies can be simple–our vanilla shake is banana, rice milk, vanilla and hemp seeds.

The kids usually tell us how often they want smoothies, maybe two or three times a week. Lyndsey serves them for breakfast or afternoon snack, Kelly’s kids like them mid-morning. We drink some ourselves and freeze any extra into popsicles.

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