Smoothie Recipes for Kids & People Who Eat Like Them

I have a conscientious objector in my house; he shuns veggies like it’s his religion.

Strangely he is also the kid who won’t eat ice cream, pudding, jello, the cakey part of cake.

He would prefer to survive on nothing but cinnamon waffles (he doesn’t really eat syrup), chocolate milk, and turkey sandwiches with yellow cheese.

We would never call him picky to his face, but behind his back, totally, he is that.

I blame myself.

At 10 months, he developed a severe food allergy that had us spending our days seeing specialists and our nights tending to open sores on his bottom caused by intense diarrhea.  He literally still has scars from that experience.

So, we’ve always been sort of lenient with his food consumption; if he was consuming something and not getting sick, we were happy.

At this point his allergies have progressed from carry-this-epi-pen-wherever-you-go-just-in-case to if-you-eat-that-expect-to-enjoy-an-intense-amount-of-time-putting-in-work-in-the-bathroom, and scratching, and sniffling, and feeling ill at ease.

But, there remains an I-don’t-like-that habit that needs breaking.

We’re working on that.  But until I’ve got him firmly planted in the adventurous eater lane, we’ve got a solution…

For whatever reason, he won’t eat ice cream or many veggies if you put them in a bowl on the table, but add some fruit, cover them in juice and blend it all up, and as nasty as that sounds when you think about it separately like this, he is all up in that.  Plus, he loves helping out with the production (something about pressing that blender button).

Smoothie Recipes for Kids and People Who Eat Like Them

Popeye Surprise Spinach Smoothie

6oz frozen orange juice concentrate (I use the 16 oz cans and scoop out what I need)

1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt

1 orange

1 individual cup of mixed fruit with juice (yep, one of the kind you send to school in your kid’s lunch bag)

1/3 cup frozen spinach

1/2 cup water

Put in blender.  Blend. Blend. Blend. Siiiiiip.

Naked Strawberry Mango Smoothie

1/2 cup Naked Mango Smoothie juice

1/2 cup crushed pineapple with juice

1 cup strawberries

1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt

1 cup broccoli

Same as before: blend and enjoy.

Mango Avocado Smoothie (Mangocado if you’re nasty)

1/2 cup peach mango juice (we use a Tropicana one that has veggies snuck inside too)

1 avocado

1/2 cup crushed pineapple with juice

1/4 frozen orange juice concentrate

1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt

Every smoothie is the same, y’all, put it in your blender and make it work.  If you have a Ninja Ultima Blender* like I do, your drink will come out super smooth in just a few seconds (no kidding, these things are powerful and fast; really, crazy, fast).

A few healthful options…

Chia Seeds.  They’re expensive, but so, super good for you (the episode of Dr. Oz I am on also features a Chia seed cooking segment because he’s a believer).  If you can afford them, you can add a tablespoon or two of them to any smoothie for added super powers.  I’m not saying you’ll be able to fly, but um, you might start to feel like it!

Flax Seed. Toss in 1 tablespoon of flaxseed if you want to add a little disease fighting power boost to your drink.  You won’t be able to taste it so no big deal.

Almond Milk.  Even if you use the low fat version, frozen yogurt is packed with calories and sugar, we all know that.  That’s why it makes these things taste so amazing.  If you want to reduce the calories and sugar, and add in a more healthful option (or avoid diary because of allergies), almond milk and ice work too.  It will make it thicker than just using juice.  Also good options: peanut butter, oatmeal, greek yogurt (you can just pop the container in the freezer), and frozen bananas.

*I received my Ninja Ultima Blender free of charge for the purposes of making kitchen awesome and sharing it with you guys.  I use it all the time simply because my kids make me.