Our morning breakfast ritual typically consists of making a smoothie together. My three year old loves to add all of the ingredients and push all of the buttons on the blender. Frozen blueberries, banana and yogurt are always in the mix and then some juice for sweetner and any other fruit or berries that we happen to have that day round out the healthy drink. My son lives on fruit but I love the fact that I can add spinach and a tablespoon or two of flax seed without changing the taste. Besides the teeny flecks of green, you don’t even notice that it is full of green goodness, in addition to the antioxidants and all of the other vitamins and nutrients.
We prefer using at least a portion of frozen berries or fruit to give the smoothie the thick, icy consistency of a milkshake. If you like runnier smoothies you can either add more liquid (juice or milk) or reduce the amount of frozen fruit. We have lots of versions of the smoothie, such as our blueberry smoothie and fruit smoothie, but actually each day’s smoothie is different. The ingredients and quantities vary each day {especially depending on what a particular three year old is in the mood for and how much he decides to dump into the blender that morning!} but fortunately smoothies are very forgiving. You really can’t go wrong when you blend up fruit and yogurt.
All in all, homemade smoothies are quick & easy and a healthy, kid-friendly and fun {especially with silly faces} way to start the day.
*Some mornings we eat our smoothie with a spoon, sprinkling granola or cereal on top, and other mornings we drink it with a straw. When we don’t have one for breakfast, we usually make one in the afternoon for lunch or an energy snack. We even make them for dessert as an alternative to ice cream. During the summer we make large batches so that we can freeze the extra smoothie in popsicle molds (or small paper cups) for a refreshing frozen treat {mixed berry yogurt popsicles}.
- 1 cup low-fat Greek yogurt or low-fat plain yogurt
- 1 cup frozen berries and fruit {blueberries, raspberries, peaches, etc}
- 1 banana
- 1 cup tightly-packed spinach leaves
- 1-2 Tbsp flax seeds
- ⅓ cup apple juice
- Blend all of the ingredients together.
- Adjust the consistency by adding more frozen berries or fruit juice.
- If desired, make silly faces on your smoothies using fruits, cereal and any other ingredients.
