Mar
If you’ve got kids, you’ll know that it can be difficult trying to fit enough fruit and vegetables into their diet to make it healthy.
We’ve all been there — hiding peas in mash, pretending a carrot is an aeroplane, or telling them that broccoli is ‘deeeelicious”. No matter the ruse, kids tend to see right through it. We’re unsure at what point in their childhood kids develop a dislike of anything remotely healthy, but frankly, it’s a pain in the bum.
Luckily, smoothies are here to help. It’s a tried and tested method — when children are drinking fruit and vegetables rather than eating them, they don’t notice as much. Or at all.
Plus you can cram way more of the good stuff into a smoothie — five pieces of fruit and veg can easily be packed into the family blender, and quickly slurped down in an instant. We’ve also veered away from ingredients that will create really green drinks that may put off kids with their appearance (which is half the battle!).
If you’re off on a family fun day, you can take these smoothies along for the ride too. Yummy kid-friendly recipes will keep your small people topped up with energy and the vitamins they need — plus they’re easy to pack. Each recipe makes a few portions, which you can share out in the family or freeze for a tasty treat at a later date.
Read on to get inspired!
Strawberry and banana smoothie
First up: a delicious mix of strawberries and bananas to create a kid-friendly drink that’s kind to their bones and easy on their tastebuds.
Strawberries are yummy and healthy for children. Packed with vitamin C, fibre, potassium and antioxidants, these sweet treats have a range of different health benefits for kids.
Ingredient number two, the humble banana, is awesome for an energy boost. Bananas contain plenty of slow-burning carbohydrates to keep your kids going throughout the day, and they’re also a great source of fibre.
We’ve also added milk and yoghurt to this smoothie to keep your little ones’ calcium levels topped up and promote healthy bone and teeth growth.
This smoothie only contains a few ingredients, so it’s super simple to make.
Ingredients:
2 cups of strawberries
1 ripe banana
½ cup vanilla yoghurt (or soy yoghurt for a vegan smoothie)
1 cup of milk
1 tbsp oats (optional — if you want to make your drink more filling)
Peel the banana, remove the strawberry stalks and throw all of the ingredients into your bender. Blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy, and pack up for your kids to enjoy a sweet but healthy treat on the go!
Orange, pineapple and mango smoothie
If you’re planning a family fun day in the sun, then you’ll definitely want to bring along a few pouches of this lovely summery smoothie along too!
Oranges are awesome: rich in vitamins (especially vitamin C!), fibre, and minerals like potassium, they provide all sorts of health benefits for kids. Their high nutritional content can help your small person’s cell, bone and tissue growth, and even ward away coughs and colds.
The mango in this mix adds a burst of summer sweetness and extra vitamins A and C. And we’ve added a few slices of pineapple for an added dose of healthy antioxidants. Yummy!
Ingredients:
2 oranges
½ mango (or 1 small cup of frozen mango)
1 or 2 slices of pineapple (fresh or from a tin)
1 nectarine
1 cup of water or unsweetened non-dairy milk to taste
Just remember with this recipe that mango can make smoothies really thick, so if you want to thin out your texture, you can add more water, non-dairy milk or even orange juice!
Beetroot, apple and strawberry smoothie
This smoothie is a ridiculously bright colour for a start, which should earn you brownie points with the kids.
It’s full of the good stuff — beetroot has got a million health benefits, such as improving your memory, lowering blood pressure, and increasing oxygen to the brain. It’s also great for boosting your energy and even improving athletic ability — perfect if your kids have a sports day coming up!
We’ve paired our star ingredient with awesome apples, sweet strawberries and energy-boosting bananas for the ultimate kid-friendly smoothie.
Ingredients:
1 beetroot
2 apples
1 cup of strawberries
1 peeled banana
½ cup of Greek yoghurt
½ cup of water
Just add the ingredients into your blender for a ready-to-go colourful kids smoothie!
The trick with these recipes is to use your blender to create a really smooth consistency that your children will enjoy. Lumps and bumps in their drinks can put kids off, and you don’t want to do that early on in your family’s smoothie journey!
The best way to ensure you’re creating a smoothie that will go down a treat is by using a high-quality blender from MyJuicer to blitz the ingredients into a kid-friendly drink. Sorted.
