Smoothies…I love them because you can sneakily hide so many nutritious (but sometimes scary) things in there!!

When you have kids in this day & age, it feels like your constant mission is to find ways to hide nutritious food in what they are eating, so that the overall ratio of junk to healthy food is kept as low as possible. Not always easy…but smoothies are definitely your friend here!!

My 12 year old daughter said this morning ‘mum, this is a pretty good green-smoothie’. I said yay - do you know what’s in it? Celery tops, lemon balm, some random salad greens from the garden…she stopped me there & said “ok stop, you’ll ruin it - it just tastes good ‘cos it tastes like pineapple”! And that is the key.

Don’t overwhelm kids with healthy additives when getting them started on smoothies, introduce things gradually or they will end up dreading smoothies, wondering what vegetable or foul-tasting superfood powder you’ve attempted to mask with some brightly coloured fruit.

Here’s a few great combo’s - the yummy, familiar-tasting ’masking’ ingredients & then all the stuff you’d never get them to eat much of without putting it through a blender!

Green vegetables & supergreen powders - work well with pineapple, banana, kiwifruit, pear, apple, or a combo. Baby spinach is a really soft green veg to start with - the texture shouldn’t be a problem like more fibrous kale or celery can be. click to see a bunch of yummy Green smoothie recipes

Nuts & seeds - work well with strawberries / raspberries for hiding the texture, & a good splash of vanilla essence for that kid friendly ice-creamy taste. Also some cacao can work really well here to hide any bitterness…& use a banana base for extra creamy sweetness. Start with small quantities & use the milder tasting nuts & seeds. Hemp Seeds blended into a banana or choc-banana smoothie are perfect starters for smoothie-skeptic kids (or fussy big kids)!

Carrots - use oranges & / or mandarins to mask these, the colour & flavours work well together.

Beetroot - goes well with a combo of apple & pear & red / blue berries. Beetroot is naturally quite sweet, but for starters it’s good to mask the earthy bitterness & the fibrous texture with something sweeter & more familiar like apple & berries.

In all smoothies with a bit of texture - ice can be great to cover / make them more acceptable.

Have fun hiding things!

Love to get your favourite smoothie recipe - maybe I'll feature it for a little smoothie pack ;-)

Share your smoothie recipe: HERE

Jeanie Xx