Joining the smoothie revolution

I swear there is some kind of smoothie-revolution going on. It seems I hear about smoothies everywhere I turn.  I’m not quite sure what is behind this.

My kids actually drink smoothies for breakfast every day. They look like this:

Our usual smoothies

These smoothies are insanely easy to make. You just take it out of the fridge and poke a straw in the top. Or, if you are really lazy, you can just skip the straw. I did mention I have a lazy streak, right? On weekdays we usually serve these alongside chocolate chip frozen waffles.

I could blame Hubby for introducing our kids to these overly-processed breakfast foods, but I am just as responsible.  Bee and Zippy’s desire for chocolate in their breakfast foods is admittedly 100% my fault. (Chocolate and coffee just taste so darn good together!) Once upon a time we made an effort to feed the boys only healthy foods and organic when we could, but somewhere along the way – whether for convenience or to save money or to appease our kids’ appetites for sugary foods – we backslid. We still serve lots of healthy foods, but breakfast is usually a sugary mess. And that’s supposed to be the healthiest meal of the day, right?

The boys actually love fresh fruit and yogurt and real smoothies. I just don’t ever seem to get around to 1) finding a good smoothie recipe, 2) buying the ingredients, and 3) remembering to actually make the smoothie. I’ve tried winging it a few times, but my smoothies usually don’t turn out tasty enough for me to bother again in the next six months. 

But thanks to the smoothie revolution I’ve recently stumbled across some smoothie recipes on-line that include vegetables disguised by fruit and that kids are supposed to like, so I decided I ought to give it a try. Getting the boys to eat their veggies is very hit-or-miss, so putting spinach into a smoothie sounds deviously clever. I especially liked these recipes on Rage Against The Minivan because Kristen offers up three different recipes that use the same base ingredients and just vary the fruits and veggies involved. Not to mention, they all use kefir so they must be healthy. What? You don’t know what kefir is?! Me neither. I had to google it: It’s like a yogurt smoothie with extra probiotics. So now we know.

I decided I would give these recipes a try. I made up my grocery list of things like kefir and flax seed and spinach. My health-nut sister would be so proud.  With thoughts of my boys’ nutritional decline on my mind, I was motivated to buy mostly organic when I got to the grocery store.

Then I came home and finished off the margaritas in the freezer, so that the blender pitcher would be freed up for smoothies. I wonder if I can count margaritas as momma-smoothies. The lime-aid concentrate I use to make them says it is loaded with Vitamin C, so that might help me fend off the germs my kids keep bringing home from day care. I’d better make another batch tonight. 

The plan was to try a new smoothie recipe each day. We started with the “Tropical Green Machine” on Saturday morning. I substituted spinach and kefir for the kale and almond milk. This way I didn’t have to buy as many different ingredients for the three smoothies. Veggie-averse Zippy actually witnessed me putting spinach in it and he still asked for seconds!  Yum!   Sunday we made the “Berry Blast.” Also delicious. We made the "Orange Dream" for our morning snack today. That one didn't go over as well, probably because our blender didn't do the best job of pureeing the carrots. The texture was a bit gritty and it was also runnier than the other two.

The "Berry Blast" smoothie.

Bee was reluctant to try any of them. He just wanted “the other smoothie,” which I hid in the back of the fridge. 

Because we have a regular ol’ blender rather than a smoothie machine I had to add extra o.j. to each recipe so that the blender would actually blend. I also found that because of the kefir each recipe was a bit tart for our taste; the agave nectar came in handy for sweetening a bit.

All in all, I'd call my little experiment a success. I found some new smoothie recipes that most of us liked and the kefir sitting in the middle of the fridge is a daily reminder to make them. I'm looking forward to trying some new combinations (avocado/banana, anyone?) and phasing out our usual lazy-momma smoothies.

Dannon did not pay me to put a picture of their smoothie on my blog. The three recipes we tried can be found by clicking here.