Getting kids to eat their fruits and veggies can be a bit of a challenge, particularly when you have a picky eater. Smoothies are a great way to hide all that food that’s good for them and instead hand them something that looks and tastes very similar to a milk shake. What’s not to love?
Start your kids (or grandkids) out with some simple fruit and yogurt smoothies. While green smoothies are delicious and good for everyone, they aren’t the best choice when it comes to getting your kids used to smoothies. Instead, blend up some banana, frozen strawberries, and a bit of vanilla yogurt for the kids.
As they get used to and start to enjoy their smoothies, you can slowly start reducing the sugar. It’s easy to do by adding less banana and more berries and switching the sweetened vanilla yogurt for plain yogurt for example.
Once they have become big smoothie fans, start branching out and introduce them to green smoothies. Start with a few greens and lots of fruit. Giving the smoothie a cool name like “Green Monster Slush” will also help make these green drinks a little more attractive. Keep the portions small and make sure the smoothies taste great before offering them to children.
A good trick to sweeten up a green smoothie is to add apple juice instead of water or coconut water. As with the yogurt smoothies, you can slowly reduce the amount of juice and fruit you use to make even healthier and less sweet smoothies.
This same trick works well for adults who aren’t huge fans of green smoothies. Your main goal should always be to get them to drink the smoothie and get those extra greens in their diet. If that means adding half a cup of apple juice to make it palatable, that’s better than replacing the green smoothie with a bowl of cereal or a plate of chicken nuggets and fries.
Here are a few more tips to increase your chances of getting kids to drink their smoothies. Start with some of their favorite fruits, veggies and foods in general. If you have a big peanut butter fan in the family, blend up bananas, berries, milk and a spoon of peanut butter.
If your kid’s favorite fruit is peaches, start with peach smoothies, adding in other fruits and vegetables over time. With a little trial and error and a bit of coaxing, you can turn your kids into smoothie fans and add lots of fresh fruit and veggies to their diet.
