A GREEN Smoothie That The Kids Will Drink!
I’ve probably attempted 3,000 smoothie variations over the past seven years while trying to sneak as many different veggies and fruits into my kids bellies. Some work, MANY fail.
As you can imagine and probably already know, leafy greens are the hardest to “sneak” in due to it’s natural bitter flavour. I am persistent with adding them because I believe that integrating them into the boys diet is super important for their long term diet outlook. This isn’t just because leafy greens have an abundant amount of nutrients, but because the more bitter foods they have in their diet, the sweeter foods taste.
When real foods like strawberries and raspberries taste sweet they are less inclined to want the candy flavoured strawberry or raspberry that is artificially made much much sweeter. See where I am going here. More bitter, less sweet. Less sweet, better real food choices… and my job becomes easier.
Today, I made a tropical smoothie with two of my favourite fruits for healthier digestion, mango and pineapple. But the real star of this smoothie was local arugula.
Arugula is one of the most bitter leafy greens and also happens to have the most liver-supporting power.
So, today I threw it in the bottom of my Vitamix Professional Series 750 and layered mango, pineapple, hemp hearts, coconut milk, banana and some plant based protein.
I blended it, poured it in my little mason jars with coloured paper straws (those extras have helped me in the past).
I got an initial look of “yucky” by my 3-year-old and a glare of “I don’t think so” by my 6-year-old, but I pushed them to try it. They drank a tiny little sip at first and then took a bigger one a few seconds later.
They both didn’t say anything, but continued to drink it. And that’s okay in my nutrition-focused world.
They didn’t finish it, but they liked it.
Green smoothie success.
Here’s the recipe if you want to try it too:
Pina Green-Lota Smoothie
(It made enough for 3 of us…one big, 2 small mason jars)
Ingredients:
1 handful of arugula
1 fresh mango
3/4 cup fresh or frozen pineapple
1.5 cups unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 banana (optional)
2 tbsp hemp hearts
1.5 scoops Vega Vanilla Protein & Greens
Directions:
- Blend and give it a whirl.
If they (or you) don’t like it the first time, don’t forget that you can train tastebuds to enjoy more bitter foods in as little as 3 weeks. Or if arugula proves to be to strong tasting try spinach…baby steps.
Keep on trying!
