I have found a way to get my kids to eat spinach!!! And this is very impressive for our family, as my kids are not big fans of green vegetables, but somehow they are loving these green smoothies and I've got a few little tricks that got us to this point.
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What you'll need:
- a handful of spinach
- one apple
- one pear
- one banana
- chia seeds (optional)
- water (or other liquid)
- blender or Nutribullet
- fun cups and straws
The first step in making these smoothies appealing to the kids is to let them help in the preparation process. Ethan loves to help me get all of the ingredients from the fridge and get them ready to blend. He also helps to wash the spinach and fruit for me.
Ethan puts the spinach into the Nutribulllet cup, then breaks up the banana into small pieces and puts it in as well. Sometimes I get Ethan to help slice the fruit if we're having softer fruit, but as this apple and pear were quite firm I used the apple slicer for the apple and pear, which I then put into the cup as well, with a sprinkle of chia seeds on top and some water to the max line.
Then we blend all of the ingredients together and pour our smoothie into cups ready to drink. I used a funnel to pour the smoothies into these plastic bottles that we saved from shop bought juices and put in some fun bendy straws (glass milk bottles are great too, but I don't trust my kids with glass!).
When I first started making green smoothies for the kids I noticed that Ethan was more receptive to them when I used spinach as opposed to kale, and the fresher the better. I think this also has something to do with the smell of the greens, so another trick is to give the kids their smoothies in cups with lids and straws or cups with small openings so that they can't smell the veg as much.
Both Ethan and Ivy absolutely love their green smoothies now, they ask for more every time!
This post is part of a Cooking with Kids series hosted by Crafty Kids at Home, take a look at all the other great ideas!
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1 comments
Getting kids involved at preparation time is a great way to encourage them to try new things isn't it? This smoothie sounds yummy, I can't wait to have a go at making it with my own kids. Thanks for sharing it on our Cooking with Kids Blog Hop.
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