Smoothie Kids

August 26, 2009 at 10:58 pm 27 comments

Green smoothies are a wonderful way to nourish your children! It’s pretty rare to find a 5 year old who will sit down and eat a big spinach salad…but throw that salad into the blender with some sweet fruits and THEY WILL! Here are a few tips for those of you who want to get more greens into your kiddos:

If your child doesn’t like the green color, add blueberries (or any dark berry) and it will make it purple!
Try to avoid fruit with small seeds (blackberries, etc)…they tend not to blend so well and the texture might bother some kids.
Get a fun straw! And make sure it has a wide opening…the faster it comes out, the more they will drink.
Get a special cup…just for their smoothies. One that isn’t clear and has a lid works well for disguising the color. Bella likes her pink small coffee travel mug from Starbucks.
Make up a fun name! Some that I’ve heard lately: “Berry Blast”, “Princess Power Smoothie”, and “Hulk Smash Smoothie”. It’s amazing what they will drink when it has a cool sounding name.
If you have a rather selective eater…avoid using the words “green” and “smoothie” in the same sentence. Same with “spinach” and “kale”. Tends to send them running.
Get them a smoothie buddy. If little Suzy Q who lives next door loves smoothies, your kiddo will probably jump on the band wagon. Of course, this can backfire if Suzy Q really hates the smoothies 🙂 Kids are very impressionable.
Give them ownership of the smoothie by letting them pick out the ingredients. I have found that when Bella gets to put everything in the blender, run the buttons, etc…she is much more excited to drink it.
If they don’t like the green smoothies at first…start them off with a regular fruit smoothie (or “pink smoothie” as it’s known in our house).
Sneak in other healthy goodies like hemp seeds or chia while you’re at it…they won’t taste a thing!
For a fun treat, make them a yummy chocolate smoothie.
If you’re wanting to increase their calories, add raw almond butter or avocado to their smoothie.

Overall, kids will eventually imitate what they see repeated. If they see you enjoying a green smoothie every day during the challenge…they’re going to wonder what they are missing! This goes for spouses as well 🙂

Share your stories about your kids and green smoothies! Do they have a favorite recipe? What did you name it? How have they reacted to you drinking them?

Entry filed under: Green Smoothies, Kids, Kids and Food.

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27 Comments Add your own

1. Gypsy | August 27, 2009 at 1:55 am

I will absolutely second that … I do green juice and until recently hubby and DD wouldn’t touch it, but I slowly introduced small amounts of ‘green’ and now they guzzle it down. Have to try them on smoothies now
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2. journeybacktoveg | August 27, 2009 at 5:44 am

I am so glad I found your site! My daughter is 12 months old and I’ve been giving her and her 23 month old best friend green smoothies in their sippy cups for a couple of months now (they stay together during the day). They LOVE them. I have put all sorts of stuff in them. I guess if you start them out young, they don’t know any different. It’s a good thing! It’s funny…people are shocked when they hear my baby willing eats quinoa, kale, tomatoes…her favorite food is black beans.

The other day I made myself a rather strong smoothie with spinach, flat leaf parsley, 1/2 a fresh peach, a fresh mango, banana, frozen strawberries…she asked for it and sipped it several times out of a straw..even with the strong parsley taste!

p.s. I am loving the green smoothie challenge! I have turned a lot of people on to it and I can totally tell a difference in the past week. I was working my way back to being a vegetarian but the other day the switch went off for me and I quit eating meat again. I can’t believe how much I crave the salad, smoothie and greens every day. No wonder I felt like crap before!

Thanks again!
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3. Lacia | August 27, 2009 at 5:53 am

I somehow stumbled across your blog, and I’m so glad I did! I am not vegetarian/vegan, but I do strive to eat a healthy diet, and to offer my kids the same. I find myself turning to vegan recipes to help me with that.

Anyways, I’ve been doing a daily green smoothie for the last probably 4 months or so. I’ve used the same recipe the whole time and never tire of it. I just LOVE it. I make it with spinach or kale, frozen banana, frozen mango, and pineapple (I saw this smoothie posted somewhere, but can’t remember or I would credit the source). I adjust more or less of each of the fruit, depending on what I feel like. I used to hate the taste of banana in things so I didn’t use much banana, but now I use alot more as I’m loving the taste. I usually add some ground flaxseed in there as well, but as soon as I can get to the store I’m going to try using hemp seed. My picky 3 year old loves it! My 7 year old who will eat any veggie and fruit on the planet is not so impressed though. And my 5 year old won’t touch it either, not sure why. I wish she would though because she doesn’t get enough veggies. She has drank it though when it has more banana flavour so maybe that’s my key to success. I have also found that the spinach blends alot better than the kale and the kids are more likely to drink it if there’s no flecks of leafy stuff floating around.

Anyways, sorry so long-winded here, I’m going to try out that chocolate one, I’m sure the kids will LOVE that.
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4. bluezfire | August 27, 2009 at 7:42 am

I wish I would have done something like this for my children when they were younger, like Bella’s age. Unfortunately, it’s a lot harder to convince a finicky 12 year old to try a “green smoothie”, no matter how you try to convince them that it doesn’t taste like spinach or anything green for that matter. I keep hoping he’ll grow out of it soon. So far, it’s not looking good. 🙂

My 16 year old, however, has taken to requesting smoothies when I make them. She was a little turned off by the extreme green of the spirulina smoothies, so I toned it down a bit for her and just kept it with spinach and other greens. More berries. And she loves them, as long as they are smooth and no strange texture – like you mentioned with the berries. Then again, she is my child who will try anything once. So it’s much easier with her.
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5. Carrie | August 27, 2009 at 8:55 am

I had never done something like the green smoothies before this challenge. Now, my 7yo daughter is disappointed if hers is not ready for her when she comes to the table for breakfast! She says it makes her feel smarter. My 6yo son, however, will drink a little but does not guzzle it down like his sister. He also has a pretty adverse reaction to eating much food with citric acid. If he eats more than 1/2 an adult portion per day of acidic fruits (grapes, oranges, berries, pineapple, etc.) he ends up with diarhea. He would eat his weight in these fruits if I let him and it just breaks my heart to have to limit his fruit consumption when he would really rather have that than anything else. Does anyone have any thoughts on this problem?
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6. cavewoman | August 27, 2009 at 9:03 am

I don’t have picky children—but I do have a picky husband. (:

He hasn’t joined the smoothie bandwagon yet—but I have been letting him smell and taste my smoothies, with positive effect.

He’s also so happy to see me feeling better, and generally happier since my stomache doesn’t seem to be hurting anymore—that he is becoming open to the whole smoothie experience.

I think I’ll wear him down in a week or two, and he’ll be having smoothies on his own soon.
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7. beverly russo | August 27, 2009 at 10:00 am

sara, have you looked at greensmoothiegirl.com website and blog? i dont know, i may have heard of it from you . she is doing a great job of getting high raw out there and focuses alot on feeding kids healthier. my trick for getting my 7 yr old son and my 5 yr old grandson to drink their first green smooothie was to not let them know the smoothie had spinach in it til AFTER they had finished it. i used dark cups with lids! now they dont care cuz they know they taste good.
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8. Krista | August 27, 2009 at 10:29 am

Thanks for these tips! I’ve got 1 who will drink a smoothie & still working on the other two. I’m going to try the chocolate version & then I can hopefully start introducing the greens once I have them hooked! I started the challenge on Monday – thanks for all the information you are posting!
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9. Rebekah | August 27, 2009 at 11:20 am

I actually haven’t had any problems with my 3 year old and 1 year old drinking the green smoothies. They LOVE them. My 1 year old just chugs away….its sooo adorable! I’ll see if I can post a pic on your FB group. My 3 year old begs for one everyday!
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10. Sarah L | August 27, 2009 at 12:14 pm

My 17 month old cannot see anyone else drinking a green smoothie without insisting she have some, too. 🙂

My four year old is not so enthusiastic, but this morning I told her to pick out what she wanted to put in it and she was happier. I took your advice and gave it a fun name, too. She didn’t want to finish it, but we are definitely making progress! 🙂
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11. Jennifer | August 27, 2009 at 2:48 pm

What age can you introduce green smoothies?
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12. amy | August 27, 2009 at 5:05 pm

already wrote on the FB group but we do a lot of these 😉 i will say that i tried adding Mg and Calcium and it actually showed up in the taste of the smoothie. i was surprised. i thought it would be a great way to hide his supps. DS, DH and myself have been doing daily for only 3 days…and we are not ‘raw.’ i am finding that i will need to be a ‘good enough gal’ on this- not a perfectionist, or i just won’t continue! kwim? we will do our best to do our best…and the rest will just have to be! but i have enjoyed your blog for about a year now and we are always trying new stuffs!
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13. sarahtar | August 27, 2009 at 5:10 pm

I totally second the blueberry idea – on days when Wally requests a smoothie but not a green one, I just throw in more berries than usual. Berries are pretty regular parts of our green smoothies, though, because berries are super good for us, too, and he doesn’t like to actually eat them.
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14. Heather A. | August 27, 2009 at 5:27 pm

Both of my girls love their green smoothies! My older one (7) is always making up recipes to try out and she even lets her little sister help her make them! They are just too cute about it.. 🙂
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15. Bonny Clark | August 27, 2009 at 5:32 pm

My two older kids both thought the first smoothie I made them was kiwi. I hesitated to tell them the truth. They drank it anyways. 🙂 #3 eats and drinks *anything*, so she’s easy. #4 LOVES green smoothies and has one just about every a.m. with me. #5 — very few veggies or fruit pass her lips. We’re still working on her. LOL

They’re actually NOT wild about blueberries in the smoothies, though. They say it looks like mud!
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16. kate | August 28, 2009 at 9:39 am

We love the blogs and the videos are great! At our house the boys (4 and 7) call them SuperHero smoothies! We use loads of spinach and the Spectrum blend (thank you Costco for both) a frozen banana or two and sometimes some honey or a pinch of raw sugar. Sometimes we use kale but the texture isn’t as easy for the kids.
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17. Jamie | August 28, 2009 at 10:38 am

My 3 yo and 22 mo old LOVE the smoothies. The first day I let them have a sip and they loved it. Each day I have to make a little larger batch because they both want their own glass. In fact my 3 yo keeps telling my husband “Try it dad and you will like it.” I feel so lucky to have children that aren’t picky eaters. Some of their favorite veggies are roasted Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and broccoli.

Their favorite blend is spinach, romaine, strawberries and blueberries. In their words “it is ‘elicious!”
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18. beth | August 28, 2009 at 11:22 am

I just use spinache, apples,a banana and a lil agave….my boys call it their popeye drink, then of course they show me their muscles:)
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19. Lisa | August 28, 2009 at 3:12 pm

My 12 month-old loves green smoothies. I make them daily and she likes to sip from mine or her Papa’s cup or drink out of her own sippy cup.
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20. Kristen's Raw | August 29, 2009 at 3:48 am

First of all, I love the outfit. Secondly, I adore kids who are chugging down green smoothies. What a different world we’ll be in, in the next 10-15 years when we see the benefits of all of these kids drinking green smoothies!!! YES!!!!!!

Cheers XOXO,
Kristen
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21. Kimberly | August 30, 2009 at 12:19 pm

Perfect timing! I was just gifted a juicer last weekend. I’m looking forward to trying it out!
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22. amy | August 30, 2009 at 8:36 pm

i was just watching a video on Vitamix..i wonder if the the Vitamix will pulverize the seeds in blackberries. have you ever used frozen blackberries in your vitamix?
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23. julie | September 4, 2009 at 9:46 pm

I have been doing the green smoothie challenge and I feel much better! My energy has gone up. My 6 year old grandson has drank chocolate milk since he was old enough to drink out of a cup. I made him a lo fat chocolate smoothie and made myself a green smoothie and he tasted my smoothie, put the chocolate smoothie in the fridge and took my green one! He absolutely loved it! I think I will buy his mom a smoothie maker for Xmas so she can make them for him more often.
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24. Eat Well « These Stones | February 7, 2012 at 7:42 pm

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25. Alyssa | May 23, 2012 at 10:38 pm

The point was: why add unwarranted stesrs to your digestion and metabolism? Exercise/recover has a point: increased endurance, strength, etc. Eat/recover has no point, it is the system working against itself, making sacrifices and compromises just to survive, using most of its energy, not on recovery, but rather on dealing with the stesrs of survival. I’m with Tim, I want to thrive, not just survive. I am vegan, 75% raw, loving it and aspiring to 100%. Mere survival is for cavemen.
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