I’ve gotten a lot of emails about my smoothies. If you’ve come to my house, I’ve probably tried to peddle you a Vita-mix (which was my birthday present this year). If you were at relief society this month, I mentioned my fruit and veggie smoothies... which generated the questions.
Even though I grew up in a house which served mainly bark and pinecones (according to Jim) I still don’t know much about healthy eating habits, so I asked my mom who is Queen of Bark and Pinecones and All Things Healthy her advice and came up with this post which you may or may not find helpful.
*Why I make smoothies like I do? These are my own reasons, not the doctors or the internets.
- Cambry does not eat. I worry about her getting enough vitamins and calories.
- Getting enough fruits and veggies is important, we all know this. Cambry can drink 8-16 oz of smoothie a day and get the recommended fruit and veggie intake for kids.
- Antioxidants are extremely important for healthy bodies. Here is an excellent summary of their importance and an explanation of what they are.
- I can tell a difference in my day when I start with a smoothie chalk full of vitamins.
- Cambry has never had an ear infection, she has only gotten sick a handful of times, we do not often get colds/flu, when we do get sick it does not last long. I believe it is in part because of our diet/ these smoothies.
*The basic smoothie starts with a fruit base, add a veggie, add an extra source of vitamins, add a sweetener, add a liquefier.
Fruits and Vegetable Base? Some things are a hit, some are a flop, some I haven’t tried because I know we won’t like them (tomatoes? pumpkin?)
- Fruit, fresh or frozen work fine: grapes, strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, pomegranates, pears, berries (blue, black, red), peaches, apples, oranges, bananas
- Veggies, I usually use fresh that I’ve frozen myself: carrots, kale, spinach, parsley, zucchini, cucumber, cauliflower (flop on that one!)
Extra source of vitamins? Depending on what I have on the shelf, I’ll also add:
- some flax seed or flax seed oil
- some soy protein powder
- plain yogurt
- tofu
- nuts (almonds or walnuts work well)
- kids flavored fish oil (although we take this everyday separately)
- garlic capsules (if we’re coming down with a cold) or
- Emergen-C fizz packets (they have it especially for kids too)
A sweetener? A liquefier? If you add a lot of stuff other than fruit, it can be hard to swallow so I use these tricks.
- a banana is my number one sweetener, it masks any flavor. If you don’t like banana than too bad for you!
- fruit juice frozen concentrate is a good sweetener (get the 100% juice)
- agave syrup could be used as a sweetener if you find you just can’t adjust to the taste of a “natural” smoothie. Here’s some info on that.
- Kids vitamin C fizz in strawberry banana works very well, it’s pretty strong.
- fruit juice is a good sweetener and liquefier
- water is really the best and simplest liquefier.
*What are my recipes? I usually throw in whatever but here are some “specific estimates” at recipes I know we like.
Broccoli Strawberry (This is very good. Jim drank the whole thing and was surprised there was broccoli in it!)
- about 1 cup frozen broccoli florets
- 1 large handful of mixed fruit
- 1/2-1 banana
- 1 package of vitamin C fizz for kids, strawberry banana flavored
- a lot of water to make it liquefy
Tropical Fruit (this is the easiest to handle as a beginner smoothie drinker, it’s very sweet and you can’t taste the kale):
- a very large handful of frozen mixed fruit (peaches, pineapples, grapes, cantaloupe, strawberries)
- one banana
- a small spoonful of frozen juice concentrate straight from the can
- a large handful of crumbled frozen kale leaves (wash and freeze the kale leaves whole, when they are frozen they crumble at a touch)
- enough water to make it thin enough to drink out of a straw
Get Those Veggies (this is a thicker/grainier smoothie but still very sweet):
- a very large handful of frozen berries (raspberries are my favorite)
- a banana, half or whole
- an apple, half or whole
- a carrot
- a handful of frozen shredded zucchini
- a spoonful of orange juice concentrate straight from the can
- water
Cambrys Special (Cambry will drink anything if it remotely sweet (most kids will) so I shove it full of stuff I know she’s not getting in her diet):
- a handful of frozen fruit (Cambry likes strawberries)
- 1/2 carrot
- a small handful of frozen, crumbled kale leafs
- a yogurt
- a small handful of frozen, shredded zucchini
- a little bit of soy protein powder
- a small handful of nuts (usually almonds but you can use walnuts or pecans too)
- water or juice to make it drinkable
Jims' Special (Jim likes lots of berries and extra protein for his high protein diet)
- handfuls of berries (black, red, blue)
- 1/2 banana
- protein powder or soy protein isotope
- yogurt
- orange juice to make it runny
My Moms Special (this is too much bark and pinecones for me, I’m gradually acquiring a taste for it)
- 2-3 leaves of kale or green chard or both
- few sprigs of parsley
- 1 T of flax seed
- 1T of sesame seed
- 1C favorite juice...apple, orange, pineapple, or cranberry
- 1/4 C walnuts
- 3 C frozen mixed fruits or berries
- enough water to allow it to turn to juice and not a sherbet
*How do I mix all this up? Like I said, I have a high powered machine than pulverizes everything to a pulp-skin, seeds, core- everything. But I used to have a small cuisine art blender which I would use to make smoothies every once in awhile. It’s definitely easier with the Vita-Mix. Here are some modifications you might have to make so you don’t blow out your blender:
- defrost the frozen stuff in the microwave before blending
- shred the veggies up into very small pieces so you don’t have chunks of veggies in your smoothie
- Put the veggies in first
- use a lot of liquefier (juice or water)
- yogurt doesn’t work very well unless you add a lot of water
- nuts do not work very well unless you chop them tiny
- hard fresh fruit (like apples) need to be peeled and cored and chopped/smashed
*So. There’s all I could think of in regards to my smoothie making. I basically just find it an easy way to get the extra vitamins and food I know we’re not getting in our regular diet. We could all use a little more folic acid/vitamin B/vitamin C/iron/omega-3/DHA/beta carotene/and such in our diets and this is a yummy way to get it! Let me know what you think and what you try. I can always use more ideas!
***Warning*** If you start making smoothies like us, expect to be visiting the bathroom a little more often! I’m telling you, it goes right through you at first! Within 5 minutes to an hour of drinking a smoothie, Cambry will have a pretty big dirty diaper…guaranteed…it’s usually closer to 5 minutes!
