Grandpa Richards Kids

My granddaughter Jasmine told me the other day that she really likes the milkshakes that her mom makes. I was curious and decided to see what these milkshakes are all about. It turns out that what we are really talking about are fruit smoothies.

That brought up a really important question. Do you know how nutritious a fruit smoothie can be?

If you are an average parent, you have discovered that if a particular food item is very healthy and great for us, our children quickly learn to dislike it. The challenge then becomes, “How can I get my kids to eat more healthy stuff?”

Smoothies can be the answer. Most children love these drinks. And for the real die-hard kids, we can add just a bit of “bad” food and the children will surely come over to the good side! If you have never made a smoothie, it is easy. Just prepare the food as if you were going to eat it raw, put it in a blender, add some extra liquid, and blend away.

One big advantage to smoothies is that it is easy to pick ingredients that give the result an appropriate colour. Young boys are often fascinated by gross looking objects, and some of the smoothies that I make myself sure do look the part. Girls, on the other hand, might like pastel shades, and you can do that as well.

Another advantage to fruit smoothies is that they travel well. Make sure their consistency is right (add more water or milk if necessary) and put them in travel safe drinking containers. Then either just take as is or add them to your picnic cooler so they are still cool when you bring them out. They may be just right for you as well while watching the kid’s soccer game.

Advantage number three is the ability to sneak in some powdered supplements that your doctor may have recommended.

Here are several simple examples.

• 1-1/2 cups frozen strawberries
• 1 cup frozen unsweetened pineapple chunks
• 1 cup low-fat vanilla soy milk
• 2 tsp. honey
• 1/2 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt or vanilla soy yogurt

You could also use regular pineapple and skip the honey.

Here is another.

• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup frozen pineapple chunks
• 1 cup low-fat vanilla soy milk
• 1 Tbsp. frozen lemonade concentrate
• 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

Note: Although these recipes use milk, you can (and should) experiment with adding water instead of milk. The presence of a protein source (the milk) slows digestion and can lead to more gas, and we don’t want that!

You can also add spinach leaves into a fruit smoothie and still get an amazing taste! Experiment by using leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, chard, and celery. These green smoothies are the ones the boys should like, as the colours are not appealing looking to adults. Get creative and come up with interesting names like Alien Juice, or Swamp Slime.

Enjoy.