The Love of Smoothies

When I first found out I was pregnant, I eliminated my daily cup of coffee and instead, replaced it with a smoothie. I really wanted the girls to drink it as well, as Analese does not like most fruit and neither one drinks juice.

The girls were not impressed, and refused to drink more then a sip. So I let it go...sort of.

Every morning I offered them a sip of mine. Some mornings was a yes, some a no.

Then, I unknowingly bought the best "bribe" for getting both girls to want to drink a smoothie. A "Blend-n-Go Cup" that comes with a straw.

The straw is the best part. Funny how I had never thought of that before!

Now, the girls each drink an almost full glass of smoothie every morning. Mara, with her smaller glass, will drink 2-3 glassfuls! I am in heaven, it is so exciting to see them drink up , knowing how nutritious these things are.

Because of course, now that they love smoothies, I have begun adding more and more to it! Along with our fruit, yogurt, juice and milk, I also add some probiotics, hemp seed oil, flaxseed, my Juice Plus supplements-both fruits and veggies, and calcium powder.

Oh-and a handful of spinach.

I waited a bit before adding the spinach, hemp seed oil, and flaxseed. I started off with the basics, and each week we added a bit more. The girls "help" me make our smoothies every morning, and really enjoy it. They help me decide what fruits to put it, what new things to try, etc. Yesterday we used our simple orange squeezer to add some freshly squeezed clemantines to our smoothie. The girls loved taking turns squeezing the juice out, and I just enjoyed giving them the experience.

So here our basic smoothie recipe. I have to admit that I was shocked that both girls guzzled down their smoothie the first time I added hemp seed oil to it. I added 1 tablespoon, and could taste it right away (so you may want to start out with a smaller dose for those more finicky tastebuds!) With everything else, I have found that as long as they can taste what appeals to them, they are fine with anything else. In our case its bananas! Also, by letting them help you make it and giving them more control in what goes in it, has helped tremendously in this household!

I should also note that I don't really give "amounts" as it totally depends on what you like, don't like. This is just the basics of what we are drinking every morning. Hope it inspires you!

Basic Smoothie Recipe

• Bananas
• Blueberries (we use frozen)
• raspberries
• blackberries
• mango
  
• 1/2 cup Ricera rice yogurt (we use strawberry)
• orange juice
• vanilla hemp milk (or any other acceptable choice!)
• handful of chopped spinach
• 1 tablespoon hemp seed oil
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

We have also added (and enjoyed):

• kiwi
• strawberries
• cherries
• avocado