It's All About the Smoothies

This morning my oldest son and I were sharing a strawberry, banana, soy yogurt and ground flax seed smoothie during our morning commute to his school.  He asked, "now that you have discovered the blender will we be having smoothies for dinner?"  That is not a bad idea with Summer around the corner.  I dug out the blender last week to make smoothies for my gluten & dairy free diet.  I made a few for the kids and they started requesting them in the morning, after school and for a late night snack (not all on the same day).  That's the beauty of the smoothie, they are easy to make and can suit any time of day.

Smoothies are an easy way to sneak healthy foods into your kids diets.  They don't know the flax seed is in the smoothie, they just think its pieces of the berries.  You can also smuggle some vegetables by them, but my kids actually like steamed broccoli, asparagus and green beans, so what I do want to get them to consume more of is cow's milk or one of the alternatives I will be using in my smoothies.  In a world full of fast food, 7-11's and aisles of junk food at the grocery store, its nice to know I can make something at home from quality ingredients and my kids will like it.  You can sneak in some wheat germ, spirulina or vitamin C, but the trick is to not over do it on the smoothies.  My kids like many others can easily get bored with the same choices, so finding new ingredients and combining them in different ways is key.  I have also found cool glasses, like the skinny ones used for Italian sodas, can make smoothies fun.  I have a pack of bendy straws handy as well.

Tomorrow morning I am off to the local farmers market to grab some new ingredients for this week's smoothies.  Maybe some kiwis, mangoes and definitely some bananas.  We have tried them with soy milk and soy yogurt, but I also want to try some almond milk or rice milk, and maybe that yogurt made from coconut milk.  So get out your blender and start dumping stuff in, but try not to add any sweeteners (table sugar, Splenda, Sweet 'N Low, and stevia to name a few).  Even stevia can mess with your metabolism, telling your brain some calories from sugar are coming, but there are none.  This often causes your body to send out too much insulin and its this process that has started many on their way to Type II diabetes.  Take it from someone who used to use sugar for a pick me up, but once I cut out the sugar (and yes that meant nothing in my morning coffee, which I am also cutting from my diet soon) I don't need sugar for an energy or mood boost.  Chop, grind and blend away!