Succulent SMOOTHIES!

Want a quick, nutritious way to "healthy up" your kiddos? Think SMOOTHIES! We eat/drink (depending on how thick they are! :) smoothies several times a week. I use whatever is on hand. Fruits of all kinds--frozen, leftovers, bananas that have had better days. Juices--concentrates and regular. Various milk substitutes. And when I'm feeling really sneaky, I throw in some ground flax seed for an even more nutritious punch. No one has ever noticed or complained.

Here's a list of ingredients I frequently use. The main requirement is a balance of liquid and fruit...you need to have enough liquid to get the fruit to blend. (At least you do in my old blender! :)

Fruits

• Any kind of berry: strawberry, blackberry, marionberry, raspberry, blueberry (a mainstay!)--usually frozen

• peaches--canned or frozen

• bananas or pineapple (though I try to avoid buying an abundance of "tropical" fruit because it has to be shipped such a long distance and therefore isn't very easy on the environment)
  

Liquids

• Juice--orange (w/ calcium), pineapple (if I've saved from the squash recipe I posted), apple, grape

• Any liquid from a canned fruit...I can peaches with a VERY light sugar syrup...when the peaches are gone I save the juice to add to smoothies. I don't use any other sweetener.

• Vanilla or regular rice milk (since 'LilDude is dairy intolerant, I avoid milk products though they are great in smoothies!)
  

• Orange juice concentrate

EXTRA nutrition

• ground flax seed

We eat smoothies for breakfast or snacks. The other day my kiddos were drinking the latest smoothie, saying "this is better than what we get at _____!" (Famous smoothie restaurant...where each smoothie is about $4!)