pineapple

One of Darren’s favorite things to make is a smoothie, and yes it’s a green one loaded with natural flavors and awesome ingredients he picks out himself. He’s only five and still needs a little help in the kitchen when making this, but his excitement of creating smoothies is legit!

To simplify this process while still letting him have independence and feel creative I keep a few staples in my freezer and pantry on hand. Breaking down the smoothie operation into four categories of protein, fruit, vegetable, and liquid and letting him pick at least one item from each category is key for when the smoothie cravings strike. Kids love options, so let’s give them some!

1.) PROTEIN: High fat plain Greek Yogurt, various nut butters including; mixed nut butter, peanut butter, almond butter, or homemade cashew butter.

2.) FROZEN FRUIT: Bags of frozen fruit: pineapple, mango, strawberry and mixed berry. At the end of each week when the bananas start to turn brown, I peel them, chop them, and toss them into the freezer for more fruit options.

3.) VEGGIES: Kale, spinach, and cucumbers.

4.) LIQUIDS: Almond milk, coconut milk, and coconut water.

Sometimes we might have an apple laying around that’s starting to get brown spots or some green herbs that are starting to wilt. It’s possible they might just end up in one of his creations too! Smoothies should be fun, and include ingredients YOU love best! Watching the kids experiment and experience different flavors and textures of food is a beautiful thing! One day Darren added in too much peanut butter and the smoothie was too thick. Literally, he ate it with a spoon, but he learned from this and that was cool! His favorite combo is featured here and the recipe is listed below. You can interchange any of the ingredients listed above – experiment and have fun with it!

Darren asked if I created a post about his smoothie would anyone else make it?? I said, I’m not sure – let’s see!?! If you make this smoothie or one that’s similar from the interchangeable various ingredients listed above, please show Darren some love and tag him with #darrensmoothie