If you make smoothies green from the start, your child won’t know anything different and will expect their smoothies to be green! Green veggies are full of vitamins and minerals that are important for growth. Because green veggies are hard for little kids to chew, I like to put them into smoothies. This yummy peanut butter banana-flavored smoothie is sure to be a hit!
Recipe based on “classic green monster” from the “oh she glows” blog by Angela Liddon
Ingredients
1 cup milk
1 ripe banana (previously peeled and frozen)*
1 cup packed spinach or kale (preferably frozen)**
2 Tablespoons peanut butter
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
3-4 ice cubes
½ teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
Preparation
Blend all ingredients on high speed in a blender.
If you don’t have a high-powered blender, you might want to blend your spinach with the milk first. This will ensure that the spinach gets blended very well. Aadd your banana, ice cubes, and peanut butter after the spinach is pureed into the milk. I have found that adding ice cubes one at a time while the blender is going seems to work best when I’m not using a high-powered blender.
2. Drink immediately
* I buy discounted ripe bananas at the grocery store, they are usually half-price. Then I peel them and keep them in a ziploc bag in my freezer and use them for smoothies and banana bread
** Start with spinach if you are new to green smoothies, it has almost no flavor. Kale can be bitter. I always keep a bag of spinach or kale in the freezer for smoothies. If you have a salad mix starting to go bad, you can just put it in the freezer and then put it into your smoothies later! Greens last for months in the freezer.