Smoooooovies!

That was the first thing out of A.J.'s mouth this morning.  Not "Good morning, mama."  Not "Hi mama!" Not "Da da?"  Or any of the other usual morning salutations.  Just "Smoovies?"  For the past few weeks, I've been making smoothies with A.J. and we've had great fun with it.  It's a fun, easy, and nutritious snack, and he loves to eat and make them.  

I usually set up the blender (unplugged, as A.J. likes to push the buttons), and have him help me load the ingredients.  Today we just did a free form smoothie.  I didn't measure anything, just eyeballed it. He does a great job loading the blender.  I just gave him the bag of frozen fruit and he started taking the chunks out and placed them in the blender. (See below: A.J. adding the mango.)

I'm finding that smoothies are also a great way for both of us to get our greens in.  So, I've been trying to add spinach and other greens to our smoothie.  If you've never tried it, you should!  It's great for you and you cannot taste the spinach in your smoothie.

Once we've got all the ingredients in the blender, I plug it in and then let A.J. push the buttons.  He gets very excited when the blender starts up and yells, "Smoovie!"  I put his smoothie in his usual plastic cup, but give him a straw to make it fun.  He has started to insist that I also drink it with a straw ("mama straw!").  I love that little man!  We often go sit outside and enjoy our smoothies in the beautiful sunshine.

While I often do my smoothies free form, as I've been doing them a while, here are a few of our current favorites.

Blissful Mama's Tropical Smoothie

1 banana (preferably frozen)

1/2 cup frozen strawberries

1/2 cup frozen mangoes

1 cup rice milk (or your preferred type of milk - I use rice milk since it is more in line with ayruvedic principles)

1-2 tbps. agave nectar

1 tsp. coconut extract 

1 tbsp wheat germ (optional)

splash of Aloe Vera Juice (optional)

Add all the ingredients into the blender and give it a whirl.  Yield 2-3 servings

Blueberry Smoothie (From my raw food chef friend)

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1 ripe banana

1 cup fresh spinach or 3-4 kale laves, stem removed

2-3 cups water

Optional seeds (flax, hemp, chia, etc.)

Add all the ingredients into the blender and give it a whirl. Yield 2-3 servings.

Pom-Cherry Smoothie

1 cup frozen sweet cherries

1 cup plain yogurt

1 cup pomegranate cherry juice

3/4 cup frozen pineapple

1 banana

Throw it all in the blender and mix it up until smooth.  Yield 3-4 servings.