Qs about Green smoothies!

[Cascadian]

I'm saving up to buy a Vitamix (my fund is slowly but surely growing ).

My main idea is to put tons of greens and other whole foods into delicious drinks for my kids, esp the 4 yr old who won't touch anything green that isn't broccoli.

For those of you who make green smoothies, can you taste the spinach/kale that you throw in there with fruit? Do you kids drink them?

What are your kids' favourite healthy green smoothies? I'm not averse to using maple syrup, soy milk or soy ice cream, vanilla yogurt or chocolate powder to get them to drink it...

TIA!

[woodchick]

Both of my girls love our smoothies. I don't measure well, but ours have

Orange juice, enough to make them drinkable through a straw
frozen strawberries
frozen blueberries
bananas
spinach, a large handfull or so cut into smallish pieces before blending

I don't tast the spinach at all and it doesn't change the color of the smoothie much- which is important because for DD1 the smoothie must be pink!

[Dreaming]

My 4 year old doesn't eat a wide variety of things, so smoothies are a staple in our house. I always use frozen blueberries as one of the ingredients because they allow the smoothie to end up purple instead of green. I mostly use fresh kale, spinach, and/or collard greens and I also add a scoop of veggie powder called Orac Energy Greens. Spinach has zero taste and hides well. You can put a couple of big handfuls in the blender and be good to go. Any other greens I use a little less because it's hard to hide the taste. In that case, I'll add a spoonful of raw honey (and maybe a dash of vanilla) to the mix.
I also add any of the following: strawberries, raspberries, marionberries, mango, peaches and always a banana.
For extra protein, I either use rice protein powder or raw nuts.
Oh! I use filtered water for the liquid. I used to use rice milk, but realized it's not necessary with all the ingredients I toss in there.

I also started making green smoothies for DH and I in the morning. It's a really fantastic way to get greens with very little effort.

[ComaWhite]

My morning greens shake is made by packing my blender 3/4 full of greens (mild tasting ones are spinach, green leaf lettuce and kale) adding a banana, a pear and enough apple juice to liquefy. Its very sweet and has a refreshing 'green' taste (the spinach has almost no taste, the lettuce a bit, and the kale a little moreso), but my kids wont drink it unless I add enough strawberries to make it pink and reduce the amount of greens a bit.

[Cascadian]

Thank you all I especially like the comments about which greens have the least taste

So I`ve read on here (in my Vitamix thread) about putting in red cabbage. Does anyone put in any `unusual` super-veggies or super fruit?

Like...how do avacados taste in a smoothie? (I don't like the taste myself but thought it might work in one).

[claddaghmom]

Avacados are like milk in texture. They are a dream IMO but of course, to each their own...experiment!

I'm curious to know if buying organic is held as really important, or if there are special washes that work? I was just reading the EWG dirty list and noticed a ton of fruits were high on the list.

[lisabc311]

Start slowly with spinach or kale. I would start with baby spinach...just a small amount and slowly add more as they adjust to the taste of it (otherwise they might reject it all together!).

My base for my green smoothies are:

spinach
orange juice
kefir

Then I add whatever other fruit I am in the mood for, sometimes nuts or avocadoes, sometimes a dash of honey.

[junipermuse]

we do "green" smoothies almost daily here. As far as organics, if it's on the dirty dozen list then I try to buy it organic. Especially strawberries and greens. I think that organic greens are reasonably priced and I can get frozen organic strawberries pretty cheap as well. If fresh organic are on sale I'll buy and use those too. I even throw them in the blender with the tops for extra greens. Grapes are really expensive to buy organic, but I love to put them in smoothies because they add a lot of sweetness and extra liquid. So I buy them and then wash them with a fruit and veggie and wash that I think I bought at trader joe's. Mangoes and avocados though I usually buy conventional because I read they were some of the "cleanest" conventional fruits. Also I prefer to buy a lot of fruit frozen because it is a bit cheaper and it doesn't go to waste. If I can't find it organic I will buy it conventional. For example pineapple. But I definitely buy organic greens that's a top priority for me.

[Storm Bride]

Lots of responses already, but I started with spinach a while ago. Prior to that, I'd made the kids a berry smoothie, with frozen berries, yogurt, a banana and a bit of honey.

I started adding spinach. I put it in first, and basically fill the blender with it (about 5 cups of loose spinach). I also quit doing the honey, and added a small bit (teaspoon, maybe?) of coconut oil. The kids never blinked, and I'm not sure they even realized I'd added/changed anything.