A smoothie is the only reliable way I’ve found to get spinach into a child who has opinions about spinach.
These are the ten we make on repeat. A few are breakfast, a couple are basically dessert, and three exist because a holiday needed a drink that wasn’t neon.
Two rules that make all of these better. Freeze your bananas when they go spotty instead of throwing them out — frozen banana is what makes a smoothie thick, and ice just waters it down. And use frozen greens rather than fresh: frozen spinach and kale disappear completely into the colour of whatever fruit is in there, which fresh leaves never quite do.
The everyday ones
These are the weekday rotation. Nothing seasonal, nothing that needs a special ingredient.
Berry Yogurt SmoothieThree frozen berries plus frozen spinach and kale, hidden completely under the colour. The everyday one.Peanut Butter Split SmoothieFrozen banana and peanut butter, with chia, hemp and flax behind them doing quiet work.Chocolate Blueberry SmoothieTastes enough like a milkshake that nobody asks what’s in it.
Green, and drunk anyway
One is openly green and one is for the week everybody is sniffling.
Green SmoothieThe one that’s actually green and gets drunk anyway.Immune Boosting Citrus SmoothieCitrus and fresh ginger. The one for the week everyone in the house is sniffling.
Fruit-forward and bright
Both of these get their colour entirely from the fruit — no dye involved in either.
Apple Pie SmoothieApple and cinnamon. Fall in a glass, and a good use for the apple-picking haul.Pink Pitaya SmoothieAn unreasonable shade of pink with no dye anywhere — and every ingredient is from Costco.
Holiday smoothies
Halloween twice and St. Patrick’s Day once, all coloured with food rather than food colouring.