I’ve discussed the virtues of smoothies a few times before. They are a great way to sneak in a LOT of nutrition without compromising taste or spending a lot of time in the kitchen. Smoothies are one of my absolute favorite ways to incorporate more veggies and healthy fats into your diet. I wanted to share a few different add-ins that I regularly use in our smoothies to increase their nutrition punch and still be totally toddler approved.

VEGGIES

Veggies are super easy to sneak into smoothies. Some are a bit too assertive to really go unnoticed, but many are perfect compliments to the sweet fruit ingredients. Our go-tos include:

-frozen cauliflower

-frozen butternut squash

-sweet potatoes

-baby spinach

-kale (thick middle stems removed)

-carrots

-pureed pumpkin

*you can easily use fresh instead of frozen and vise versa for all of these, but I typically find the frozen versions of butternut squash and cauliflower to be the cheaper option!

HEALTHY FATS

Healthy fats are essential for good health, but can be tricky to get in. Omega-3s can be particularly challenging. These are some of our favorite fatty ad-ins:

-avocado

-nut butters

-chia seeds

-ground flax seeds

-hemp seeds

*be sure to drink the smoothie pretty immediately after preparing with the chia seeds and ground flax seeds, as both will cause the smoothie to thicken up when left for a bit!

TOPPINGS!

Recently, we’ve been loving smoothie bowls instead of straight smoothies (a thicker smoothie that can be eaten easily with a spoon, out of a bowl). Some of our favorite fun toppers that also pack a good nutrition punch are:

-chia seeds

-chopped nuts (for a yummy crunch!)

-fresh berries

-bee pollen

-cacao nibs

Try some new combos and up your veggie intake all at once! Having trouble deciding on the best combinations? Come on in and discuss it with us at CoreLife to get some recipe suggestions!

Aubrey Phelps MS RDN LDN