Episode 28: Smoothie Secrets

Episode 28: Smoothie Secrets

Thanks for joining me today as we explore the world of smoothies, especially for our little ones. In my recent TV segment, we talked about the ups and downs of making healthy smoothies that kids will actually want to drink. In this episode, we'll cover:

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Links
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/3-week-feeding-kids-reset

Highlights:

Introduction (00:00.462)
Healthy Kids Smoothies: A Parental Guide (00:30.094)
Blender Tips for Healthy Smoothies (02:50.51)
Blender vs Juicer for Healthy Diet (05:13.006)
Core Ingredients in Healthy Kids Smoothies (07:31.182)
Blender-Free Smoothies for Children and Adults (09:52.814)
Kids' Smoothie Recipes (12:16.302)
Blender Recipes Experimentation (14:33.006)
Adding Raw Eggs to Smoothies for Children (16:55.854)
Blender Recipes for Kids (19:20.302)
Protein Powders in Smoothies (21:38.862)
Blender Recipes for Kids (23:57.294)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

1. Smoothie Theory: Discover tips, tricks, and hacks to make smoothies that your kids will adore and that are packed with nutrients.

2. Blender vs Juicer: Learn why using a blender is essential for retaining all the valuable nutrients in your smoothies.

3. Key Ingredients: Explore core ingredients like frozen bananas, vanilla essence, and avocado that can elevate the taste and nutrition of your smoothies.

4. Smoothie Recipes: Get the inside scoop on three delicious and nutritious smoothie recipes: Bananarama, Incredible Hulk, and Pikachu.

5. Additional Tips: Learn about adding protein powders sweeteners like honey, and how to repurpose leftover smoothies into healthy treats.

If you want to make mealtime fun and nutritious for the whole family, join our Nourishing Kids Membership waitlist at nourishwithkarina.com/membership and get access to wholesome and delicious smoothie recipes for kids.

So grab your blender, tune in to this episode, and let's unlock the secrets to creating smoothie magic for your little ones.

Learn more about my membership program, head over to: https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Introduction (00:00.686)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 28, Smoothie Secrets. Hi there, I'm Karina Savage. And with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learned all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast.

Healthy Kids Smoothies: A Parental Guide (00:30.094)
Welcome back to all of you. Thanks so much for being here. Today, I want to talk about smoothies. It was prompted by my most recent TV segment, which was actually yesterday morning, where I was asked to talk about Healthy Kids Smoothies. And initially the focus was, you know, veggies as well as fruit. But I, at the end of the day, said to them, look, it's really tricky to get a whole lot of veggies into smoothies that other eaters will actually drink.

So we did change the focus a little because I just said, you know, let's just focus on fruit and perhaps some really good nutrients to add into the smoothies rather than, you know, it's pretty impossible to sneak broccoli into a smoothie in a child that won't eat anything that looks green, right? So my goal is to make healthy smoothies that were going to be great for breakfast options or snack options for fuzzy eaters. So.

Now we're still getting the nutrition in, but not necessarily the veg. So I think we're going to do another segment about sneaking veggies into snacks. But today's focus is all about healthy smoothies for kids. Now, the reason I think it's important to talk about smoothies is because when I got asked to do this segment, I started to do a bit of research online. And to be honest with you, it is really difficult to find a good

kids healthy smoothie that they're actually going to drink, right? I mean, cause yes, of course you can put, you know, chia and hemp seeds and spinach and turmeric or whatever you want into a smoothie, but to actually get an eight year old who's a bit fussy to drink that, well, good luck to you. So as a pediatric dietician and mum, I felt obligated to really put my smoothie hat on.

And I got down and dirty in the kitchen with multiple smoothies and multiple, many, many smoothies and ingredients that I had stumped going everywhere because I needed to create some smoothies that were A, tasty, B, nutritious, and C, that fussy eaters were going to drink, right? So I kept on like throwing bits at my kids and my husband and my -

Blender Tips for Healthy Smoothies (02:50.51)
mother -in -law who's visiting to say, you know, what do you think of this one? What do you think of this one? And it's interesting because the adult taste buds were different to the kids taste buds. So yeah, I have spent many hours trying to perfect some smoothies. We've given them a few names. We've given them the Banana Rama, the Incredible Hulk and the Pikachu. And yes, they aired yesterday on live TV. So they're pretty famous now. And I wanted to talk through a little bit of almost

theory about making smoothies and, you know, some tips and tricks and hacks that will make your smoothies better and make your smoothies more likely to be drunk by children. And also tips to make them healthier, because there's things that we can do to improve the nutrition of smoothies and there's things that will reduce, I don't want to say destroy, but reduce the nutrition of smoothies. So we'll talk about those as well. So.

Let's dive into, first of all, I was actually asked by Michael Usher, he was one of the co -hosts yesterday. He said to me, so what, what blender do you use? This is before we went live. And I said to him, I said, well, I use a Nutribullet, but you can use Ninja. Really, you can use any blender you want. You just want a blender that is going to chop it up really, really well. So you don't want just a hand mixer because that's not going to cut it. You need something that's going to

you know, chop at a really high rate. So all the little seeds or whatever you want to put into this smoothie is actually going to be hidden. Right? I mean, like with Buzzy Eaters, I'm all about exposure and getting them involved in, you know, food and building that know, like and trust factor with food. But at the same time, it's fun to hide some stuff in smoothies. It's good to have a bit of both of these.

Well, it's fine to have a bit of both, I should say. And look with older kids, you can include them in making the smoothie so they know exactly what's going in. So the bullet or something that's a really good blender is a really great place to start. I'm not saying you need to spend $500 on the blender because you don't need to. You know, you can get a really good blender for around a hundred bucks, possibly even less. So just getting something that's going to chop it up really well so that everything's blended together.

Blender vs Juicer for Healthy Diet (05:13.006)
So don't use a juicer, but use a blender. And that's really the difference there. That's an important thing to note that we want to be using a blender because when you're using a blender, you retain everything in the blender. Nothing is discarded, nothing is thrown out. So you're still getting all the valuable nutrients from that food. Now look, the fiber will be...

already, you know, chopped up a little more. So it's not like you're eating the fruit in its whole form. So you're not eating, and I'm not saying you're going to put an apple in the blender, but you're not eating that, the apple skin, like you would be eating an apple skin. You're eating it all finely chopped up, if you were to put an apple in the blender. Or a better example is blueberries. So you're not eating the blueberries with the skin intact, where your gut has to digest to break down the skin. It's already being chopped up for you. So we are...

already starting to digest the fiber more easily by blending it up. But at the end of the day, you're still getting all the nutrition from that blueberry. It's not like you're just getting the juice and all the valuable nutrition in that skin is being thrown out. So that's the difference. So we definitely want to be using a blender, not a juicer. And keeping all of that nutrition in the blender means that your child is getting a lot more valuable nutrition.

So that's my first tip is use a blender, not a juicer. Next, we move on to the ingredients and the milk sauce. So with milk, absolutely you can use whichever milk you want. You can use cow's milk, you can use oat milk, you can use soy milk, you can use almond milk. My advice is for a plant -based milk, just make sure it's calcium fortified. So we're looking here at about 120 milligrams of calcium.

per 100 mils. So flip that milk, like oat milk around, look at the back, look at that table and check calcium per 100 mils and aim for about 120. So completely fine to use plant -based milks, just make sure it's calcium fortified. Some people prefer to use coconut water. And look, that's okay, but you're not getting the calcium then. So my preference for kids is to use either a regular milk or a plant milk that's got that calcium added.

Core Ingredients in Healthy Kids Smoothies (07:31.182)
Okay, next we'll move on to a core ingredient that I believe has a role in nearly every smoothie you make, and that is frozen banana, preferably frozen ripe banana. Now what this does is it adds sweetness. It adds a beautiful chilled, cool, smooth texture to the smoothie. And it just is a really great base for pretty much any smoothie you want to make.

And I used frozen banana in every smoothie from my segment yesterday. So if you didn't want to use banana, that's totally fine. You can swap it for something else, but it's hard to replace frozen banana in a smoothie. So that's a really good tip is to start with frozen banana. So whenever you've got bananas going ripe in the fruit bowl, just peel them, freeze them, and then you've got them ready to go to pop into the blender. So in my freezer.

I have got takeaway containers that I've refilled with, you know, four frozen bananas, and then you put the lid on them and you put them in the freezer. So whenever you want to make a smoothie, you just grab that frozen banana out, tuck it in the blender, and then you're good to go. So frozen bananas are a brilliant staple to a healthy kids smoothie. Another ingredient that I commonly use in a kids smoothie is vanilla essence. You can also use

vanilla extract, both are completely fine to use. Usually I would use about half a teaspoon of vanilla essence in a kids smoothie, but if it was vanilla extract, it's more concentrated. So you would use, I think, half of that, so perhaps a quarter of a teaspoon or even less. So you just use a tiny bit of vanilla extract. So vanilla is a really nice addition to the smoothie. And again, it just helps to make that really yummy flavor that kids really like. So with my first

smoothie yesterday, the Banana Rama, I added avocado into that one. So I added a good tablespoon of avocado into that banana smoothie. And I also added a teaspoon of chia. So the avocado just dissolved in beautifully. You could almost call it a banana -carto smoothie. So the avocado is rich in healthy fats. It's rich in valuable nutrients. So, you know, if you can do

Blender-Free Smoothies for Children and Adults (09:52.814)
Two tablespoons of avocado in your child's smoothie, then amazing. So avocado is a great one to use. And then chia is another brilliant addition to any smoothie. And this is where you do need, you know, that good blender to really chop up the chia. But certainly chia is a great addition. Chia is also good to add to biscuits and cakes and whatnot as well. And chia pudding is also a really easy, tasty breakfast option. Then we moved on to the Incredible Hulk. Now the Incredible Hulk.

really is incredible because it's got so many good ingredients and the beauty of using blueberries or mixed berries, it changes the colour from, you know, a banana creamy, yellow colour to a purpley colour, purpley brown. But with that, whenever you add blueberries to a smoothie, you can then get in the spinach. You can hide spinach in a smoothie, baby spinach, once you bring in blueberries.

or mixed berries because you just can't tell the difference. So, and you can't taste neither. So the Incredible Hulk has half a cup of blueberries, it's still got your frozen banana. Actually, I think I used mixed berries, but you could use blueberries. It's still got your frozen banana. And then I was able to add in half a cup of baby spinach, still use the vanilla essence. And then I also added flaxseed. Now flaxseed is a brilliant addition. It's really rich in healthy fats. It's got fiber. It's such a good, you can use

ground flaxseed or you can use golden flaxseed meal and that one is even, it's more kind of like almond meal. It's really light and powdery and it easily dissolves into things. I like to use the ground flaxseed or ground linseed in cakes and biscuits and things like that. But that ground flaxseed meal adds in so well into smoothies. So the Incredible Hulk also had some teaspoon of flaxseed meal and also two teaspoons of oats, which brings extra carbohydrates and extra fiber.

So the Incredible Hulk was truly incredible and it was gobbled up by one of our camera crew in the studio. He sucked that smoothie down very quickly after the segment finished. And then he proceeded on to smash the third smoothie, which I'm going to talk about now, which is the Pikachu. So they are delicious and they are very nutritious. So the Incredible Hulk's a really good one. It's a great one for adults as well.

Kids' Smoothie Recipes (12:16.302)
but certainly a good one for kids. And they like that sort of banana berry taste because it really tastes delicious. So let's move on to the Pikachu. Now the Pikachu probably ideally would be a little more yellow orange if I could get it. More yellow orange, but you can't really get it to that color without adding like a food coloring. And look, if it's a natural food coloring and you want to do that for your child, it's going to increase their acceptance then. And natural food coloring.

would do, but look, I think it's just, just call it the Pikachu, make it fun. You could put like a fun yellow straw in it or something, or you could pop some eyes in it, perhaps like two blueberries at the top of the smoothie to make it look like a being, like a Pikachu. You could get creative and fun and even just calling it the Pikachu is probably going to increase their excitement around this smoothie a hundredfold.

So babies forget the colouring, but certainly, yeah, calling it the Pikachu, calling it the Incredible Hulk really just changes the mindset. It makes it fun. And this is what kids are all about. And this will definitely increase their willingness to try these healthy smoothies. So the Pikachu uses mango. Its hero is mango. And it just adds a beautiful, sweet mango taste, of course, because it's mango. But I also use the banana there.

And I added in some yogurt that you could use any yogi you wanted. You could use regular yogurt. You could use coconut yogurt would actually be delicious in this. This is kind of like a tropical theme here and coconut yogurt adds probiotics. And then I also added in chia. And again, chia is really nutritious, not only for gut health because it's high in fiber, but again, you've got that iron and calcium going in. So I really liked the Pikachu as well.

And really it's about what your child's taste preference is. So do they prefer like a real banana with a hint of avocado? Actually, can't eat the avocado. Would they prefer a more berry based Incredible Hulk or would they prefer a more mango based Pikachu? So there's three great smoothie options and they will be on my website. So if you had to nourish with Karina and hit the kids recipes tab.

Blender Recipes Experimentation (14:33.006)
you will find the smoothie recipes there. Now, when I was experimenting with these recipes and trying all different variations of ingredients, I did have quinoa flakes and I also did have hemp seeds, but neither of those ingredients made the cart because yeah, they didn't get past audition because I didn't like the taste. And I think it was possibly the quinoa flakes more than the hemp seeds. Possibly you could.

possibly giving hemp seeds a bad rap, but I had this taste in this smoothie and I'm like, that's not good. And then I tried the quinoa flakes separately and the hemp seed separately and they both didn't taste great separately, of course. But I think it was the quinoa flakes that just didn't like that flavor. So if you were going to add a carbohydrate, I would add oats or chia over quinoa flakes. But look, if you love quinoa and you have to be gluten free, obviously you can't have oats, but

you could have chia and that's where you may need to go quinoa flakes. And if you've got enough of the other flavors in and you've got more adult like taste buds, or if you've got celiac and you're used to that flavor, then absolutely use the quinoa flakes. But for my smoothies, I left the quinoa flakes out because they just added a different taste that I thought may not be as well accepted by the majority of kids. Another ingredient that you absolutely could add into smoothies is nut butter.

and nut butter or even almond meal, like I use the golden flax seed meal, but almond meal or nut butters are super nutritious and a really great smoothie ingredient to add. So you would typically, I think, add it into perhaps a peanut butter and banana type smoothie recipe, but really could add it into anything. So have a play around and work out what your child likes, but peanut butter,

almond butter, cashew nut butter, almond meal are all great ingredients to have a play with and add into smoothies. Look, I know one of my friends, she adds in whole nuts into her kids smoothie. So she just blends up this massive mixture every day for her family and she puts a whole lot of stuff in there and they drink it. And I think they've, they're so used to drinking it because they've always drunk it. And I think they miss it now and it's not there and it's really nutritious and she uses whole nuts in that mix. So.

Adding Raw Eggs to Smoothies for Children (16:55.854)
That's another good option for you if you've got a really good blender and your child's happy with that texture. Now, another ingredient that I have used for my daughter before when she was younger and I was just, you know, in my depths of despair with fussy eating. If you listen to my free training on fussy eaters, you can access it on my website, nourishwithkarina .com. You will hear me talk about, you know, my desperation when she was fussy.

as a young child and she was iron deficient and I really struggled to get iron rich foods into her. So I would add a whole raw egg. This is when she was a toddler. So over the edge of one, of course, because you can't give children under the edge of one raw egg. I would put a raw egg into her smoothies. And I guess it's kind of a bit like eggnog. I mean, I don't like eggnog myself personally, but again, they use egg in that. But yeah, I added a whole egg into her banana smoothie and it just

adds protein, adds iron, adds omegas. Eggs are rich in choline, which is good for brain development for kids as well. So a whole raw egg is definitely something that you can add into a toddler or a child's smoothie to boost the iron, to boost the protein. Just make sure that the eggs are in date, are fresh, have been kept in the fridge. But if you pull it out the fridge, you crack it, you pop it into the smoothie. From a food safety perspective, that's completely fine and a nutritious way to boost your child's smoothie.

I've also used raw eggs to crack over cooked pasta. So once you've cooked the pasta, you might've put a bit of butter and cheese in it. You can crack an egg into it and stir that egg through the pasta. And it's a good way of really disguising an egg into pasta and again, boosting the protein, boosting the iron. So raw egg is definitely another ingredient that you can add. Raw egg is definitely another ingredient that you can add to your child's smoothie, especially if they do struggle with their protein and iron intake.

Now, if you've made the smoothie and for whatever reason there's excess or your child doesn't drink it all, then don't throw it out because what you can do is you can pour it into those ice cream molds and pop it in the freezer. And that way then they can have a healthy, nutritious ice block that is smoothie now in frozen form. Or you could potentially pop them into little mini ice cube into an ice cube tray and freeze them. Actually, what would be really great and fun.

Blender Recipes for Kids (19:20.302)
possibly a little messy is you know those, those plastic poppets, you can get the big giant poppets. So they're basically a big plastic shape with all these little divots in it. And, and I've seen people do this with yogurt before and you basically pop the yogurt into the little holes and then freeze it. So you make little like yogurt pods, but you could do the same thing with the smoothie and have like little smoothie poppets. And they basically have fun.

hopping out the little bits of smoothie. I mean, it is a very tedious way of getting rid of any excess smoothie. I'd probably just stick to using that for yogurt, but it's certainly another way of making it fun. And if you've got the time, you could do that. But otherwise the simplest and easiest way would be to put the leftover smoothie, pour it into ice block, those plastic ice block molds.

and then pop it in the fridge and they can have it as a good afternoon treat on a hot summer's day. So smoothies can be a really nutritious breakfast option. And if you feel that that's not enough for them, then you can always pop a bit of toast with it. Or smoothies can be a really great snack option. They might be a morning tea, they might be an afternoon tea, they might even be a supper option if you've got the energy to make it, or perhaps it's a bit of leftover smoothie if your child is still hungry.

And definitely for children that are tween ages or even teenagers, they might be having growth spurts and need that extra nutrition. So smoothies are really useful at various ages. You know, in the toddlers for the really fussy eaters and then, you know, school age kids getting home hungry, a big smoothie can be really filling there. It just keeps them out of the pantry with, you know, multiple packets of chips and tiny teddies and whatnot.

And then your Tina G smoothies can be really useful to boost energy with really active kids. And again, it's a really healthy snack option to replace those packaged processed foods that our kids tend to love grabbing that are just salty and sugary and, and they dissolve pretty quickly into their bloodstream. So smoothies are going to give more bang for your buck, it's going to give them more nutritious, actually leave that there. So smoothies are going to be much more nutritious for them.

Protein Powders in Smoothies (21:38.862)
Protein powders can also be added into smoothies. Look, you don't have to do this, but absolutely you can if you wanted to go to the supermarket. There's plenty of different protein powders. I think just a pea protein powder, you know, any plant protein powder is great. Otherwise you can also just get skim milk powder. That is effectively a protein powder as well. Skim milk powder is very high in protein. It's got calcium. It doesn't have the iron, but it's definitely a version of a protein powder. Most protein powders that are

based on dairy, a version of skim milk powder with added vitamins and minerals. Sometimes they're just whey protein with no carbohydrate and then they've added vitamins and minerals. But honestly, a skim milk powder or a pea protein powder from the supermarket is another way to boost the protein content of your child's smoothie. But at the end of the day, if you're using like cow's milk, yogurt in there, there's no need to add protein powder. But if your child

is underweight, struggles with their weight and getting enough food and nutrition each day, then you definitely could add a protein powder or a skim milk powder into their smoothie. Another ingredient that you could add in is cocoa. That just gives a chocolatey flavour. Now cocoa is bitter on its own, so you also need the sweetness of the banana to give it that nice chocolatey taste.

But you could also use a drinking chocolate. You could also use something like a Milo just to add extra chocolatey flavour to the smoothie to increase acceptance. You could also add other flavours as well. So this is where we start adding a little more sugar. But if your child was super busty and you needed to add a little bit of say strawberry flavouring or vanilla flavouring or you know, whatever flavouring

which their taste buds on, whatever they love, to try to increase acceptance, then do that because at the end of the day, these smoothies are really nutritious and it's better if your child consumes those smoothies with a little bit of extra, strawberry quic or whatever it might be, because at least then they're getting that nutrition versus perhaps a piece of white toast. So yeah, if you need to add a little bit of extra flavoring to suit their taste preferences, then feel free. You can always reduce that.

Blender Recipes for Kids (23:57.294)
over time. Honey is another ingredient that people often like to add. Just be careful not to add too much honey because it can really destroy that flavor of the smoothie. But if your child really likes that flavor of honey and they're not enjoying the recipes as I've made them, if you want to add a little bit of honey, feel free. Honey is a very nutritious ingredient to add and it's probably my sugar and it would be my sweetener of choice because of that reason.

But just be careful not to add too much because it will actually make it taste too sweet. And one of the smoothies I made on the weekend did have honey and I only put half a teaspoon in, but boy, it tasted too sweet, too honeyy. My go to honeyy. That's not even a word, but I got my son to test that one and he's like, it just tastes like honey. And he likes honey in his porridge, but in the smoothie, it was just too much. So be careful not to add too much honey or you actually might destroy the smoothie.

Okay. I will wrap it up there. I hope that's been a fun little smoothie session for you. So go have fun. Go experiment with your smoothie and your ingredients. And look, it's a great option for parents too. On my website, I've actually got a mum's smoothie, which is actually very similar to the Incredible Hulk. So it's great for mums as well. And dads, of course, who are busy, who are sick of like just toast or

cereal for breakfast or smoothie can be a really nice and refreshing change, especially in summer with a nice chilled smoothie made with frozen banana or whatever you like. So give it a go, have fun with it. Perhaps share with me your successes or your failures, because I certainly had plenty of those over the last week with trying to get to our heroes, which they now are of the Bananarama, the Incredible Hulk and the Pikachu.

But yeah, share, share with me how you're going with it. I'd love to know how your children are enjoying smoothies or you hopefully you enjoy them as well because you know, it's about nourishing our kids, but also our families, right? And we have to be nourished too. So what do they say? You've got to put your oxygen mask on first before you can help others. So yeah, we've got to look after the parents too. So as I said, these recipes will be on my website, head to nourishwithkarina .com.

Click the Kids Recipes tab and you will find them there. So have fun with them, have a great week and I'll chat to you soon. Bye for now.