I agree about staying away from the protein powders. One of my kids plays a division 1 sport at college and the athletic staff sent information to the parents about how these powders can overload the liver.

They prefer that their athletes not use them. They suggested just sticking with regular food and making healthy choices.

Anonymous wrote:Why frozen bananas? Why not fresh bananas? Most recipes call for frozen ones and I don't understand why.

Because you need less ice. All nutrition.

Why frozen bananas? Why not fresh bananas? Most recipes call for frozen ones and I don't understand why.

Even our 11yo likes this one (it took some serious convincing to get him to try it though).

Spinach
Almond milk
Avocado
Frozen pineapple
Banana

We oftentimes use frozen banana and/or spinach and/or avocado.

Vanilla yougurt
Tablespoon of sunbutter, amond butter or peanut butter
Almond milk, vanilla of chocolate or combo
Tabesppon of wheat germ
Tablespoon of flax seed powder
Scoop of ovaltine if no choc almond milk.

Just put it in a giant cup and stir, no need for a blender. Experiment with the ingredients and amounts.

I wouldn't give kids protein powder. Use Greek yogurt or kefir or tofu for protein.

My 7yo frequently has a breakfast smoothie.

Handful of frozen mango cubes, a banana, about a half cup of full fat greek yogurt, about the same of milk, a squirt of honey. Whizz, serve.

I'm also grossed out by protein powder. Something like frozen banana, milk, nut butter and cocoa powder is good. I often add chia seeds to smoothies. I also think Spinach is gross with stuff like chocolate--it works well with mango or other things that have a very strong citrus tang (orange, peach). I often use Greek yogurt to increase the protein content.

Anonymous wrote:Thank you all for the awesome recipes. Could you please suggest which brand of chocolate and vanilla protein powder to buy?

Gross and definitely not healthy.

Use cocoa or a few drops of vanilla for flavor. If you want to add protein, add a cube or two of tofu.

This is a basic recipe for a smoothie: http://kidshealth.org/en/kids/banana-strawberry-smoothie.html#catrecipes

Thank you all for the awesome recipes. Could you please suggest which brand of chocolate and vanilla protein powder to buy?

Frozen bananas, bananas, fruit, almonds and spinach. Throw in choc chips or use the PB powder with chocolate. Can also use cocoa powder but then careful on the berries. Whatever you do, add spinach. Healthy and you can't taste it, but it will color your smoothie green.

What do you define as healthy? "Clean"? High protein? Low sugar? Under X amount of cals?

We always have vanilla whey protein powder around, so I'll throw a small amount of that in for the kids. Then I'll add either milk, water, or some combination, and frozen banana.

From there, I add some combination of berries, cocoa powder, and PB (the no sugar added kind).

Banans, ice, almond or coconut milk, chocolate protein powder. Depending on the day/mood I add flax seed, chia seed, or wheat germ to it. You can throw in any sort of berries, or spinach, or greek yogurt, or whatever you want. I find the kids love just the banana and ice and milk/protein powder. We tend to add other fruits as they are in season, but the banana keeps it feeling thick and shake like. When bananas are getting ready to turn I peel and freeze them, then use the frozen ones with less ice. Pick a high quality protein powder and just go at it. It's really hard to mess up a smoothie.

I would like to make more smoothies for myself and kids, can you please share your healthy smoothie recipes? I like chocolate and nuts, so any recipes that can incorporate these and still manage to be healthy would be a bonus