I confess, I am a bit obsessed with kale and finding new, exciting (and tasty) ways to include in my family’s diet. My kids are so used to me putting kale into their food, my 5 year old even asked me if I put kale into his pancakes the other day. Although I assured him there was no kale in his pancakes, he didn’t believe me. “Why are they a funny color then?” he inquired. They were admittedly kind of a funny color but kale was not the culprit this time; the pancakes had blueberries in them. I did however serve the blueberry pancakes with a kale smoothie. 😉
We are on vacation right now which makes eating the way I prefer to eat a challenge…in other words I suck at being vegan right now. Although we did travel with our blender (a true sign of a blender addict) so smoothies have my redemption! Plus they are a cool and refreshing treat during the hot summer weather. This kale smoothies has been a particular recent favorite of mine:
Ingredients:
1.5 cups coconut milk
1/4 cup frozen mango
1/4 cup frozen pineapple
1/2 frozen banana (fresh is fine too, I just prefer it frozen)
1 date, pitted (optional, but I tend to include it, especially if I am giving some to the kids)
2 tablespoons hemp seed
3-4 de-stemmed pieces of kale
Directions:
Blend on high for at least two minutes or until kale is completely blended smooth (you don’t want little chunks of kale in your smoothie). This recipe makes enough to share!
Two quick tips for awesome smoothies:
1. Green smoothies tend to blend best when liquid is on the bottom and greens are on the to, so put your liquid (milk, milk alternative, water, etc) in first and your greens in last.
2. If you have bananas that are about to spoil, peel them, half them, throw them in a plastic baggie, and pop them in the freezer. Then when you want to add a banana to a smoothie, you have a sweet frozen banana ready to go! (extra ripe means extra sweet!).
What do you like to include in your smoothies? Any favorites you want to share? Would love to hear what others are blended up these days! 🙂
-Sarah
Tags: blender, blueberries, coconut milk, diet, frozen banana, hemp seed, kale, kale smoothie, pineapple, Tasty Tuesday, vacation, vegan diet
