Strawberry, Banana and Kale Smoothie for the Win!

Hi!! Happy Monday!! And HAPPY SPRING!! Despite us having some amazing, warm temperatures the past couple of weeks- it was a BRISK 42 degrees here yesterday on the first day of Spring :) The sun was shining though and my kids, despite saying they were 'freezing' played outside for a good portion of the day. Me? I stayed inside where it was NOT freezing- HA!

How was your weekend? We had a busy Saturday filled with friends over in the morning and a birthday party for Charlotte in the afternoon.  Sunday we went to church, ran a couple of errands and worked on getting the baby's room organized. And when I say "we" I mean Aaron- HA! While he was clearing stuff out of the closet and making multiple trips down to the basement to put things into storage- I was folding laundry and baking cookies :)

And now we start a new week! My girls have a short week of school this week- they have Good Friday and Easter Monday off. I am SO looking forward to spending some special time together, celebrating Easter! (It is one of my favorite holidays!)

So- I normally post my weekly menu plan on Monday's, but I decided to take a break from that this week- 1) because our meals are really boring this week and 2) because I wanted to share an easy way I get at least 2-3 servings of fruits and veggies into my kids every day!

First- I have to share my love for our Ninja Blender. We invested in a Ninja Blender about 3 years ago, after our trusty, classic Cuisinart blender bit the dust. I LOVE smoothies- I have one EVERY day for my breakfast and my kids love smoothies too- so when we were looking to get a new blender- we wanted to a get a powerful one. We looked at the Vitamix- and while the reviews were amazing- it was WAY out of our price range.  We ended up finding a great deal on our Ninja on Ebay and it has worked GREAT for us!! It is by far the MOST used appliance in our kitchen!

So- now for my favorite smoothie "combination." And obviously- this is not a Pinterest worthy "recipe"- but if you have been reading my blog for any amount of time- you know that's just NOT how I roll- HA! 

Okay- I get all of my frozen fruits and veggies from Aldi. If you have an Aldi near you- but have not shopped there- this would be the perfect reason to pop in and give them a try! The prices on their frozen fruit is extremely cheap AND if you prefer to use organic fruits- they have those too! In their freezer section, they always have organic, frozen strawberries and blueberries. They also have a variety of non-organic frozen fruits, like the strawberries and blueberries I have pictured, along with frozen peaches, a berry "mix" (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries) and a "tropical" mix (pineapple, peaches and strawberries). 

Right by the frozen veggies, they have bags of frozen kale and frozen spinach- which is PERFECT for smoothies! I buy my bananas fresh- and then break them into small pieces and freeze them.

 The key to a PERFECT smoothie (in my opinion) is making sure that everything you are putting in it- is FROZEN. That is going to ensure your smoothie has a "milkshake" like texture and it also helps keeps all of the flavors mild and not super strong. For example, a few times, I have run out of frozen bananas and I will throw a couple fresh pieces of banana in my kids' smoothies. They won't drink them when I do that!! The banana flavoring is too strong for them and the consistency is weird. So for us- everything we put in our smoothies is frozen. 

To make our favorite strawberry + blueberry + banana + kale smoothie is SO simple:

In one of our Ninja smoothie cups, I put:

3 ice cubes

1/3 cup of blueberries

3 large strawberries

3 banana pieces 

1/4 cup kale

1 stevia packet (to give it a little sweetness- you can totally leave this out or use your preferred sweetener like honey or agave nectar!)

For the kids- I use 2% milk, when I make my smoothie- I used unsweetened, vanilla almond milk. 
(I JUST ran out of blueberries- so I added another strawberry in place of the blueberries for this smoothie) 

 I pour liquid all the way to the "fill" line and then blend it up!

 It comes out perfect every time!

What I love about this smoothie is that EVERYONE in my family loves them. My two pickiest eaters drink smoothies up (despite knowing there is "salad" in them- HAHA!), my husband loves when I make them for him and James is obsessed with them! I make him a smoothie every day for his lunch. You absolutely can NOT taste the kale- but it is such an easy and awesome way to get a serving or two of veggies in- especially if you have picky eaters in your house like I do- and it is like doing a root canal without drugs to get them eat something fresh and healthy. HA!

(this is "real life" for us- 6:30 am and starting off our morning with a smoothie!)

 And just in case you were in need of a great smoothie "cup" for little ones- this one is our favorite: Reduce GoGo's Kids Straw Cup. It has a locking top lid and a straw that can't pull out!

I would love to know- do you make smoothies a lot?? Do you have a favorite "recipe" that you use? Share it with me! :)

I could honestly have a smoothie for every meal- I love them that much!

Hope you have the BEST day!!