Kids Can Cook: Breakfast Smoothies

THIS POST IS A PART OF A 31 DAY SERIES TO INVITE OUR KIDS INTO THE KITCHEN. FIND THE REST OF THE SERIES HERE.

This morning my daughter and I enjoyed the rare occasion of working together in the kitchen by ourselves. Toddlers are more limited in what they are able to help with in the kitchen, but that does not mean they cannot do anything!

While my boys busied themselves in their room with LEGOS, Molly and I were in charge of making smoothies and eggs for breakfast.

I rarely rely on a recipe for our morning smoothies– more like a loose formula. Start with a heaping cup of yogurt and a cup of whey, pile in green leaves, always a frozen banana, some frozen fruit, a vegetable (carrot, celery, cabbage, etc), and perhaps another add-in like chia seeds or coconut oil. A glass of water in kept at the ready to be poured in if the mixture is too thick.

This morning, Molly was head smoothie chef. She dolloped in the yogurt (quite vigorously, I might add), moved all the spinach from the container to the Vitamix, and dropped in most of the remaining ingredients as well.

It was the perfect job for those chubby little fingers.

I won’t sing the praises of my Vitamix in this post, but if you are curious about how wonderful these high-powered blenders are or how many uses they have, you can check out the post, Best Kitchen Workhorse for Healthy Eating. 

One of my biggest goals for writing about kids in the kitchen for the entire month, is to share a vision for inviting our kids into the little parts of our days. To recognize the worth in the effort and the process. 

“Kids in the kitchen” does not have to be an hour of prep and clean up for an hour of cooking. There are occasions when longer periods of time together are perfect for memory making and family bonding. But, more often, kids in the kitchen can simply be asking a preschooler to help with the biscuits, letting an older child be in charge of the scrambled eggs, or putting your toddler in charge of the breakfast smoothie.

It’s the small, everyday steps which teach our children about real food, how it serves our bodies, and how we use it to serve others.

Find the rest of the Kids in the Kitchen posts on the series page.