picky eaters

It’s the eternal struggle of parenthood; how to get your kids to eat enough fruits and vegetables. 

Willow hasn’t been a particularly picky eater. As an infant, she would devour whole avocados, eat cucumber sticks and happily gobble down broccoli. But as she’s gotten older, and is learning to think for herself, she sometimes refuses point blank to eat what we put down in front of her. 

Meal times have become a complicated dance of bargaining and trying to convince her how yummy her food is by eating some myself, which usually backfires as she starts to feed me instead.

She is hard to convince sometimes, so there have been many days she misses out on some aspect of her meal. 

I know lots of kids, especially toddlers, can go through this phase and thought I’d share two fruit smoothie recipes I like to use to sneak more fruit and veggies into Willow on days when her eating is erratic. 

These recipes make roughly one glass, and can easily be split into two servings for little ones. They are such a great snack or drink to accompany breakfast. It’s also a nice way to include toddlers in the kitchen as it’s easy to measure out ingredients and let them tip fruit into the blender. Willow absolutely loves doing this and takes her smoothie making duties very seriously.

Pineapple Strawberry Slushy Smoothie

1 cup water

1 cup spinach/kale

1 cup frozen pineapple

1/2 cup frozen strawberries

1 tbsp ground flaxseeds

1 tbsp chia seeds

Green Pineapple Mango Smoothie

1 cup water

1 cup spinach/kale

1 cup fresh (or thawed) pineapple

1/2 cup frozen mango

1 tbsp ground flaxseeds

1 tbsp chia seeds

1. Blend water and greens first until you have a green juice and there are no large chunks of spinach/kale left. 
2. Add in your fruit, ground flaxseeds, and chia seeds.
3. Blend and enjoy! 

These recipes are two of our quick and easy go to smoothies, but the fruit combinations are endless. We’ve had days of greens, strawberry and blueberry smoothies, greens, mango, banana and strawberry smoothies…

Whatever you decide to add into your smoothies, I recommend keeping the frozen fruit to 1.5 cups. Any more and it’ll be too thick to blend. However if you’re using some fresh fruit or thawed frozen fruit, then you can play about with the ratios of water to fruit to see how you like it. 

As you can see I’ve used frozen pineapple for one recipe, and fresh for the other. Using frozen pineapple or fresh (or thawed) pineapple will change the texture of the smoothie. If you want a more frozen “slushy” texture, then keep it frozen. Want something a little thinner and more like a thick juice? Then opt for fresh pineapple, or simply pop a bowl of your frozen pineapple in the microwave to thaw it out before adding.

Pineapple is a great fruit to use as it’s so sweet and can make the smoothie taste more like a treat than a healthy glass of spinach for those skeptical toddlers. It also creates a nice thick foundation to add more fruit to, and I like to use it as my main fruit in smoothies.

I either use spinach or kale (or both!) to give a good serving of greens alongside the fruit. A great tip for keeping greens from wilting, is to pop your fresh clean greens in the freezer! This seriously improved my smoothie game as I was never having to rush to make smoothies before our produce went off, and I always have fresh greens on hand for when those smoothie cravings hit! 

Buying large bags of frozen fruit from Costco is extremely cost effective and last quite a while if you buy a few different fruits and like to mix up your smoothie flavours as we do.

I also use flax and chia seeds in every smoothie our family drinks. If you’re unfamiliar, flax and chia seeds are nothing short of a magical superfood. 

Both are loaded with nutrients and antioxidants, a great source of omega-3 fats, full of fibre, protein, and lower the risk of stroke, heart disease, cancers, and all sorts! They don’t taste of anything, and can be added to just about everything! They’re an effective way of incorporating a nutritional boost for your little ones without any effort. 

Whether you have a picky eater, or simply want to up your kids fruit and veg intake, these two smoothie recipes are easy to make, affordable, nutritious and delicious! Comment below and let me know what your favourite fruit smoothie combinations are! 

Roseanne is the blogger behind the honest and inspirational personal blog Roseanne Writes. Native to Scotland and now calling Canada home, Rosanne helps mothers navigate motherhood while remaining true to themselves. You learn more about Roseanne and follow her personal blog here.