Delicious Chocolate Smoothie Recipe
While the Henry and I were making our favorite healthy pancake recipe, Tate was doing a little food preparation. Children can start with basic preparation around 18 months-old. If you’re wondering where to start, I recommend the book that Kylie from How We Montessori and I produced together called Kids in the Kitchen: Simple Recipes that Build Independence and Confidence the Montessori Way. It has step-by-step directions about how to set up the kitchen to support children, how to introduce basic skills to them, resources for where to buy child-sized supplies, and simple recipes that support children to cook independently. Henry and I make the bread recipe nearly every single week. It’s so simple and delicious!
Tate was cutting bananas and arranging them on a plate for us to freeze, so that we could make my new favorite healthy chocolate smoothie recipe.
All of my new favorite healthy eating recipes come from this book.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 T chia seeds
- 2 soft Medjool dates, pitted (or 1 T of maple syrup)
- 2 T raw cacao powder or cocoa powder
- 1 frozen banana
- 1/4 t vanilla extract
- ice
Directions:
- Combine the almond milk, chia seeds, and dates in a high-speed blender.
- Add the cacao powder, banana, vanilla, and ice cubes and blend again.
4 Comments
mamaschlick
Hey Sara, this doesn't strike me as particularly "healthy" other than maybe chia seed. I assume this is more of a not too unhealthy treat? I bet you could very easily get away with adding a cup of spinach in there! I try to put ingredients in smoothies that my son doesn't normally eat, since he eats fruits very easily so I often try for kale/spinach etc. Are your kids vegetarian? Thanks for sharing!
saracotner
You're right, mamaschlick! I should have called it our "healthy milkshake" recipe. It's not a particularly healthy smoothie.
Matt, Tate, and I are vegetarians. Henry eats ethically sourced meat.
mamaschlick
Thanks! How did you handle that? Did Tate/Henry choose? Did you discourage meat? I have a similar situation so I'm just curious how it played out for you all.
saracotner
We never gave Henry meat. Around two, he started noticing it a lot (both our families eat meat). He declared, "Lions eat meat and I eat meat." We found it harder and harder to keep him away from meat (when we were with family). So we decided to let him eat it.