Calcium, one of those things I have always thought about since becoming a mother. We aren’t cereal eaters so the boys would have two daily bottles of milk as toddlers – sometimes three when it was a bad day and a ‘bot bot would chill them out - was something I was glad they drank to help them get enough calcium for their growing bones. I was surprised though when I was recently introduced by Fonterra to the concept of calcium banking. I didn’t even realise – stupidly as it is so simple. In childhood and adolescence we need to deposit more calcium into our bones each day because this is when our bones are getting bigger and stronger. It is the biggest window of opportunity to build those bones up, so it’s something to concentrate on. Read on for some of the Nuggets favourite smoothie recipes.
I have written a few blogs (hyperlink) about the Nuggets bottle drinking, but of course just before we head away to America they decide to ditch a bot bot, meaning they were down to one a day or 200-400ml of milk. I instantly thought about how that was affecting their diet, as they had been heavy dairy consumers before. The boys had always enjoyed smoothies so I figured we would just up the dairy content in them and continue that habit in America at breakfast or snack time. I Snapchat our smoothies often and always get asked what’s in them. So here I pulled together our top 4 favourite dairy smoothies for the little ones.
TIP: We often make double of these smoothies and freeze them for ice blocks - perfect on a hot day!
Almost Green Smoothie:
- 2 cups loosely packed baby spinach
- 2 cups frozen mixed berries
- 1 cup plain Greek yoghurt
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon honey
Date and banana smoothie:
- 1 frozen banana
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup crushed ice
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 5 halved or pitted dates
Avocado smoothie:
- 1 fronzen banana
- 1/2 avocado
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup yoghurt
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 3 pitted dates
- Vanilla extract for taste
Peanut Butter and Jelly Smoothie:
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- Vanilla extract for taste
- 1 cup of frozen raspberries
- 1 frozen banana
- 2 tablespoons honey
- ½ cup of ice
- Vanilla extract for taste
To celebrate the start of a new year of health and wellness, I have a Prezzy card valued at $150 to giveaway! To be in the draw to win, simply comment and let me know how you get calcium into your kids.
Thanks to Fonterra for making this post possible