Tropical Kale Green Tea Smoothie

Call it what you like, but you won’t call this Tropical Kale Green Tea Smoothie boring. Frozen Pineapple and Mango blended with ripe bananas, kale, green tea, fresh ginger, mint, and chia seeds. Bam! How do like that for an all-star lineup of flavors?

If you visit our blog on a regular basis then you likely know that we’re a conscientious family that tries to eat healthy most of the time. But, like a lot of families, we struggle to get our kids to try new things. So we turn to our bag of tricks which includes things like breakfast cookies, homemade granola, and healthy whole wheat waffles with fruit. One of our favorite go-to tricks has always been smoothies like this peach almond milk smoothie and our mango turmeric coldbuster smoothie.

Sure, smoothies occasionally get rejected, but we’ve had a pretty good success rate. I’m not exactly sure of the origin of our smoothie making, but they’ve been a staple for a while now. We always buy tons of bananas (seriously, we sometimes get looks at the grocery store) and invariably you end up with extra bananas that are slightly past their prime but they are still perfect for smoothies. My husband and I love them and they’re part of our eat healthy strategy so it just made natural sense to incorporate them in our kid’s diets as well. What better way to get a huge serving of fruit?

Lately, we’re trying to mix in more and more vegetables in our smoothies as well. I think the gradual approach works best with this. If your child goes from drinking a store bought Panera smoothie (which probably has a fair amount of sugar) to a bright green smoothly teeming with kale, it might be a rough transition. But, if you slowly mix a little spinach into their normal strawberry banana smoothie….and then a little more…and then a little more…then, I think they will often time go with the flow and you can eventually have them drinking full blown green smoothies. In fact, over at family sponge, making a “transition smoothie” is one of the tips for getting your kids to drink green smoothies.

Maybe you’re children will eat and drink anything? Hey, if so, that’s awesome…drink up! But, you’re probably in the minority. I know we’re not alone in having a house full of picky eaters who often complain about certain food and drinks. And sometimes their tastes change so rapidly (didn’t they like this last week?) that we feel like their whole nourishment level is hanging on by a few key staples — smoothies usually being one of them.

But, we’ve had more success lately. And green smoothies have even gone over well.

And that’s a great thing because green smoothies have lots of benefits including being highly nutritious, easy to make, and highly affordable. They list even more green smoothie benefits over at vegkitchen.

For our kids, I think having a fruit base is key so that they still get those flavors they know and enjoy. Let the veggies be a complimentary note. Find something they like and then expand out from there.

This tropical green smoothie is packed with kale, but I think you can get away with it because of the tropical flavors. I think the green tea is actually more likely to be the thing to make your kids complain as it’s a bit of a unique flavor, but the great thing about smoothies is that they’re so adaptable! Just sub in and out whatever ingredients you like until you find a formula that works for you and your family.

On to the recipe:

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