Creamsicle Smoothies

As the mother of a large family, I am always trying to be sure that everything my children eat or drink is good for them. For some of my children, that's easy, for others, it's a bit harder. They don't always want to eat or drink as many servings of fruits and vegetables as they need to have. Milk is not one of their favorite things either, and in fact, I limit it because I have one child with chronic ear infections, and milk seems to be the culprit.

My children do have a sweet tooth, however, and since I don't want them to drink soft drinks, I am always trying to finding way to combine their desire for sweets with my desire that they have plenty of fruit and calcium.

So one thing I make nearly everyday, no matter what the season, is fruit smoothies. We have them for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack times, at least one time a day. I experiment with a lot of ideas to keep my children's interest in drinking them up. Recently, I hit upon a concoction that they really liked, and it reminded me of the creamsicles I used to buy from the ice cream truck that roamed our neighborhood when I was a child. I've made it a few times since then, sometimes changing it up a bit, but basically, it's the same:

First, fill your blender with frozen fruit. I've been using peaches, but I'm sure mixed fruit would be just as good.

Add two cups of sweetened vanilla almond milk. If this is for an afternoon snack, you could substitute vanilla ice cream.

Half a can of frozen orange juice

One teaspoon of vanilla extract

Add enough club soda to finish filling the blender.

Then, turn the blender on and mix until liquid. Serve in a mug with whipped cream on top if you like, but this is wonderful by itself.

We especially like to drink these with really hot homemade soup, and for snack time on a hot day.

Smoothies are a wonderful way to get plenty of fruit into your child's diet. Keep several bags of different kinds of frozen fruit in your freezer, some kind of juice and some almond milk and make your own specialty drinks that are good for your children and yourself. You will satisfy their sweet tooth with a healthy drink they will love.