To think that my children really will eat better if i buy a nutra bullet type machine?

[ferriswheel]

Im really trying to cut down on the crap we are all eating at home, and improve the variety of food we are all trying.

Tonight i gave my eldest a recipe book and asked him to choose 3 new recipes and one he chose was a smoothie.

I have a hand blender but love the idea of us all devouring beetroot, kale and puy lentil smoothies or something like that.

Has anyone else upped their families vitamin intake successfully like this?

I don't use mine much for smoothies as I worry about the sugar content but the milling blades are are iseful for grinding stuff (coffee beans, rice for rice flour, sugar when I don't have caster in). They seem like something which sound great at first then end up shoved in a cupboard

I love mine and have used various of these since they first came on the market. I use it to powder nuts and linseeds, sunflower seeds etc. and then whizz with protein powder and yogurt for breakfast. I also grow my own beansprouts and make them into sludge in my bullet. I would not be without mine. If I feel the need for a boost or my beansprouts aren't quite ready, I mush carrots and broccoli and an orange.
The secret is to not have too much fruit because of the sugar. I just rinse it out under the tap after. Cleanup is not a problem.

The recipes in the Jason Vale Super Blend Me book are bloody lush, but don't buy the book, the app is only £1.99 and has everything on it

My Nutribullet is used at least twice a day, sometimes more, in fact we were just commenting on how the motor smells a bit iffy and we should probably buy a new one

DH and I both have one each every morning before we leave the house, I had no luck getting DS to have anything until I got the Jason Vale recipes, he likes most of them and I usually share one with him as a treat/snack.

I'm fancying the new nutribullet that can we set to hear as it blends specifically for soups........

Set to heat!!! Stupid autocorrect

Also used a lot for blending pasta sauces (neither DS or DH like lumps), blending soup that's already cooked, making bases for sauces as an earlier poster said and if I have any gravy with mushrooms in left in my slow cooker after making sausage cassserole I blitz it smooth in the bullet then freeze it to use as a gravy again at a later date.

We have a nutri ninja and love it. My kids eat pretty well anyway, but this means I pack them off every morning after having a smoothie full of fruit and veg, they learn really well and have good concentration at school - I am very much a believer in nutrition making a difference in people’s lives. I know some people think it’s tosh. I keep a freezer full of fruit for smoothies and we have fresh fruit on the side. Today’s smoothie was shredded carrot, chunks of mango, a dollop of honey, a banana, and almond milk - whizzed up and then divided by 3. You don’t taste the carrot at all. My kids never get sick, like really never, so I’ll keep doing it!

Hi @ferriswheel, I'm a green smoothie addict and the best recipe I've had is this one: www.simplegreensmoothies.com/beginners-luck-green-smoothie

It's got spinach in, but I promise you can't taste it! All you can taste is the fruit but the spinach makes it go a lovely colour! This website has loads of great smoothie recipes in.

Lots of posters upthread have said that smoothies don't replace breakfast. I won't comment on whether that's true for children (my son is a toddler so a little young for this yet!) but I have a green smoothie for my breakfast and find them to be very filling, especially with some oats or flax seeds popped in too.

I get what people are saying that a smoothie is only one of your five a day, but that doesn't mean that the vitamins in the fruit and veg suddenly stop counting! Anything that will help your kids to enjoy fruit and veg (in any form!) can only be a good thing.

Finally, I'm sorry but your hand blender is very unlikely to be up to the task, unless it's a super duper fancy expensive one, particularly if you want to add ice, frozen fruit or kale or spinach to your smoothies.

Thanks for the tip re cauliflower though; I would never have thought of trying that!

Best of luck, OP!