The Surprising Spinach and Pineapple Smoothie

We've spent the summer testing and tasting smoothies every Tuesday, and have had some surprises along the way. The Purple Cow (AKA Purple Pucker smoothie) on this site usually gets raves, but THIS - with spinach! was a favorite with the kids. I thought they would be suspicious about veggies in the mix, but I was wrong. They loved it! And they got tons of vitamins and antioxidants along with the great taste. This came from a favorite Trader Joe's cookbook called "Pack a Lunch."

15 min

2 to 3

Breakfast, Drinks

Fresh Peach Sparkler

This summer, we started off our cooking series by whirling up a faux "mojito," a fresh peach cooler with mint, which the kids love to smush. The recipe is based on one I found in People magazine. This is so delicious! The kids loved it, and so did adult guests at two potlucks I attended. I'll use it all summer long, and with frozen peaches all year!

20 min

Breakfast, Drinks

Holiday Fruit Punch

Holiday Punch, anyone? For my kids’ class, I adapted this fruit-filled drink recipe - it's delicious and full of vitamin C. Then I made a batch at home with Prosecco (none of my little students are over 21 .) Delicious! The recipe is so flexible - you can switch out the pineapple juice or cranberry juice for grape or a blend - just watch that it’s not too sweet. I think a generous amount of club soda helps cut the sugar.

15 min

10-14 servings

Drinks

Glow-In-the-Dark Drinks

These drinks caused some excitement! We had the kids go into a dark area with their glasses of tonic water and a black light flashlight (available at Lowe’s, Home Depot, some ACE stores and Amazon for less than $10.) When the glasses started to glow, the wow factor was huge!

5 min

1 serving

Drinks

Real Homemade Lemonade

This generation may have never encountered homemade lemonade - after all, it is usually bought in a carton or bottle now. But it's worth trying the original, delicious, super-refreshing recipe! CATS kids LOVE to squeeze lemons, limes and oranges, which is just one reason why this recipe was a hit. And another was the fresh, tart-sweet flavor which was so ridiculously good. And another reason was the fun of adding a few smushed fresh raspberries to make pink lemonade. First, we made the simple sugar syrup on the stove, and left it to cool. Then we made a giant amount of fresh lemon juice. We also froze some water mixed with berries and lemon slices in an ice cube tray for extra color and fun.

Drinks

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

It may not be that gorgeous to look at, but wow, what a taste! The kids would have had thirds if we made more. Give it a try. Smells like a holiday.

2 servings

Drinks

CATS Tropical Smoothie

I don't have a photo of this recipe. We made three batches, with about 24 kids total. With each batch, the smoothies vanished before I could take a picture. I've never had a more-requested recipe! So here you go. I put together a few recipes from the web, and then we added our own CATS touches.

4 servings

Drinks

Orange Sports Drinksicle Smoothie

We used sports drink ingredients to make our own, more natural smoothie that offers carbs, protein, electrolytes and potassium. What's missing is the heavy dose of salt. Try this when the kids are out in the sun and need fluids and nutrients replenished! This drink is based on a recipe from EatingWell.

Drinks

Make-Your-Own Fresh Strawberry Soda

It got a little noisy in the CATS kitchen with the kids pulverizing strawberries into mush in the bottom of their plastic glasses. They enjoyed it, maybe especially the noise. Making this recipe was an easy way to call attention to the fact that one regular can of soda has 10 teaspoons of sugar, or more, inside -- and very little that is natural! Reading the web, I saw recipes for fresh fruit or fruit juice mixed with soda water, and thought we might try our own CATS-style soda. The kids always clamor for strawberries, so we chose those, and they worked beautifully. So refreshing! Feel free to adapt this to what you have on hand, but here's what we did:

Drinks

Vanilla Ice

Trust me, you and your kids will love this recipe. Now, we can all (even the lactose-intolerant) enjoy vanilla frozen "treats" in our beverages! Three simple ingredients make up a heady, frozen vanilla mini-bomb. Depending where you put it, it can turn root beer into a float, coffee into a fragrant iced surprise and iced tea into (almost) chai! We used low-calorie root beer, which is caffeine-free, to make great floats, though some of the kids just wanted the ice, nothing else. The fun of using a real vanilla bean, which packs SO much flavor, was not lost on the kids! They enjoyed knowing that it comes from a very specific type of orchid that grows in tropical climes, in Mexico, Madagascar, and a few other locales. The only drawback is that the beans are expensive -- we got them on sale at Safeway. I am investigating ordering online... but meanwhile, the real thing makes a huge difference in flavor!

Dessert, Drinks

The Purple Cow

Now this is getting ridiculous. Whenever I attempt to introduce an exciting new recipe, the kids keep adamantly requesting smoothies. I hope it has a lot to do with the warm weather. We will, however, move to Halloween and other fall holidays soon. And no, I don't think that means a Turkey Smoothie... but maybe we can work in something with cranberries. Almost everyone loved it, for the big bright grape taste and the tanginess of the yogurt. It couldn't be easier to make as well. And all those good vitamins, fiber, and calcium provided an afternoon boost for the young juice baristas.

30 min

2-4 servings

Breakfast, Drinks, Snacks

Smoothie Lab #3: Two-Tone Mango-Kiwi Layered Smoothies

CATS has a thing for smoothies. This time, while the weather is still hot and frozen concoctions are still so welcome, we got a little more creative. These smoothies layer two separate fruit flavors on top of each other. Each color has a SECRET ingredient and boy, were they good.

Drinks

Fizzy Watermelon Cooler

What sounds better on a hot day than a fresh, cold watermelon-and-lime drink with bubbles? Well, here's the recipe. An added attraction with this recipe is blenderizing chunks of fresh-cut watermelon, which is a mouth-watering sensory experience. AND the kids loved crushing fresh mint leaves into the sugar. While some recipes strain the watermelon puree and just use the juice, I like the solids, too -- and they're vitamin and fiber-rich!

10 servings

Drinks

Laura’s Fruit Bowl Lemonade

We are having a great time with special summer drinks. This one features a beautiful fruit-loaded ice ring, which is made the night before. When we dropped that ring, studded with blueberries, raspberries, and lemon slices, into the punch bowl, it was a big splash in terms of excitement! And SO easy to make. The punch itself has lots of fruit in it, and can be served with a spoon in the glass.

8-10 servings

Drinks

Smoothie Lab: Lemon Express Smoothie

For our second smoothie session, we made up our own combinations instead of using recipes in the book. One of our young men dreamed up a lemon smoothie that would contain the whole, peeled fruit. To add flavor, we also added lemonade concentrate, lemon yogurt, and a mango-flavored soy milk. Results? Phenomenal. Here's a recreation of that experiment from our lab. This is a good jumping-off place for you to make your own invention!

2 servings

Drinks

Smoothie Madness!

The kids and I have been blenderizing all kinds of amazing stuff - here are recipes from our first and second experiments. We've used berries and bananas, grape juice, nonfat yogurt, and even silken tofu! Soy milk is in one recipe so that all our kids can enjoy it. These drinks can be packed with calcium, vitamins, protein, fiber and thirst-quenching fluid all at the same time. They help the kids get their daily requirement of raw fruit and dairy products (or similar) with very low fat.

2 servings

Drinks