One type of food I can always rely on to supply my kids with a blast of nutrients is smoothies. I like to stuff the blender full of spinach and chia seeds then sweeten it up with fresh fruit like in my Best Ever Green Smoothie, or pack it with fresh berries and nuts that are high in healthy fats, protein, and iron like in my Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie!
Health reasons aside, we simply love this smoothie because it tastes AMAZING! It’s a spinoff of my Blueberry Muffin Smoothie in that it tastes like dessert, in this case Strawberry Shortcake, but is sweetened with zero added sugar. In Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie, strawberries are blended with almond milk (or whatever you have in the fridge), bananas, a splash of vanilla extract, a teensy bit of fresh lemon zest (if you’ve had the Blueberry Muffin Smoothie then you know how key this is to making the smoothie taste like a baked good,) and a secret ingredient – cashews! Why cashews? Well, raw cashews are a creamy and sweeter-tasting nut that takes the place of yogurt in this smoothie, plus it mimics the flavor of shortcake. Some of my kids are allergic to dairy so the cashews help give each sip a creamy, thick consistency, plus they’re loaded with iron which I’m a big fan of.
Just one step to this simple recipe – throw stuff in a blender and push on! Said “stuff” includes 1/2 cup almond milk (or again, whatever you have in the fridge,) 1 cup sliced strawberries, 1/2 banana, 2 heaping Tablespoons raw cashews, a splash of good vanilla extract and 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest. You can skip the zest but it totally makes this smoothie!
Here are the cashews I use. Make sure you’re not using roasted cashews, rather, we want the creamy, sweet raw ones.
Add 1/2 cup ice on top of the other ingredients then blend, blend, blend until ultra smooth.
Pour into a glass then sip! Honestly you’re going to flip your lid for this smoothie. Sweet and decadent tasting yet no extra sugar (nor baking) required. Enjoy!
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