Kid-Friendly Fall Smoothie Recipe: Low-Sugar Wild Blueberry Banana Pumpkin Smoothie
I do most of my grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s and I know it’s the start of pumpkin season when they bring all their pumpkin products to the front of the store. I’ve never seen such a vast array of pumpkin-related items. They’ve got pumpkin everything: pumpkin cereal, pumpkin oatmeal, pumpkin crackers, pumpkin-infused oil, pumpkin dip, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pancake mix, pumpkin soup, pumpkin croutons, pumpkin coffee – I kid you not, this is just a partial list. They really know how to do pumpkin.
Personally, I’m more of an essence of pumpkin kind of gal. I don’t particularly like to lead with pumpkin that much in my recipes. But I do think it’s fun to use pumpkin unexpectedly in a recipe, like adding it to chili and creamy soups, for example, or stirring some pumpkin puree into yogurt.
My Wild Blueberry Banana Pumpkin Smoothie is a great example as well. I find straight pumpkin smoothies to be a little too sweet and, well, too pumpkin-y. By sharing the spotlight with the delicious flavor of Wild Blueberries, you get a tasty combination of berry-pumpkin flavor with the perfect amount of sweet. This low-sugar smoothie gets its sweetness naturally from one frozen banana and ½ cup of frozen Wild Blueberries.
In addition to keeping the sugar content low, I also like to sneak super foods into my smoothies whenever possible. Buried inside this smoothie you not only get the antioxidant power of Wild Blueberries, but you also get a hit of inflammation-busting turmeric and blood sugar-lowering cinnamon. But wait, it doesn’t stop there. You also get a dose of healthy fats and soluble fiber from ground flax seed.
You might be thinking right now, this smoothie sounds too healthy…does it taste good? No worries, I’ve got that covered. I use a very scientific method to determine taste-ability. It’s called the “Will a 4th Grader Drink This?” test.
Needless to say, this smoothie passed with flying colors.
So there you have it! A low-sugar, kid-friendly pumpkin-inspired smoothie that’s bursting with powerful antioxidants and Wild Blueberry flavor.
It sounds like the fall season is off to a good start!