Strawberry smoothie for a wonderful morning... or afternoon

Smoothies are a delicious start to the morning, a yummy pick-me-up snack, or a healthy dessert after a satisfying meal. They can be customized and loaded with all sorts of goodness! This strawberry smoothie has not only strawberries and chia seeds but also a secret ingredient..... cauliflower! That's right, there's cauliflower in this beautiful, yummy, easy recipe. I feed these to my kids regularly and they love them, even though my kids know that I've used cauliflower. It's not the same as eating a salad, but any time I can eat extra veggies (or get my kids to eat them), I consider that a win!

Why the Cauliflower?

Two reasons: cauliflower is super good for us and you can't taste or see it in this smoothie (so why not?!) Reasons cauliflower is healthy:

• A great source of fiber, for keeping our digestion happy
• Full of antioxidants that can protect against cancer
• A powerhouse of choline, which is great for learning and memory
• More about the goodness of cauliflower here 

Thoughts about ingredients

As written, this strawberry smoothie recipe is dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegetarian. Feel free to use rice milk or hemp milk if you are nut-free. Smoothies are insanely forgiving. You can try this recipe with fruit other than strawberry, especially other berries, with different kinds of milk, more or fewer chia seeds, more or fewer ice cubes. You can use this recipe exactly as written or you can use it as a blueprint for smoothie creation. Let your imagination run wild, and find some awesome combinations that your family loves.

A note about blenders

We have a high powered blender, which is an awesome investment. It means that you can just dump everything in and blend away! If you have a lower-powered blender, you will want to blend the cauliflower and almond milk first, then add in the strawberries and blend, and then everything else with one last blend. This is to ensure that all the frozen lumps get really well incorporated.