Breville Home Hero
Anyone that follows our everyday madness over on Instagram will know how proud I am of H & B for being scouted for the Chelsea Advanced Development Squad. For every inch they were thrilled their ball-kicking dreams were coming true and my pride that spilled from my every pore – dread finally set in at our new, life destroying, petrol consuming schedule. With football related travelling, training and matches taking up 15.5 hours (minimum) a week, some days it leaves the boys with little more than 3 waking hours in which to eat, get dressed, relax and argue with each other – which used to take up a lot more time!
So, while my anxiety levels about getting all the kit clean, transporting kids to where they should be on time, rearranging my working hours to ensure I’m available after school, were sky high; they paled in comparison to my sudden panic that I needed to be getting all the natural goodness I could into these boys, in minimal time – not too much prep, tasty so I don’t get the standard “I don’t like this” and mobile, so they can get the nourishment on the move to our next football stop!
The perfect solution to our problem came in the form of the Breville Blend Active Personal Blender; smoothies, packed with fruit and veg are made in minutes and without the mess/clearing up of a standard blender. It’s easy enough for the boys to manage themselves – pack the 600ml drinks bottle with your ingredients, attach to the motorised base, whizz it all up for a minute, then unscrew the bottle (attaching the lid!) and we’re away with delicious concoctions in hand. Bruno’s never been eating (drinking) quite so many greens!
Since we received our Breville Blend Active Personal Blender, along with the Accessory Pack for grinding, whipping and food processing – we’ve been chucking all sorts of goodies into our morning smoothies; we love frozen berries, bananas, macha and frozen avocado halves, which save on the whole “is it ripe yet/oh no it’s over ripe” conundrum! But the boys favourite, rammed with goodness smoothie for pre-football energy is our…
Frozen 5 Green Smoothie
1x Cup Frozen Mango
Great for masking the taste of greens in smoothies as well as thickening it up like a slushie – perfect for the kids.
1x Banana
‘Cos which family doesn’t have a spare banana or six lying around in the fruit bowl going brown?!
Handful of Spinach
Ideal for cramming goodness into the kids (iron, zinc, folate and Vit B) without them noticing, as other greens might have a more noticeable, peppery taste. The boys were initially appalled that I was desecrating their smoothies, but now they know it’s a quick, nutritious hit (which will, of course, make them better footballers!!) which they can’t even taste, they throw spinach into all their smoothie creations.
1x Frozen Avocado Half
This is quite honestly the super hero of smoothie ingredients. Stealth and rammed with vitamins (A, E, C, K, B-5, B-6 and folate), minerals (potassium and copper) and great fats, this is my secret ingredient.
250ml of Almond Milk
Gives the smoothie creaminess without getting bogged down with the dairy debacle. Also a great source of Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids.
Simply chuck all the above in your Breville Blend Active Personal Blender drinks bottle, whizz for 30 seconds; then rest for about 30 seconds to let the unblended bits drop to the bottom – the frozen avocado can be a little stubborn; then blend for another 10-20 seconds. All done!
This is just one of smoothies I’ve started making the boys, who have taken to having smoothies instead of their stodgy, afterschool snacks (usually crisps or cake!) – as well as using the compact food processor in the Accessory Pack to whizz up a quick pesto or the grinding mill accessory to grind nuts to chuck on their morning porridge. The Breville Blend Active Personal Blender may be small, but its impact, so far, has been immense on mine and the boys’ nutritional intake – it really is a Home Hero!
This post has been sponsored by Breville, who also kindly gifted us the Breville Blend Active Personal Blender and Accessory Pack – but, as always, all comments, opinions and anecdotes are my own!
