{Vegesentials - fruit & vegetable smoothies & juice}

The kids and I were recently sent some Vegesentials smoothies and juice to try.

My little ones love their fruit, but are less inclined to eat all their vegetables. I sneak vegetables into Bolognese sauce and chilli and serve carrots, sweetcorn and broccoli with every other dinner, but the concept of getting some extra goodness into them in the form of a Vegesentials drink appealed to me. Unlike the adult drinks which are half fruit, half vegetable, the kids range has a higher ratio of fruit but each one contains 100% pure & raw ingredients.

Having a Vegesentials tea party :-)

The pink Groovy Beet and Strawberry juice was the favourite of the littlest, and the eldest preferred the orange Cheeky Carrot and Peach one. Neither of them were that keen on the green Cool Cucumber and Pineapple smoothie which surprised me - perhaps due to the colour, I'm not sure.

Vegesentials website

For the adults there is a choice of 6 different flavours:

• Celery, Apple & Kale Juice
• Beetroot, Pomegranate & Carrot Juice
• Carrot, Peach & Cucumber Smoothie
• Carrot, Mango & Parsnip Smoothie
• Cucumber, Pineapple & Spinach Smoothie
• Beetroot, Blueberry & Cucumber Smoothie

The story behind the brand is quite something, which you can read in full on the Vegesentials pages here. I can fully appreciate the thinking behind changing your dietary lifestyle to improve your health. 

The drinks contain raw, fresh, pure fruit & vegetables. No added sugar, water, additives, pre-packaged or artificial ingredients, dairy, gluten, concentrates, preservatives, ascorbic acid or heat pasteurisation. That's some list!

Drink Fresh. Feel Fresh.

Look Fresh. Stay Fresh

with VEGESENTIALS

I'm a sucker for packaging, and I love the Vegesentials bottles. 

I have a very sweet tooth (lover of all things pick n'mix and cakes!) and if I'm honest I found the adult drinks too savoury for my liking. However they do say that there's one for every palate... so I don't think it was expected that I would like them all. I found the beetroot ones very earthy and felt it would have been nicer served hot as a soup (obviously defeating the purpose of them being raw). My favourites were the orange ones - with the Carrot, Peach & Cucumber Smoothie being my favourite. I do love a bit of cucumber (normally with Hendricks though!).

I think if you were determined to make the change to a healthier lifestyle and were keen to introduce raw juice to your diet then the convenience of these drinks is the real winner, and I'm sure I would get used to their taste if I stuck with it.

I thought the kids drinks were much more palatable, and I'm glad that they were enjoyed by the little ones, the youngest in particular.

It's certainly something that I would consider buying for them in the future, and I may even start throwing the odd vegetable into the smoothies we make ourselves here in the Glasgow Mummy kitchen.

We were sent complimentary juices and smoothies to try in exchange for an honest review. Opinions as always are my own.

{An apple a day}

It's not easy to get my kids to eat the recommended 5 portions a day of fruit & veg. We do eat lots of fruit (bananas, grapes, clementines, berries and the occasional kiwi) but vegetables less so (the odd bowl of soup, occasional spoonful of mashed potato or a mouthful of broccoli or carrot).

One of the products my littlest loves are the Ella's Kitchen smoothie pouches - smoothies are an easy way to get some fruit into their tummies! I'm not a fan of the tubes of smoothie and yoghurt that you can get (the long plastic sachets where you have to rip off a corner, know the ones I mean?), but the more structured pouches are great - less mess is made! We've always been a fan of Ella's Kitchen and I've been using their products since my eldest was weaned, and with a demanding 20 month old I didn't have the time or energy to make purees for my littlest and she was weaned using the Ella's Kitchen range. I love the company ethos and sadly enough I'm a fan of their packaging - all the bright colours, the cute font and the little fruit & vegetable drawings! (If you click on the link for the Ella's Kitchen site - beware, there is music, which is loud if you have your sound right up like me - the kids and I got a fright!!).

Anyway, I wanted to share with you this gift we received at Christmas. It's a magnetic reward chart by Do Well  to record your 5 a day, and it was given to us by my friend who is a teacher. Both my toddlers have been intrigued by the chart - we've been discussing all the different fruit & vegetables and picking out the ones that we've eaten that day to stick on the plate. (There is also a generic Do Well magnetic reward chart that a friend of mine has, and it seems to be really good also.)

How do you encourage your little ones to get their 5 portions of fruit & veg each day?

We received a couple of the Ella's Kitchen smoothie pouches to review as part of this blog post. It's the red one we always buy and we were sent one of each of the other flavours to try.

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