Our Shakes

One of the reasons that I don't fret too much if my kids eat or don't eat at meal times is that I know they are getting a balanced diet every day.  Here's how.

After lunch every day, "dessert" is a smoothie.  This isn't a typical smoothie.  This is a carefully constructed masterpiece (not even close) that is designed to provide all of us with our daily servings of vegetables, some of our fruit and several other little good-for-you-but-I'm-not-eating-that-crap items of food.  Fruit provides a slight flavoring for our smoothies, but is definitely not the dominant item.  We all eat plenty of fruit already, so it isn't necessary to add it to the smoothies.

Today, the shake included a cup of milk (something the toddler avoids studiously,) a few scoops of plain Greek yogurt, a few cups of kale, a few cups of baby spinach, carrots, green beans, yellow pepper, purple cabbage, and a very small handful of raspberries and blueberries.  Then I added in some ground flax seed and garbanzo beans for added protein.  Blended it all up into a nice hearty smoothie, and voila!  A "dessert" that ensures that even the super picky toddler is getting a great variety of vegetables in her diet.

The best part is that our toddler helps pick what goes into the shake, and likes to sample, or at least lick each thing as it goes in.  She is still getting the straight taste of the vegetables, and while we build our masterpiece (not really) we discuss how each vegetable helps your body.  While there will always be veggies on her plate at every meal, she isn't required to eat them, and this is one of the reasons why.  She IS eating them, and they aren't hidden.  She knows what is in her shake.  She made it.